Confessions of an Idiot

[Wentzl]

Nice recap of the incident and glad you got out and not seriously hurt.

In that same sort of accident, I learned a lesson I will pass on. Circa 1989 in Alaska. Short version;

I climbed a snow gully that was easy to kick step up. Reached the summit and returned to descend about 2 hours later. Not thinking about how quickly conditions change, I started what I expected to be an easy sitting glissade. The sloped had turned from slush to ice and I took off like a rocket. 800 vertical feet later other than busted pride, I broke a front tooth out.

Lesson is simple. Always be mindful, test your holds, assume nothing.

[Boggy B]

Thanks for sharing, and glad you're ok.

Good assessment; the axe especially would have been ideal. You can also get away with poles, if you're able to penetrate the crust, by planting them firmly and bracing your foot against the uphill side--I don't condone such MacGyvering but if you're going with poles and no traction it's one way to do things.

My friend, who was wearing microspikes, easily went straight up and over the small feature. I was still wearing snowshoes with the ascents flipped up and was feeling a bit impatient to get to the top. I tried briefly to see if I could just send it up in snowshoes but it was too steep and I just slid backwards. Reluctantly I stopped to remove the snowshoes and strap them to my pack.

I've never owned microspikes nor wished I had, and--conceding that some people swear by them--I still can't see how they're not vastly inferior to the crampons built into many popular snowshoes. Although snowshoe crampon design varies wildly, and to some extent by application, it's really nice to have a pair you can passably frontpoint in. I would say the Atlas 12-series were the gold standard in that department; they're no longer available but the Range (except Trail) and Helium series also have a functional-looking toe crampon for reference.


I had a pretty close call once due to carelessness. Traversing the Elk 13ers at the head of Snowmass Creek in early winter I was working around some difficulty on the ridge via slabs on the east side. There was an exposed section that was going to be dicey since the snow wasn't well bonded to the underlying slab, but rather than backtracking to find a better way I decided to just go for it assuming I could distribute my weight well enough to hook up. I didn't hook up and slid down feet first, sprawled on my chest and desperately clawing the slab all the way. As I slipped over the edge of the 400-foot cliff, my feet slotted themselves into a 1 sq. foot shelf below the lip, sparing me a ragdolling demise.

Another time I was belaying a buddy on ice in the backcountry. The only position not exposed to falling ice was well up the slope adjacent to the pillar. Because of that and a significant weight differential I should have anchored myself to something, but options were scarce and the climbing below his pay grade (and also, don't fall leading ice). I stupidly decided to forego, and he stupidly peeled off 6 feet above his first screw. Catching him launched me across the gap straight into the pillar at 30mph. Despite all the padding my elbow took immobilizing damage and I had to hike out and drive (stick) home while it swelled up to a golf ball. X-rays came back clean but the bone definitely isn't in quite the same position as before.

[zootloopz]

Thank you for sharing, I genuinely appreciate hearing about other people's rationale and mindset before, during, and after an incident.

Today I thought of this post while throwing on microspikes for an icy 20 foot section on the way down a local peak near Durango. You might have saved me from busting my ass

[greenonion]

Thank you for sharing, I genuinely appreciate hearing about other people's rationale and mindset before, during, and after an incident.

Today I thought of this post while throwing on microspikes for an icy 20 foot section on the way down a local peak near Durango. You might have saved me from busting my ass

Super sweet response. Confirmation that the forum CAN work as intended.

[Skimo95]

Thanks for the heads up.

[daway8]

I've never owned microspikes nor wished I had, and--conceding that some people swear by them--I still can't see how they're not vastly inferior to the crampons built into many popular snowshoes.

Yikes, no - maybe the popular MSR snowshoes and other such ones are just not up to snuff with what you have - or possibly I just never learned proper technique but I discovered very early on that the crampons on the bottom of snowshoes just don't cut it for really steep slopes - and especially not side-hilling. More than once I've had snowshoes turn into an impromptu pair of skis, despite the many built in crampons. During this particular incident I had been wearing MSR Lightning Ascent snowshoes with the ascents flipped up but couldn't make any headway at all up the slope in question.

Microspikes have a somewhat niche application - also not good for really steep snow or serious ice but perfect for situations like this where you really only need that little extra bit of grip and don't have mountaineering boots with real crampons - or also, like on my recent Longs climb, where there's enough exposed rock that it's dangerously awkward to try to walk in crampons but equally dangerous to have no extra traction. And they don't have all the extra surface area of snowshoes that can work against you under certain conditions (aka the ski effect).

Some of it's also personal preference but I never go out without microspikes - although obviously I shot myself in the foot (or the arm rather, in this case) by not putting them on. I think I may try the method others use of clipping them outside my pack to reduce that lame mental excuse of not wanting to stop to take my pack off and dig them out.

Really appreciate the folks sharing their own mishaps - some of those have already given me other things to tuck away in the back of my mind and it looks like some other people might be saving themselves from ass busting - yeah!

Thanks everyone for the kind words and joining in on reinforcing good safety practices to remind each other of!

[yaktoleft13]

I'll second that and say snowshoes would have been useless on that slope. Too steep and firm to make progress. The spikes allow you to kick steps and prevent you from slipping out of previously kicked steps while doing so. I wouldn't want to have used spikes on a taller slope of this angle or anything steeper, but this slope, probably 40-45ish, they were the play (I guess so were crampons, but those were in the car)

[d_baker]

Idiot here....
I once forgot to tie into my harness properly, missing the top part of the harness, so I wasn't redundant and getting lowered off a ~30 meter climb was not a fun time to notice it. It felt weird as I was being lowered, and, oh - s**t! Look at this idiot (me).
Thankfully I had a quickdraw and I backed up the rewoven figure 8. That felt safer!

I had a friend die in the Dolomites on a via ferrata when he crossed a snow slope without traction and he slipped and went over a cliff. This after everyone else in the group crossed without traction too. He had probably at least 40 years of experience in the mountains.

David, I am curious what peak you were on? Not that it matters much...

[daway8]

Idiot here....
I once forgot to tie into my harness properly, missing the top part of the harness, so I wasn't redundant and getting lowered off a ~30 meter climb was not a fun time to notice it. It felt weird as I was being lowered, and, oh - s**t! Look at this idiot (me).
Thankfully I had a quickdraw and I backed up the rewoven figure 8. That felt safer!

I had a friend die in the Dolomites on a via ferrata when he crossed a snow slope without traction and he slipped and went over a cliff. This after everyone else in the group crossed without traction too. He had probably at least 40 years of experience in the mountains.

David, I am curious what peak you were on? Not that it matters much...

It was Jones Mountain near Cottonwood Pass.

Wow, that's horrible to actually lose a friend to such an incident. Maybe some of the stories shared in this thread will be remembered by folks the next time they're in such a position and hopefully some ER visits (or worse) will be avoided.

[Ssgustafson]

Thanks for sharing, David. I'm so glad your injuries weren't more severe! Your recap is a good reminder to all of us who at one time - or multiple times - have opted for expedience over prudence.

[JQDivide]

Thanks for sharing.
Good reminder to take and use the proper gear.

Glad you made it out with only a very minor injury.

Joel

[Boggy B]

Yikes, no - maybe the popular MSR snowshoes and other such ones are just not up to snuff with what you have - or possibly I just never learned proper technique but I discovered very early on that the crampons on the bottom of snowshoes just don't cut it for really steep slopes - and especially not side-hilling. More than once I've had snowshoes turn into an impromptu pair of skis, despite the many built in crampons. During this particular incident I had been wearing MSR Lightning Ascent snowshoes with the ascents flipped up but couldn't make any headway at all up the slope in question.

For sure, some snowshoes sidehill better than others, and the ones without side rails or lateral crampons don't sidehill at all. Snowshoes with a rigid frame and hinged binding (most MSR) have next to zero lateral flex so they're going to sidehill poorly. That's another thing Atlas got right with the torsion binding. Regardless, sidehilling or descending firm snow all snowshoes turn to skis anyway once the slope angle exceeds like 20 degrees, but if they have a good toe crampon you can just angle into the slope and keep going. With the right snowshoes you should be able to securely climb and descend steeper snow than you care to.

On the Lightning Ascents it looks like the front crampon is positioned pretty far back, so in firm, steep snow the toe of your boot is going to make first contact and prevent the front points from engaging at all. I assume that design is intentional based on the majority of terrain they'd cover--if they put those rigid points in front of your toe then it's going to be a real pain to walk on flat, hard surfaces like ultra packed trails since it moves the fulcrum forward from the ball of your foot. So I'm not recommending to switch snowshoes; if the pros outweigh the cons then it makes sense to just carry microspikes for these scenarios.