An Ice Axe is a piece of equipment used in
mountaineering. There are two breeds of ice axe,
the walking axe and the climbing axe.
For some photographs look at
http://www.grivel.com/ .
Originally evolved from spiked sticks to aid
tourists over glaciers at the turn of the century the ice axe is now a very sophisticated tool.
It is about 0.5 - 0.75 of a meter in length
with a head which has a very pointy end with nasty teeth and
an end with either a scoop or hammerhead.
The pointy toothy end is driven into the ice/snow.
You need to do this if you are climbing or if you are falling off the side of the mountain.
In the latter case the technique is referred to as ice
axe breaking and is usually performed on a slope of moderate
inclination. The slope will usually have a thick ice layer
and so using the ice axe is the only way to arrest oneself.
When climbing two axes are used. A loop of material it
threaded through the head of the ice axe and it is long
enough to reach down around your wrist as you clench the
handle of the ice axe.
You drive the pointy end of the axe into the frozen waterfall/gully/deidre or whatever you happen to
be climbing. This is usually quite steep (and given
the appropriate conditions can even be overhanging!)
Your weight is taken through these ice axe loops.
The hammer head part is used to hit bits of ice that are in your way or to hammer pegs into the ice (not that that helps much). The scoop part of the head used to be used to cut
footsteps into the ice but that was superseded by
front-pointing.
A major advance in the ice axe came in the 1960's
when Hamish McGinnis in Scotland pointed the head of the
axe down at an angle instead of having it perpendicular to the shaft. When climbing this allows the user to bring
the head down into the ice with much greater force.
I used to think that Leon Trotsky was killed by an ice axe, but apparently that was an ice pick.
If you carry an ice axe with you on public transport
no one will give you any shit, except maybe the transit police.