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place into dense, hard ice. Another problem was that, although better than an ice piton,

it still didn't have good

―

holding

‖

strength.

The following year (1961) Stubai introduced the

―

Marwa

‖

ice screw (Fig. 4) which

resembled a corkscrew on

steroids and was sturdier

than Friedli's screw. It

was thicker and

performed better, but was

still hard to place and

somewhat unreliable.

Instead of screwing these

into the ice you would

pound them in with an

ice-tool-hammer and then

screw them out for

removal.

Three years later, in 1964, the tubular ice screw was commercialized. The tubular screw

has teeth on the leading edge that make it easy to cut into the ice, has improved shear

strength, lighter weight and the tube provides a path for the displaced ice to flow

instead of shattering. Today you can't climb a glacier face without tubular ice screws,

and you would never confuse them with corkscrews.

The superior performance of the high-tech tubular screw quickly pushed the corkscrew-

like ice screw out of favor. The

―

Marwa

‖

design was only popular in the early 1960's.

That's why today's corkscrew collectors don't find very many. The

―

Marwa

‖

looks like a

corkscrew and even removes corks from bottles, but it's just an ice screw - not a

corkscrew.