When crossing high mountain passes, glaciers and other places of steep snow and ice one of the most essential pieces of safety equipment you must have is an ice axe. These come in a range of types, some better suited to walking and others that are made for specialised purposes such as climbing frozen waterfalls. Whichever you select you have to have to make sure that it is sized properly and that you are properly practised in its usage.

Sizing an ice axe

A couple of decades ago most people today would have gone for an ice axe that was nearly as extended as a walking stick. The thought behind that approach was that you could use its shaft to aid balance on slippery ice and use it as a third point of get in touch with when crossing steep slopes. The primary aim here was to enable avert falls in the 1st spot. Over the years on the other hand the trend has been towards ones with shorter shafts. Even though 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 generally significantly shorter. The most widespread suggestions these days is to hold the axe by its head in an outstretched arm. The bottom must dangle about two inches off the floor. The pondering is that this tends to make it less cumbersome, specially when ascending steep slopes. Several folks, nonetheless, now advise going even shorter with shaft lengths of 55 centimetres to 60 centimetres given that these can be promptly deployed for “self-arrest” the term utilized to describe a approach for stopping a single from sliding down the mountain immediately after a fall that I go over beneath. The trend towards significantly shorter ice axes is, having said that, controversial. Traditionalists argue that when they are so short they are unable to perform their key function of assisting to avoid slips and falls in the initially place, rather than stopping or controlling a descent following a fall.

Self-arrest

This is a very important, life-saving method that will have to be learned and practised on a regular basis. It is employed by mountaineers who have slipped or fallen and are sliding down steep snow or ice. Viking axes , the fallen mountaineer would hold gaining speed, which could outcome in them being injured or killed. It is a strategy that also demands to be learned from a suitable instructor and practised repeatedly. In essence it involves a climber who is sliding flipping themselves into the right face-down position with the ice axe underneath them. The point, or pick, is then driven into the snow or ice to slow and at some point halt the slide.