ice axe

HERO Hamish in Glencoe last week with some of the ice axes he invented.

It will be a while yet before the crampons and ice axes are packed away.Winter conditions can strike at any time on the high peaks.The sun may be splitting the sky at ground level but 3000 feet up you could be facing blizzards, high winds and near-zero visibility.

Pte van Gass, who trekked to the North Pole with the Walking With The Wounded charity last year, said he had the idea to fix an ice axe to a false limb and asked some engineers at the specialist military rehabilitation centre in Surrey to build one.

But as Salesse went to plant his next ice axe, he says he felt something shift.

His collection includes shingle hatchets, lathe hatchets, crating hatchets, a trapper's axe, cruiser's axe and even an ice axe. Each had very specific applications.

Student Anthony, 18, pictured, was killed with an ice axe in a park in Huyton, Merseyside, last summer.

The Liverpool student was killed with an ice axe in July after suffering racist abuse at a bus stop in Huyton.

Paul Taylor (20) who smashed an ice axe into the 18-year-old's head after ambushing him in a park in Huyton, Merseyside, was told he will spend at least 23 years and eight months in jail.

Anthony, 18, was slain with an ice axe in July after he walked away from louts who hurled racist abuse as he waited for a bus in Huyton, Merseyside.

So in an effort to sort out my jumars from my karabiners, I buckled on my harness, gathered up my ice axe and got ready to take the plunge (or hopefully not) to learn about mountaineering in Switzerland.

I dug in my ice axe and hung on, with my head and shoulders out of the hole.

He tied us to the rope and handed each of us an ice axe. The axes make handy walking sticks.

"They also found an ice axe in the driver's seat footwell which the accused said wasn't his.

Gee Walker's son Anthony, 18, described as a "blameless young black man", was found with an ice axe in his head after being ambushed by Michael Barton and Paul Taylor in Huyton, Merseyside, in 2005.

Yesterday climbers and walkers were again advised: "In these conditions proper footwear and warm clothing, crampons and an ice axe are essential.