[pct-l] Steep Snow Travel

[Stephen Adams]

Yeah, I feel your pain.  I have tried to teach people what I believe to be proper "hiking pole etiquette".  It aint easy.  Folks just don't seem to want to listen.  There was once upon a time when I just got up to the Muir Hut and there was a lady all bloody and beat up cause she had been using poles in talus and they tripped her up and she took a bad header into the rocks.  IT's pretty simple.  In talus and steep slippery snow... put the poles away, at least carry them on one hand.  When I have more time I'll make my shpeel on the subject, but I have been using hiking poles for almost twenty years because of bad foot issues.  But I have a strong belief that there is a right way and wrong way to use them.