Ice Axe Strategies For Secure Mountaineering

When crossing higher mountain passes, glaciers and other locations of steep snow and ice 1 of the most critical pieces of safety equipment you really should have is an ice axe. These come in a range of types, some improved suited to walking and other people that are developed for specialised purposes such as climbing frozen waterfalls. Whichever you pick you need to have to make sure that it is sized properly and that you are properly practised in its usage.

Sizing Viking axes of decades ago most folks would have gone for an ice axe that was pretty much as long as a walking stick. The idea behind that method was that you could use its shaft to help balance on slippery ice and use it as a third point of contact when crossing steep slopes. The major aim right here was to enable avert falls in the first spot. More than the years on the other hand the trend has been towards ones with shorter shafts. Whilst a common shaft length in the 1950s or 1960s would have been 75 centimetres to 80 centimetres the ones you will see on the slopes these days are typically significantly shorter. The most common suggestions these days is to hold the axe by its head in an outstretched arm. The bottom ought to dangle about two inches off the floor. The thinking is that this tends to make it less cumbersome, particularly when ascending steep slopes. A lot of men and women, even so, now advise going even shorter with shaft lengths of 55 centimetres to 60 centimetres since these can be swiftly deployed for “self-arrest” the term employed to describe a technique for stopping one particular from sliding down the mountain right after a fall that I talk about under. The trend towards a great deal shorter ice axes is, nevertheless, controversial. Traditionalists argue that when they are so brief they are unable to perform their principal function of assisting to avert slips and falls in the very first location, rather than stopping or controlling a descent after a fall.

Self-arrest

This is a important, life-saving approach that should be discovered and practised routinely. It is employed by mountaineers who have slipped or fallen and are sliding down steep snow or ice. Left unchecked, the fallen mountaineer would hold gaining speed, which could outcome in them becoming injured or killed. It is a approach that also desires to be learned from a proper instructor and practised repeatedly. In essence it involves a climber who is sliding flipping themselves into the correct face-down position with the ice axe underneath them. The point, or pick, is then driven into the snow or ice to slow and eventually halt the slide.