Arresting with a Whippet

I like them cause i can stick in the hard snow when taking a photo on the descent

I've never had to use to arrest and don't think they'd work really well but better than nothing. I like them for sticking in and looking around before turning and veggie belay's are my fav w/'em .

I prefer arresting a Muppet.

I had a whippet 2 weeks ago on Eldorado when I had a slide above the boulder field.  With a full pack and momentum, there was no chance to arrest.  Even with an axe it would have been nearly impossible.  I use a whippet as others have mentioned, more for uphill climbing security or to stop a minor slip.  I'm not a big believer on being able to count on executing self arrest successfully with an axe.  I think of it more of a last ditch tactic.  It's more important to prevent a slide from happening in the first place. 

Yup.   Lurkers out there who have arrested a slide on firm snow or ice while wearing a 35+ lb pack, please report how you did it. samthaman, can you provide details on snow conditions, slope steepness, and how your friend arrested with a whippet or axe?

Exactly 10 years ago in 1998, I watched a friend self arrest after a horrifying fall down the North Couloir off the Dana Plateau in California.

I had just enjoyed a fantastic ski down said couloir and was enjoying the view back up with a group of other skiers who had skied the couloir next to ours.  Everyone was estatic; there was electricity in the air; it was a beautiful day...Sean moves off the left side of the rim of the couloir and traverses onto the steep face and preps for the first turn when - unbelievably his tail washes out, starts a backwards fall down the fall line and starts a slow, inevitable and unstoppable end-over-end roll.

It was aweful.  The group of 7 of us groaned with each successive end-over, all of us emploring "self arrest!" each time Sean's head found up rather than down, the imploring getting more intense as Sean gained speed and momentum.

Then, miraculously, about a 100 feet into his fall, at the apex of another head-long roll, his head remained upright and the wave of following snow (it was early May corn season so a loose, dense affair) washed around him down the couloir.

He had arrested on his Whippet.

***

I own a whippet today.  I used it last weekend. 

I foolishy tried to cross Eldorado Creek in Eldorado Canyon, the usual shortcut to the West Ridge Wall, while we were still enjoying spring run-off.  Idiot. 

About half way across I'm crouched in a half back position, leaning forward into the current on my whippet, battling thigh-deep water, trying to walk in a boulder field full of babies heads.  I see the deep current of the true channel a step away.  It looks mean.  I think I can cross.  I go for it - pull the whippet out of the water, step across the deep channel, and get knocked right off my feet. 

Downstream 25 feet is a 15 foot waterfall leading to a waterboard 10 to 15 feet deep with churning white water.  I could very well drown.

I am instantly in the now.

My heavily laiden pack (thank god I brought my rack) gives me more mass and I sink instantly like a stone. 

I still have my whippet in my hand.

When I hit bottom, my arms are forward and my hands crash into the rocks.

I stab out and catch a big rock on the river bottom and am momentarily anchored.  The current rages around me.

I sense an eddy to my right and push off the bottom with my legs and shoot into the eddy behind a shoal near the right bank.

I am now soaked, my horrified partners stand agape on the far shore, certain they were witness to my demise.

***

Come to think of it, I should buy that damn whippet a beer.
   

Dang MW88888888, that is a very convincing experience, told extremely well. I'm looking more into whippets as I write this...

I hope that those who are seriously interested in using a whippet or an ice axe would do some training.   I had mountaineering training where we practiced the roughly four ways to fall:

- Head first , face up ( this one is really terrible when wearing skis and carrying a backpack.)  I feel like a turtle on my back.

- Head first, face down.  ... a real face shot.

- Feet first face up.

- Feet first face down.

Even the most serious climbers will practice diving off the slope with their axe,  because..... you have so little time to react.  It has to be automatic, fast, and good.  When you are bouncing around and getting your face shoved onto the ice and snow, your mind can get overwelmed.  By about the count of 2, you can become a ballistic object.   

When you get past the count of two, and haven't arrested yet, you've got to skillfully use your feet to help arrest.  The use of feet along with the arresting tool takes practice.... and you are never good enough.

I guess my point is that if someone has been unsuccessful in self arrest, it may be the result of a slow response because of no traing or forgetting the experience. 

A couple of years ago, my brother proudly showed me his new ice axe... very sexy next to my old heavy REI green handle model.  So, I hauled him up to Pan Point and showed him how to use it.  It made me feel better.

We don't usually think of skiing in risky situations, but it does happen.  A whippet, used while skiing would be better than nothing if you can avoid those "sucking chest wounds".