[pct-l] Snow Gear

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good afternoon,

For those of you who aspire to be an alpine mountaineer some of Ned’s
advise is good.  A long, heavy ice axe is more comfortable to use during
long periods of heavy use, and will likely last forever.  The lite-weight
axes will do all of the necessary tasks for hiking and still weigh less
than 10 oz. with a 50 cm handle, like mine.  A long handle isn’t necessary.
The “heavy-duty” steel axe that I train with around home only has a 40 cm
handle, and it works just fine for an arrest.    I did three self-arrests
within about 15 minutes on the PCT using the point of a trekking pole.  Once
I deliberately let myself down a long snow chute with nothing but a skinny,
pointed rock held in my hands.  Long handles are great for belaying, but
implicit in that is having a climbing rope to belay.

Ned is one of the sumo-hikers.  He seems to recommend anything that is
heavy:  The heavy leather hiking boots with the recommended full-platform
alpine crampons, the big ice axes, the three-season tents, the full
Gore-Tex rain gear, and anything else that inhabits a 60-80 pound pack.  Anyone
who buys-in to the sumo-hiking theory is welcome to it:  The only harm done
is to body of the hiker who has to carry it all.

Where I significantly disagree with Ned is in his approval -- either by
word or by example -- of using a stove in a tent, particularly when such
advise is directed at relatively new and inexperienced hikers.  Using a
stove in a tent – even if the door is unzipped – is not safe.  Even beyond
asphyxiation, bad things can happen to a person confined in a tent behind a
stove that decides to flare-up, or behind a pot of near-boiling water that
manages to get off the pot stand.

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/