[pct-l] Yaktrax

[Lonetrail at aol.com (Lonetrail@aol.com)]

Ho

I purchased a pair of Yaktrax first time out I tried them on Mt Baden Powell. 
The snow was about 6 inches at the base of Mt. I progress up the mountain 
mostly switch back the snow got deeper up to three to four feet. There was about 
four snow falls that year. I had ice, thaw, snow, freeze, crush up to four 
layers of repeat ice, thaw, freeze, snow and crust. There were areas were I would 
not break the crust and it was wind swept. In other areas I would go down 
three to four feet. A park ranger passed me up with good Crampons. He knew what I 
was using and said they were worthless. He told me to buy a pair of Kong 
light weight 21 oz crampons. He left me saying he would post hole for me. I got to 
about 200 feet from the peak and stopped to check my Yaktrax they go sucked 
of in the pot holes. I had to terminate my hike and got back down the mountain. 
I had a shovel and rode it down crossing each switch backs around three 
thousand feet. Great fun.

There was a man killed this winter with a pair of cheap crampon, I don't know 
if they were Yaktrax but it sounded like what he had.  I just had a friend 
killed last week in the mountains he did not have on crampons tomorrow I'm going 
to his funeral. 

I been reading these posts for about three years. I read about trail 
maintenance, trail angles, but never about Search and Rescue. unfortunately its 
mostly.
 Recovery. They are mostly volunteers if any of you have a few bucks you can 
spare, think of the S&R people. Someday you may need them. If you live in the 
S. CA area I have some addresses you can send your check too.

Lonetrail