[pct-l] Kahtoola Crampons vs Ice Axe?

[radpin at gmail.com (Eric)]

Joe;

It gets icy not only in the morning, but also in the late afternoon,
but in the shade first. It's kinda weird like that. You can be walking
in slush or powder, step into a shady spot, and it's like walking on
an ice cube, even though the difference is only inches. Any skiers or
snow boarders should be used to this; hit a shadey spot (spring)
coming down a mountain and it's terribly icey.

My only crampons are gnarly ice climbing ones, and my (now old and
beat up) snow shoes have "teeth" on their bottoms, but when it's less
than 6" of snow, or it's hardpacked, snowshoes don't make much sense
for me.

My real comment to this though is that an ice axe is used for self
arrest in a slide, which can happen with crampons, skis, snow shoes,
boots, sneakers, or flip flops.

I view my ice axe as a safety device. With crampons (light, heavy, or
otherwise) you still will fall every now and then.

I had my ice axe on the back of my pack because I hadn't used it in
two days, and then slipped (while in crampons), and slid a good 15' or
so, having a fairy painfal rock grouping stop my slide.

You can find some lightweight aluminum shaft / steel blade axes out
there. They also make wonderful tent stakes, "pry" tools, improvised
bear defense (atleast in one's mind, of course.. in practical
application I'd rather test out my noise making capacity), but above
all they will stop a slide, if you know how to use it.

Eric





-- 
http://www.radpin.com