Fells fell flat - don't fall in the Blue Hills: crampon and ice axe practice
- Leaders
- Andrew Greenspon (B), Ben Pearre (A coC coS)
- Program
- Winter School
- Type
- Hiking
- Terrain level
- A
- Trip date
- Saturday, January 15th, 2022
- Difficulty rating
- Easy
- Prerequisites
- Can comfortably walk 5 miles on trails.
We will carpool to Blue Hills (about a half-hour drive from MIT). We will hike for a couple of hours and try to find a frozen river where we can practice with crampons and ice axes. Given the expected conditions (no significant snow; good ice if we're lucky) the skill we're most likely to be able to practice is self-arrest (how to avoid sliding to your death) after a fall on a slippery slope. And staying warm while standing around watching other people sliding around on frozen rivers.
Hoping for a variety of conditions and thermal needs: hiking, standing still, sliding on ice... so a good chance to test clothes and strategies.
As conditions permit, we may also practice running our stoves, heating our water, cooking things that require boiling water. Tea, hot chocolate, dehydrated meals, third-wave anaerobic-process artisinally hand-ground coffee, whatever, limited only by your imagination and how much you want to carry!
Signup
- Algorithm
- first-come, first-serve
- Maximum participants
- 8
- Signups opened at
- Jan. 12, 2022, noon
- Signups closed at
- Jan. 13, 2022, 11:59 p.m.
- Notes
- Have you used crampons or other traction before? Describe briefly.
- How about an ice axe? Have you tried self-arrest? In anger?
- What's your favourite hot drink?