Post by jimnelson on Nov 2, 2013 13:26:09 GMT -8
A few more thoughts about crampons and self-arrest. By teaching climbers to lift their feet off the snow when doing self-arrest when wearing crampons, I often hear new climbers give this as a reason NOT to wear crampons for snow travel. Explaining that performing self-arrest with crampons is dangerous. It is easy to see why they might think this. Also crampons are not worn when practicing self-arrest, and they probably shouldn't be. However practicing with a nice runout and the real thing are not the same, possibly leaving students with the idea that crampons should not be worn.
I looked at the clubs accident reports for slips on snow/ failure to self-arrest. Crampons were not worn in pretty much every case from what I could tell. Also there were no reports of slips on snow with failure to self-arrest where crampons were worn.
Does this tell us that self-arrest is difficult when crampons are not worn, and that it is more difficult to slip on snow when crampons are worn?
My sense is that crampons are under utilized for snow travel in the Northwest. For some reason crampons are assumed standard for glacier travel, but not for snow travel.
For example the Seattle Scramble Course includes snow travel in the curriculum, but does not include the use of crampons. In the Seattle Climbing course we include crampons, but for snow travel the focus is Ice Ax and self-arrest without much if any discussion about using crampons as a tool for snow travel safety except to lift them off the snow.
More here from Jason blog.alpineinstitute.com/2010/10/self-arrest-with-crampons.html
and more here freedom9bestpractice.freeforums.net/index.cgi?board=snow&action=display&thread=14
Read more: freedom9bestpractice.freeforums.net/index.cgi?action=display&board=snow&thread=14&page=1#ixzz2jWeUyb8p
I looked at the clubs accident reports for slips on snow/ failure to self-arrest. Crampons were not worn in pretty much every case from what I could tell. Also there were no reports of slips on snow with failure to self-arrest where crampons were worn.
Does this tell us that self-arrest is difficult when crampons are not worn, and that it is more difficult to slip on snow when crampons are worn?
My sense is that crampons are under utilized for snow travel in the Northwest. For some reason crampons are assumed standard for glacier travel, but not for snow travel.
For example the Seattle Scramble Course includes snow travel in the curriculum, but does not include the use of crampons. In the Seattle Climbing course we include crampons, but for snow travel the focus is Ice Ax and self-arrest without much if any discussion about using crampons as a tool for snow travel safety except to lift them off the snow.
More here from Jason blog.alpineinstitute.com/2010/10/self-arrest-with-crampons.html
and more here freedom9bestpractice.freeforums.net/index.cgi?board=snow&action=display&thread=14
Read more: freedom9bestpractice.freeforums.net/index.cgi?action=display&board=snow&thread=14&page=1#ixzz2jWeUyb8p