[pct-l] ice axes - thoughts.

[MWallace at Stutman.com (Wallace, Mark S.)]

This is very good advice.

To think "I don't need to worry, I have an ice axe to stop me if I slip" may be a precursor to tragedy.  If you build up enough speed in the wrong snow conditions, even an expert self-arrest won't stop you.  In snow conditions where the snow is porous and full of air, the pick can zipper through the snow without slowing you down.  

Mark       



-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net
[mailto:pct-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net]On Behalf Of rjc
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 10:55 AM
To: David Tibor; PCT-L
Subject: Re: [pct-l] ice axes - thoughts.


Three rules of mountaineering re icy (or even scree!!!- ) I have arrested 
on screen once
and once on icy ledge- = twice in 30 years+ of mountaineering.. and both times
were absolute;ly avoidable and both because I was dumbly inattentive to my 
surroundings)

Do everything you can to:

1- Not stumble and fall
2- Don't slide if you fall.
3- Don't speed up if you slide.

At 12:12 AM 3/11/2005, David Tibor wrote:
>Hey there,
>
>There's lots of snow in the Sierra, but we just beat a
>record high in Sacramento by 3 degrees today (84
>degrees). So who know what will happen by early June.
>
>I just wanted to toss in my thoughts on ice axes,
>since I know snow was one of the things that I
>ACTUALLY was concerned about (e.g. icy passes, river
>crossings) unlike the usual things normal folks get
>worked up about (bears! snakes! axe murderers hiding
>behind that tree!).
>
>This year you better bring an ice axe. And it is NO
>USE if you don't know what to do with it. At least
>read up in "Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills" and
>then practice when you see a good snow slope with a
>SAFE RUNOUT! Nothing like sliding on your back in
>raingear head first downhill to inspire you to want to
>learn to use an ice axe.
>
>However, here's the point I wanted to make. I took a
>winter mountaineering course on Mt. Lassen before my
>2004 thru-hike, and I asked the instructor (an
>extremely experienced mountaineer) how many times he'd
>had to use his ice axe to arrest a serious slide. He
>said TWICE in years and years and years of hard-core
>mountaineering. He said that once you start sliding,
>"you've lost." The entire goal is to NOT START
>SLIDING.
>
>So be smart in your snow travel, including using an
>ice axe correctly to be safe and secure, including
>self-belay. Cross passes when the snow is the right
>softness. Trying to head down icy snow on the
>north-facing side of a pass in the morning is not
>smart. But neither is trying to hike across three
>miles of snow, post-holing to your thigh, off Muir
>Pass on a hot afternoon either. I'm not a snow
>mountaineerer, by any stretch - just get an ice axe,
>learn to use it to CLIMB IN BALANCE, and also to
>self-arrest (just in case), and most of all use your
>noggin to use the conditions in your favor.
>
>No worries.
>
>Dave T.
>
>
>
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