Black Diamond Alpine Whippet Attachment

I use two of these for spring skiing with the Alpine Carbon Cork WR Pole. It’s an almost perfect setup. It’s light enough that I never bother taking off the Whippets. The Alpine Whippet is a much better compromise than the original Whippet in terms of weight and downhill safety. I don’t expect to use an axe very often since getting these, however I don’t do very sketchy climbs.

Better compromise than the standard whippet for my uses: significantly lighter, and less hazardous to leave on the pole the entire trip. I tend to only pack a whippet when an axe is only borderline necessary or I expect firm skinning, otherwise an axe is more versatile and often lighter. The alpine whippet covers these less severe use cases well. Also a nice confidence booster for newer skiers/skinners when conditions are firm but not really slide-for-life (I'm always concerned about folks hurting themselves on the normal whippet)

Used with the BD WR Expedition poles. Easy to use, functional for the appropriate settings, not meant to replace an ice axe in sustained steep and icy conditions. Lightweight, the attachment does not have the feeling of being in the way when in use, and is easy to remove when no longer needed. Anticipating this being a one-time purchase for years of skiing, hopefully that's the durability it was designed for!

For almost two decades I had been using a Grivel Condor self-arrest grip, mounted on a succession of adjustable poles from BD and Komperdell. When I first got a Condor, back then the original BD Whippet was not very convenient to remove. Then it became fixed. And changed yet again to become easily removable. But it still seemed like overkill, and perhaps even literally quite lethal.

Somehow I didn’t notice the Alpine Whippet until its third season now of existence. The design is easy to criticize since it obviously will have less purchase in hard snow or ice conditions than the regular Whippet, or even the Condor. However, I’ve always been skeptical of self-arrest realism when skiing. Hence I’m counting on a self-arrest ski pole grip only for a fall that starts from essentially zero speed, i.e., skinning with ski crampons, or booting up with boot crampons on pitches where I don’t need the self-belay of an ice axe. I’ve also been wary of the injury potential from a skiing fall with a Whippet (and a friend did indeed severely lacerate his hand that way).

The Alpine Whippet feels like a perfect compromise to me. The pick – okay, really an adze – protrudes far enough, and is sharp enough, and is hard enough to pull off a self-arrest in any condition in which you can reasonably self-arrest with a ski pole self-arrest grip. If the Alpine Whippet isn’t sufficient for that in certain conditions, then I doubt most – or perhaps even any – skiers will have the skill and strength to successfully pull of a self-arrest with the more aggressive steel pick of the regular Whippet. Yet the self-laceration hazard with an Alpine Whippet is rather minimal compared to the regular Whippet.

The attachment and removal technique is quick and easy. Only drawback is that upon attachment you then have to stow somewhere the little grip plug (that presumably is there to keep the grip’s inner threads clean, as well as for aesthetics), and then upon removal you need to stow somewhere the pick – sorry, adze – but it’s small and slim enough that it will get along well with the rest of your stowed sharps.

As for the poles, I’m using the BD Alpine Carbon Cork WR, reviewed separately.

Hi,
what is the difference between Whippet and Alpine whippet? Thanks!
Kind regards, Matej