[pct-l] Re: Thru-hiking, ice axes, and self-arrest.

["David B. Stockton" <davstock@tiac.net>]

>>>>
From: Slyinmd@aol.com
Subject: [pct-l] Thru-hiking, ice axes, and self-arrest.

For a curious mind, has any thru-hiker (or atemptie)  ever lost control in
the snow or ice and actually had to self-arrest, using an ice ax?
>>>>

I wrote to this list last spring that when I attempted the PCT in '94 I 
personally met two different thru-hiking people who did not know each other 
who had fallen on Fuller Ridge the week before -- one with running shoes, 
the other with boots; one male, the other female; one had hiked the AT, the 
other I believe not -- in separate incidents.  Both were scraped and scabby 
on one hip/leg.  One (the male) had slid 30 feet before being able to 
self-arrest with ice axe.  Neither hit a tree because they had an axe and 
knew how to use it, and were lucky (Fuller Ridge has many trees).

These are just two accounts told to one hiker dealing with just one section 
of the PCT in one year, so one's imagination doesn't have to go far...

Of course, one doesn't have to be a thru-hiker, or an attempter, to fall on 
an icy, slippery, dangerous slope.

-- Dave

David B. Stockton
davstock@tiac.net


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