Post by kensmall on Apr 28, 2013 10:00:10 GMT -8
Based on accident reports once available in the main office, covering the years 1981-2005 (1983 missing) plus the incident reports collected by the Safety Committee for 2006-2011, the ratio of falls on snow while descending to falls while ascending is 31 to 3 or about 10 to 1. Based on 22 issues of ANAM, the ratio for NA climbing generally is 3.8 to 1. These both exclude near-dead-level traverses, glissade incidents and ski mountaineering falls. Any thought that these ratios can be attributed to differences in fatigue can be dismissed. And it is not too much to suggest that the Mtnrs generally does not do a very good job of teaching students how to descend snow and that this is reflected in Freedom 8. Except for facing in and backing down (p. 338), which is a type of self-belay (unless using low dagger), the only thing the text says about self-belay on descent is: "If the snow is too hard or steep for plunge-stepping, descend in a crouched position, planting the axe as low as possible in a self-belay with each step." [In passing, why do this and other references to self-belay precede the section on self-belay?] The reader would never know that there are four ways to use self-belay on descent. In addition to backing down they are: (i) facing straight out and descending down the fall line, as above, (ii) switchbacking down, making sure to turn into the snow when changing directions, and (iii) facing sideways and side-stepping down. These all have advantages and disadvantages, which I won't discuss here. I think the section on descending snow needs some work.