[pct-l] ice axes - thoughts.

[david_tibor at yahoo.com (David Tibor)]

Hey there,

There's lots of snow in the Sierra, but we just beat a
record high in Sacramento by 3 degrees today (84
degrees). So who know what will happen by early June.

I just wanted to toss in my thoughts on ice axes,
since I know snow was one of the things that I
ACTUALLY was concerned about (e.g. icy passes, river
crossings) unlike the usual things normal folks get
worked up about (bears! snakes! axe murderers hiding
behind that tree!).

This year you better bring an ice axe. And it is NO
USE if you don't know what to do with it. At least
read up in "Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills" and
then practice when you see a good snow slope with a
SAFE RUNOUT! Nothing like sliding on your back in
raingear head first downhill to inspire you to want to
learn to use an ice axe.

However, here's the point I wanted to make. I took a
winter mountaineering course on Mt. Lassen before my
2004 thru-hike, and I asked the instructor (an
extremely experienced mountaineer) how many times he'd
had to use his ice axe to arrest a serious slide. He
said TWICE in years and years and years of hard-core
mountaineering. He said that once you start sliding,
"you've lost." The entire goal is to NOT START
SLIDING.

So be smart in your snow travel, including using an
ice axe correctly to be safe and secure, including
self-belay. Cross passes when the snow is the right
softness. Trying to head down icy snow on the
north-facing side of a pass in the morning is not
smart. But neither is trying to hike across three
miles of snow, post-holing to your thigh, off Muir
Pass on a hot afternoon either. I'm not a snow
mountaineerer, by any stretch - just get an ice axe,
learn to use it to CLIMB IN BALANCE, and also to
self-arrest (just in case), and most of all use your
noggin to use the conditions in your favor.

No worries.

Dave T.


		
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site!
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/