[pct-l] ice axe training

[ned at mountaineducation.org]

Dale!

You nailed it!

Ice axe training isn't learned by watching a video or reading about it in a 
mountaineering book. It is learned, realized, made reflexive by doing it!

PCT thru hikers, whether NoBo or SoBo, pay attention to the snow conditions 
beneath your feet because the change from day to day and from sun to shade, 
as Dale said. You can learn as you go, but it may be by the "school of hard 
knocks."

Remember, also, that it doesn't take a big snowfield to increase your 
chances of a slip-and-fall. Most of our students, before they take our snow 
skills courses, tell us that they have fallen before on a small snow drift 
across the trail and slid into a tree. They take the course to learn how to 
prevent it from happening again.

Constant Balance, Traction, and snowslope condition awareness are necessary 
to prevent that sudden, unsuspected slip or post-hole to pain. Dale is right 
about that Kennedy Meadows fear of "what's ahead?" End your concerns and 
gain an enormous amount of confidence by learning somewhere how to 1) remain 
warm and dry, 2) navigate over snow when the trail is completely buried for 
long stretches, is not marked, and you don't know where it is going, and 3) 
self-arrest!

As we say, "It doesn't matter whether you're walking on 8 inches or 8 feet 
of snow, the hazards are the same." Whether the patch of snow is only 3 
steps wide by 3 feet tall across the steep traversing trail, all it takes is 
the hastily-placed step, the thoughtless push of the toes, or the post-hole 
to send you flying. All this can easily be avoided...

And don't send your hiking crampons and Whippets home at Yosemite because 
the notorious Sonora Pass snow slope is yet ahead!


Ned Tibbits, Director
Mountain Education
www.mountaineducation.org
-----Original Message----- 
From: Dale Combs
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 12:34 PM
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] ice axe training

Just spent the weekend on a snow shoe trip with my daughter and gave her ice 
axe training on a slope with a safe runout. It condenses down to:
1. An ice axe at home or on your pack doesn't help.
2. Don't forget to leash it to your wrist.
3. Carry it in your uphill hand.
4. Hold it correctly in your hand with your thumb below the adze and your 
hand on top.
5. To arrest immediately press down with pick above you on the slope and all 
your weight on it like you're trying to kill Dracula. If you have 
shoes/boots use those too to slow yourself down. If you have crampons on 
don't let them catch or you might snap your tib/fib and tumble backwards.
6. Catch yourself before you pick up speed.
7. Practice in a safe place until proper technique is automatic.
8. When you fall it will come as a surprise.
9. Snow conditions are always changing. Be especially aware when you 
transition from sunny snow into shadow.
10. When you fall you accelerate similarly to the vertical drop of the free 
fall. The slope does not help much.

As a section hiker over many years I have observed the fear that grows the 
closer people get to Kennedy Meadows. The fears may be overblown.

North of Tahoe over many years I have observed people get knocked off the 
trail because of 40 foot slides into the rocks below, I usually see these 
people with all sorts of hand, elbow, hip bandaging. After the fall their 
injuries are incompatible with 150-180 mile weeks necessary to keep up with 
their friends. In my opinion the confidence displayed dancing across snowy 
side slopes is both awe-inspiring and scary. Most people don't fall but 
that's no consolation to the ones that do.

I'm a big chicken, it's been 30  years since I went to Mt McKinley, but I 
always come back walking.

Dale aka Comfy aka Aging Gasbag
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