Sunday, May 20, 2012

Too Much Gear, Too Little Skill


What is with all the gear people haul about with them these days? Lately, I've seen people on simple snow climbs wearing helmets - whaddya think, the sky's gonna fall on ya?, carrying half a dozen pickets - useless in May snow, and really, learn to climb snow without them, hauling around a dozen carabiners, ice screws, snow flukes, slings, prussics, all manner of useless gear to kick steps up a 45 degree snow slope.

All these people have two things in common, their technical ability sucks, and they are trying to make up for their lack of skill with a surplus of equipment. Ninety percent of the time, the equipment is incorrectly employed, making them less rather than more safe, and, they either don't make their objective, or take so long to make their objective, that they increase their risk of being involved in an epic.

What to do? Dump the gear, pull back on the bigger objectives, get your skills honed and dialed, and go back to tackle the more technical routes when you can climb them safely and cleanly. 

A simple snow climb, an ice axe is all you need

No comments:

Post a Comment