Punching into crevasses: skis vs on foot

Wolfs - is what you're, in essence, whether it is really PSI that matters on wide bridges, or simply total weight? In other words, are most failures on such bridges of the posthole nature, or are they total bridge collapses?

Wolfs - is what you're, in essence, whether it is really PSI that matters on wide bridges, or simply total weight? In other words, are most failures on such bridges of the posthole nature, or are they total bridge collapses?

<br><br>From experience, i can't say which in particular (collapse or punch through) is more prevelant but I can say I've experienced both. One nugget of advice that I'd like to pass on is this: don't stand 2ft behind your partner. In other words, leave some room. It makes a difference, even if it's only 10 feet. Of course if you were on a rope this wouldn't really apply (I assume the rope is tight), in these cases I wasn't. I just think its a good policy even if the best policy is to be a smart climber. The thing is, we're not always as smart as we would like to think. Avi wise it's not a bad idea either. You just never know...<br>

Yes, Sky's math analysis is common sense for the decent....I was assuming this was for ascent!!!! Going up, you are not traveling fast. So this is more of a concern to me.....Why would you walk/climb on glaciers up a worthy ski peak to walk/climb down? To me thats just not logical...Ski fast and try to work some style into those turns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wolfs - is what you're, in essence, whether it is really PSI that matters on wide bridges, or simply total weight? In other words, are most failures on such bridges of the posthole nature, or are they total bridge collapses?

<br><br>That was sort of the gist of my original question. I think it's pretty obvious that being on skis rather than on foot will prevent a lot of falls into stream hollows etc. or in at least some crevasse crossings where what matters is how much weight is put on a section of snow that happens to be the thinnest, and how much surface area that's spanned over. The 'superstition' part is whether that evidence is enough to convince you that 100% of all possible scenarios where a crevasse is bridged with snow are going to be better while you're on skis, better enough to convince you that maybe if you're on skis you don't need to rope up. The exact physics of how some unseeable crevasse crossing happened to fail will be academic to you at the point where you find yourself wedged head down 50 feet deep in the freezer, you just don't want it to happen period.<br>As far as the down part - skiing glaciers roped is so undesirable that I didn't really consider it to be part of the scope of my original question. You either ski the damn thing or you don't, or at least you limit being roped to a small percentage of the descent that seems the worst. Otherwise the whole idea of skiing it is a bust. (I agree though with something that Amar said in the original TR thread that got this rolling - he mentioned that he skied the Inter alright after the incident, but wore his harness. Read the related accident report on cascadeclimbers for why this simple precaution might make all the difference in the world if you DO punch in, so long as you're still findable and alive.)<br>I was originally thinking mostly of 'up'. The 'down' analysis that Sky started in on is relevant too, in that it's something to think about as you cross all the known bridged points.<br>Also: I hope to god that we ARE crazier than the Brits, at least when it comes to skiing. I mean come on, this is the country that produced "Eddie the Eagle"...<br>Maybe for an upcoming TAY gathering, we could have the more adventurous adjunct of our virtual group go down to the lower Coleman or something, and build up a whole series of linked kickers on the edge of crevasses, and mark em up nice with spotting dye and flags and maybe buff up the landing zones a little. It'll be like a backcountry terrain park. Some of us approaching-the-crest-of-the-hill folks might even venture to pop one or two of those if they are nicely prepped

sounds like Sky is rubbing off on some with the use of the word nugget