[pct-l] ice ax

[Yoshihiro Murakami]

Dear Shelly

C.A.M.P.Corsa, 60cm may be a good choice. I also have CAMP ultralight
( 45cm) http://bit.ly/pfFIRz It worked very well to make a cat hole
effectively in this summer,  but snow pack was rare as I had expected.

I have no experience of winter mountaineering, but some experience of
hiking of spring mountains near my house.

In the snowy mountains, I usually wear aluminum crampons ( CAMP
http://bit.ly/gH4QHE ) and use trekking poles. In most of the case,
this combination works well. So, I did not use ice ax for a long time.
But,  I had a scary experience several years ago. It was late spring,
I usually went to the familiar mountain. Huge snow packs remained.  I
faced the thin ridge made of the hard snow ( almost ice ). I was able
to go through by crampons and trekking poles. But, from this
experience,  I added the ultralight ax to the combination of crampons
and trekking poles.

The short ax is only efficient at the very steep terrain. It is
useless in most of the time. So, I  switch the trekking pole to the
ice ax when I  confronted to the steep ridge.

The ultralight ax is very light, so you cannot  hammer effectively it
into the hard snow ( or ice ). But it is easy to carry and it is
effective to the normal snow pack.

The long ax is effective most of the time, because it can be used as a
trekking pole. But if you use trekking poles, it may be difficult to
have a good command of the switching between the trekking pole to the
ice ax.

I had only learned the usage of ice ax from the mountaineering books,
but it will be recommended to join some winter training.







2011/10/22 shelly skye <shelbel26 at gmail.com>:
> All-righty, I'm getting ready to buy my ice ax for next year. I am looking
> at a C.A.M.P.Corsa, 60cm that weighs 205 gm. I am 5'3" with average arm
> length (I think) so I am guessing this would be the correct length for me.
> The other option is a 70cm but that seems overly long from the safety and
> comfort of my desk. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions that might
> help me with this decision? BTY, I have some experience with snow camping
> but none with exposure to steep hillsides with big boulders at the bottom.
> Oh, and I will be signing up for Ned's class come winter. (Thanks Ned!)
>
> --
> Shelly
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-- 
Sincerely
--------------- --------------------------------------
Hiro    ( Yoshihiro Murakami  村上宣寛 )
facebook  http://www.facebook.com/completewalker
Blogs  http://completewalker.blogspot.com/
Photo  http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/CompleteWalker/
Backpacking since about 1980 in Japan
2009 JMT, 2009, 2010, 2011(half).
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