[pct-l] [John Muir Trail] Donahue 07/02/11

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

On Jul 6, 2011, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> Solo crossings should always utilize both poles downstream of your  
> body (which is facing the way your are going) for resistance  
> against the current's force to push you that way.

This doesn't make any sense to me.

I'm pretty sure I try to face a little toward upstream and try to  
have my poles on the upstream side. Very often the poles are pushed  
downstream despite my best efforts, and in that case I try to fight  
it as best I can. But I would never purposefully plant them  
downstream as that would make it harder to form a tripod with my body- 
weight and would have me leaning toward downstream and thus make me  
more unstable and easier to push over.