[pct-l] ice axe training

[Dale Combs]

Just spent the weekend on a snow shoe trip with my daughter and gave her ice axe training on a slope with a safe runout. It condenses down to:
1. An ice axe at home or on your pack doesn't help.
2. Don't forget to leash it to your wrist.
3. Carry it in your uphill hand.
4. Hold it correctly in your hand with your thumb below the adze and your hand on top.
5. To arrest immediately press down with pick above you on the slope and all your weight on it like you're trying to kill Dracula. If you have shoes/boots use those too to slow yourself down. If you have crampons on don't let them catch or you might snap your tib/fib and tumble backwards.
6. Catch yourself before you pick up speed.
7. Practice in a safe place until proper technique is automatic.
8. When you fall it will come as a surprise.
9. Snow conditions are always changing. Be especially aware when you transition from sunny snow into shadow.
10. When you fall you accelerate similarly to the vertical drop of the free fall. The slope does not help much.
 
As a section hiker over many years I have observed the fear that grows the closer people get to Kennedy Meadows. The fears may be overblown.
 
North of Tahoe over many years I have observed people get knocked off the trail because of 40 foot slides into the rocks below, I usually see these people with all sorts of hand, elbow, hip bandaging. After the fall their injuries are incompatible with 150-180 mile weeks necessary to keep up with their friends. In my opinion the confidence displayed dancing across snowy side slopes is both awe-inspiring and scary. Most people don't fall but that's no consolation to the ones that do.
 
I'm a big chicken, it's been 30  years since I went to Mt McKinley, but I always come back walking.
 
Dale aka Comfy aka Aging Gasbag