[pct-l] Snow, ice axe belay

[mark v]

Just Jeff is just right about belaying on steep
snowfields.  I've had the experience of being roped to
someone who was gingerly walking across, so ready to
fall and self-arrest that he was almost willing
himself to fall.  It was not fun.  If you can sink
over half your axe in, you're as safe as can be.  I
would warn against using poles for this though, since
i know from an experience on Rainier that even the
best titanium poles bend and break if you have 200
pounds of force pulling on them while they're half
stuck in the snow.  (FWIW, REI still wanted to replace
them for me.)  Poles are better than nothing, but no
substitute for an axe.

I've taken 3 glacier classes.  2 were about being part
of a group, and emphasized what to do if you fall
(among other things).  The 3rd was one-on-one with an
instructor trying to set me up to lead a glacier
climb.  He wasn't interested in what to do if i fell. 
He kept insisting "you can NOT fall.  People following
you need you to never fall.  Here is what we do so you
NEVER fall."  Of course, that's extreme, but i think
there's a point there maybe for us PCTers as we
approach those high passes.


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