Punching into crevasses: skis vs on foot

Hmm. I'm not sure that stream undercut bridges and crevasse bridges equate 100%, crevasse bridges have a lot of other factors at work. They aren't melting out nearly as much from below; in many cases they start to fail naturally because the snow bridge is actually being stretched out too far laterally, rather than being ablated and thinned. In that case it's a system under tension, where any piece of the system might fail under your weight and not necessarily the very thinnest part.

<br><br>No doubt this is to some extent true, but it's difficult for me to imagine that it makes much difference in real-world terms. How much tension operates in the average snowbridge? How much difference does the specific source of the (bridged) hollow space below make?<br><br>

Also, crevasse bridges tend to have a bunch of odd intermediate layers where you might only partially fail it.

<br><br>I'm not clear how the presence of intermediate layers might change the equation of skis = greater safety. <br><br>I also like Sky's analysis, probably because I already believed it true, although I'd not conceptualized it in terms of measurable downward acceleration. Back to that stream-crossing analogy: I've often had the experience of skiing across a thin bridge as it collapses under my skis. If I'm moving fast enough, I make it to the other side. A dull, plodding pace (my special talent) means I fall through.<br><br>Last, although there is no doubt that a heavily-weighted turn exerts more force on that achetypical snow bridge than a more subtle weight shift, it's hard to imagine a turn weighted so emphatically that it corresponded in pounds per square inch to the average plunge-stepper. That's why even big, gorilla-like skiers like myself float along with big grins on our faces, while descending climbers grimace and cuss and posthole all afternoon. <br><br>Of course, I'm willing to be proven otherwise on any or all of the above. <br><br>Enjoy,<br><br>Mark

I agree with much of this reasoning, seems we all have justified to ourselves in one way or the other that it is safer to be on skis. Without a doubt there is way less chance of falling through on skis. But then the tradeoff is that on the ascent (assuming you are roped) it may be harder to self-arrest if there is a problem, and on the descent it just isn't practical to ski roped. Or has anyone tried this? I, like Jason, have contemplated "belay skiing," but that I would do only with a belay anchor, and that would get tedious if you had to do it more than once. Plus you never know if you are belaying from atop a snowbridge...<br><br>Speaking of belay-skiing, do any of you guys set up a belay anchor for doing ski cuts on avy slopes?

I've down skied roped up on a glacier in the alps. Very interesting experience - 4 on a 50M rope. Takes discipline on everyones part. First persons leads doing tight controlled turns, followers try to stay in the same track and be alert for the need to speed up or slow down. Last person has the hardest task, due to the "crack the wipe" factor. Helps if everyone is a good skier..... This was on lower angle glacier, doesn't apply to terrain where you feel the need to set a anchor due to steepness. I would want only 2 on the rope in those conditions.

I've heard of people ski cutting a slope roped though not as much here in washington. This isn't a technique I have used, but have definately wanted to in the past. Now that I have my nice 20 meter rope, I'll be using it more often, especially when I have even a remote avi concern. <br><br>Back to our other subject though. I have something to add that is nothing more than an observation and a call for an opinion. I was looking at a UK skiing website and they were talking on and on about crevasses and how 'we' are crazy to be skiing on top of snowbridges. I say 'we' because they used some photos of myself and brother as examples. Here is the picture they used, which they considered insane. I'm interested in what the general BC skier thinks here:<br><br> <br><br>

To Jason_H, I like this photo best:<br><br>

Getting off topic, but I really like this one of Josh <br>