Petzl Laser Sonic Review

Likes

After getting the Laser Sonic to bite, the large rotating hanger was easy to spin, even when we were super pumped. As a bonus to the second, they are are easily able to clean the screw while leaving the hanger clipped to the rope. Both ice climbing novices (worried about dropping screws) and experts (wanting to climb as efficiently as possible) love this feature.

We liked the Ice Flute for its clever design that locks the screw in places until you are ready to unlock and deploy the screw with a flick of your fingers. We didn't rack the screws in the Ice Flutes for pure ice routes where we preferred to use ice clippers. But for general mountaineering or other routes where you might use two or less ice screws, it was nice to leave the screws in the Ice Flutes on our harness or fixed on our packs waist belt.

Dislikes

The one main disadvantage is the screws don start as easily as some of the other screws we tested. This was less noticeable above 15F but as the ice got colder and more brittle, we found the Petzl Laser Sonic was not nearly as easy to get started as the Black Diamond Express or Grivel 360. It was little easier to start than the DMM Revolution.