Learning safe glacier travel

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Nov 25, 2002 7:20 pm

Does anyone know where (locally) I can learn safe glacier travel? Self arrest, Z pulleys, and whateverelseIneedtoknowtostayalive? I realize there are no local glaciers, but there's got to be a way to learn this on 'dry land', right?

Post by **Wes** » Mon Nov 25, 2002 7:30 pm

It's kinda hard to learn self arrest without snow...

I would suggest North Conway, NH. There are three or so guide services / schools that can teach you all that stuff. And then you can test them with a winter asent of Mt. Washington...

Wes

Post by **sparky** » Mon Nov 25, 2002 9:20 pm

Ski resorts on the east coast can serve as a good environment to learn some basic techniques, most importantly self arest, there icey conditions are similar to what most glaciers feel like in the summer. For snow head north like wes mentioned. Reading glaciers is also very useful. a snickers bar is a good analogy, bend it and see how it reacts. the convex side cracks and the concave side will push together. This is much the same way a glacier reacts as it flows down. Andy and Mike put out a good book a few years ago that i think climbing is now selling it has a lot of good stuff in it. Something else you can learn with out snow is your glacier rig and how to use it.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Nov 25, 2002 10:28 pm

yeah, Wes, I considered traveling for the instruction. Mt. Washington sure would be sweet, too.. I dunno, I may consider that. Wicked wind up there, though, and I'm such a weenie.

Sparky, do you think I could accomplish some of this at Snowshoe later in the season? How would I go about finding someone to instruct me? Our other option is of course to hire a guide while we're in Alaska, but we will only be doing only the simplest glacier travel. If we hire a guide we might as well go for a Denali summit! Trouble is we'll be there a little too late in the season for that.

Post by **sparky** » Tue Nov 26, 2002 2:01 am

Any snow covered slope with a good pack will work
the main thing is to get the whole self arrest into muscle memory so it becomes more of a reflex than something you have to think about.

Also, what are you actually trying to do?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Nov 26, 2002 2:52 am

We're planning a backpack in Denali NP and the route we want to take involves several glacier crossings. I'm planning ahead since obviously what we want to do takes skills that I need to acquire. We may end up taking a longer route and sticking to the lower glacial moraine if I don't feel comfortable that I could haul my partner out of a crevasse, but I want to at least learn all that I can and then decide. The good thing is that at the time we are going the crevasses will probably be fairly well exposed.

I think I'll try to set something up at Snowshoe later in the season since I was planning on spending some time skiing there anyway. Thanks, Sparky!

Post by **sparky** » Tue Nov 26, 2002 5:06 am

Shoot no problem, any time
if you want some more info. or have any questions about systems and general glacier travel let me

Post by **Artsay** » Tue Nov 26, 2002 2:51 pm

Hey Lynne! Need some boots? I have a kick ass pair of La Sportiva Makula's worn only a few times. They're a great mountaineering boot.

Post by **Steve** » Tue Nov 26, 2002 2:54 pm

Build in some extra time on your next mt trip to go practice. I had a buddy go do Rainer a few years ago and before they started they took a day to practice their system. He had been toying around with his prusik rig in the gym so he wanted to put it to use in the field. They found a crevas they could walk down into and with one dude on top and the other down in the crevas they practiced gettting out. Taking a day to practice doesn't sound all that fun, but it is a good way to learn.

I learned how to self arrest glissading my way down from Hood. Not the best idea.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Nov 26, 2002 3:39 pm

Artsay, hell yeah I'd be interested. What size are they? Sportiva may be too narrow for my duck feet, but maybe not. Has SCIN ever, well, you know'd with them??

Steve, thanks for that advice! I must be a total geek, though, because a day of practice doesn't sound like a bad thing to me at all. Of course it means more fun later! I just need to figure out the where and with who.