[pct-l] Greetings All

[Christine Kudija" <cmkudija@earthlink.net (Christine Kudija)]

Kevin...wherever you heard "practice at home" they probably didn't mean
practice self-arrest on your roof! <VBG>

Seriously, I've had one major self-arrest episode in 20+ years of hiking,
backpacking & climbing in the Sierra.  And THAT happened when I was
(carefully!!!) stepping from dry trail to snowbank-covered trail -
fortunately, at the time I was using my ice axe as a walking stick; my
husband & I were descending the South Fork Big Pine Creek trail after having
climbed Middle Palisade (one of the fourteeners in the Palisades).  The snow
broke through, I lost my balance and turtled downslope - head down, belly
up, heavy pack contributing to the momentum...  From somewhere, I heard a
loud voice yell "ARREST" - I heaved over & got the ice axe into the
snow...probably about 20 feet above some really pointy rocks.    The funny
thing ... my husband didn't know I had fallen (this was an isolated
north-facing snowslope with dry trail above and below it) and no one else
was around.  The voice sounded just like the instructors in the Sierra Club
mountaineering class who drilled me & a bunch of others on a long, wet,
January day in the San Gabriels.  Either my guardian angel was working
overtime or my overactive imagination kicked in.  I'm glad I made it into
the 50th percentile...  This occurred in 1978.  These days I use a pair of
Leki poles, which would have worked for the balance aspect (not to mention
prodding the snow for stability) but would not have worked at all for self
arrest.
fwiw...
Christine