Mantis

I bought this product from mgear in 2005. They came with straight handles and a nice set of trango leashes. With the straight handles, these tools are excellent. They have a light swing due to the lack of hammer/adze, but stick very nicely. The pick on them is excellent, as well - beefy, good teeth, nicely angled for hooking. I decided I wanted to try leashless so made a carbon handle similar to the Zero Degree, by trango. Using this handle, these tools are still great! The only problem is, on ice, the secondary grip can get in the way (especially over bulges). You have to snap your wrist in this circumstance to get the best placement. Otherwise, excellent. I'm confident in doing some light (WI 3, which is all i'm willing to do unroped) soloing with them feeling that they won't fail me! I've never done high end mixed with them, but recently got to do some overhanging drytooling. These tools were great. They hooked, torqued, and matched extremely well. The grip was at a comfortable angle and there were a lot of options for where to hold it. Great! EDIT SINCE LAST REVIEW. I have done more drytooling with these with my handles. I'm extremely happy with the way they handle. I've torqued on the tools with all my weight, toe/heel hooked my body weight off of one tool, dropped and abused these and they are still going. It is an excellent piece of gear! My only gripe is the rubber handle which has worn through. I'm currently looking into other methods.