One of the World’s Most Popular Ice Tools Was Just Updated. Does Its Cult Approve?

I, like many other climbers, felt a lump in my throat when I heard that Camp was updating the X-Dream. Updates are meant to indicate progress, yet they often faceplant into regression. Tweaks and “improvements” are often at the expense of durability, weight, and fit. In the last five years alone, my once-favorite helmet, harness, and ice boot have all been improved into oblivion. In a craft like ice climbing, where each tool’s swing is unique and may take months of climbing to truly understand, a significant update might just ruin it.

The “old” Camp X-Dream

The previous iteration of the X-Dream has been my go-to tool since 2020. I remember being a lot less pumped than usual that winter. Between the tool’s aggressive shape, its juggy handle, and multiple resting grips, I felt like I could hang on to steep ice forever compared to the straighter tools I’d used in the past.

In the six years since, I’ve grown to see the X-Dream as an extension of myself. I’ve swung it into long blue flows in the Canadian Rockies, tapped onto hanging dangers in Norway, plunged through vertical rime in Patagonia, and torqued granite splitters in New Hampshire. I tried and tested nearly every other widely available tool during that period—even calling a different tool “the best all-arounder on the market.” Yet I always fell back into step with the X-Dream once I was finished testing.

The Camp X-Dream updates

I first held the new X-Dream at a climber’s hostel in El Chaltén in 2024. Amidst the crew of Camp athletes posted up there for the month, I noticed a distinctive black tool being passed around a dinner table loaded with asado. Oh no, I thought. I invited myself to the table and asked to take a look.

The big change is the X-Dream’s handle, which has been made slightly taller to accommodate a larger range of hand sizes. The angle of the pommel (the spot where your pinky rests) remains unchanged, so the overall feel of the handle remains the same, but big-mitted climbers are sure to appreciate this invitation to the party. For those with smaller hands, an adjustable trigger rest now dictates the “perceived size” of the handle, whereas, in the older model, the handle could actually be made smaller using a rubber wedge insert. I frequently used that insert when wearing thin drytooling gloves, yet I prefer this new design since the pommel’s angle is constant whether I’m using thick gloves midwinter or thin performance gloves at the crag.

The upper and lower pommels have also been slimmed ever so slightly. The difference is minor, but smaller-handed climbers will surely appreciate the edit, and I must admit to finding it a bit more comfortable than the old model.

The overall angle of the X-Dream’s handle can still be adjusted between a less-aggressive “Ice” mode and a radically steep “Dry” mode. In fact, Camp now makes a “Total Dry Handle” geared toward comp climbers who need maximal interior space for matching, and maximum length for reaching, while staying within UIAA regulations. One Climbing field tester used this setup on burly mixed routes in Ouray, CO, and D14 king lines in the Italian Dolomites and couldn’t find a route above this tool’s pay grade.

The X-Dream’s shaft got a minor update as well: instead of a small sticker of grip tape, the shaft is now coated with a rubbery insulation to increase grip and warmth when matching hands on the upper rest. I found this new insulation highly useful on the crux pitch of Nasty Habit (M7 WI4; 175m), in Field, BC, where I placed the X-Dream in my mouth while chimneying behind a hanging dagger of ice. Although the new grip is better than the old one, I do think the materials could be improved. After a full winter of testing—using the X-Dream to place pitons, torque in cracks, and chop bivy ledges from ice—the insulation looks like I ran it through a weed wacker. This stock insulation, called X-Grip, is sold separately and easily reapplied with a hair dryer, but once the foam fully craps out I will return to my non-adhesive grip tape from the local hardware store.

What excites me most about the new X-Dream is its head. At long last, after six years of deforming its metal by tapping in an in-situ piton or my opposite tool into thin ice, the X-Dream finally comes with a micro hammer. Weighing in at 22 grams, the X-Hammer Lite does minorly change the tool’s swing, since it’s now more back-weighted. But of all the changes to begrudgingly accept, this one is the most palatable since it drastically increases the X-Dream’s utility—especially on the thin, scrappy, gear-protected pitches which have come to define the vast majority of my winter climbing.

The X-Dream’s pick weights are also reshaped to be lower-profile and tapered at the bottom. This definitely increases their performance in constricted drytooling cracks. I am particularly psyched that these new features (the micro hammer and pick weight, plus a newly removable bottom spike) all come stock with the X-Dream now, rather than sold separately as they were before.

Why I still choose the new X-Dream over the Petzl Nomic or Black Diamond Hydra

As I mentioned above, I do believe the Black Diamond Hydra is still the best all-around tool on the market. The X-Dream is simply too aggressively shaped to climb low-angle snow slopes and rambly ice as efficiently as a straighter tool. However, the reason I still bring the X-Dream on the vast majority of my climbs—including alpine routes which involve a mix of hard mixed and easy snow/ice—is simple. I would rather feel locked into the crux pitch than slightly less efficient on a mindless snow plod.

Last spring, I attempted the cult classic alpine route Andromeda Strain (M6; 700m) on the Icefields Parkway. The route has some legitimately technical snow climbing, including a rope length of high-stakes traversing. Yet it also has a gently overhanging crux pitch that would be hard to not feel at least a little pumped on. Although bringing an aggressive tool like the X-Dream would undoubtedly make the snow traversing less secure, I knew I would want its mechanical advantage for the crux tooling, so I willfully traded one handicap for another.

Up on the wall, things played out exactly as I had intended. The traversing sucked—though that’s in part due to the rancid rock that hid beneath a skiff of faceted snow—but the crux climbing felt fun and secure. (The toprope surely helped!)

Final thoughts on the new Camp X-Dream

After a full year of testing the new X-Dream—and logging over 5,000 vertical meters of climbing with it—I can now say with certainty that I shouldn’t have been so scared of this update. The new handle feels familiar, the shaft insulation isn’t a deal breaker, and the new comp handle, micro hammer, pick weight, and bottom spike are all legitimate improvements. Thank goodness.

Shop the X-Dream on REI for $320

Complete list of updates, major and minor

• Handle enlarged to accommodate bigger hands
• Adjustable trigger rest (25mm) for large and small hands
• Bottom spike is now removable
• Pick weights, mini-hammer, and spike now come stock with the tool, rather than sold separately
• Fixed nut at the handle’s connection point so you can no longer drop (and lose) it
• New Total Dry Pick 2.0 made from Armox Advance ballistic steel (very durable, sold separately)
• The all-around Mixte pick is now called Omni, but no physical changes have been made

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