Winter skills 3.5: climbing technique on grade I-II climbs

Expert tips for winter climbing. Climbing technique on Grade I-II climbs:
Maintain a relaxed, balanced stance
Don't over-stretch
Hands and feet in "Lazy X" layout
Make use of scoops to rest calf muscles
Knees flexed, feet horizontal
Rhythm: Axe, step, step, "platform"
This is one of a series of instructional films produced exclusively for BMC TV in association with AMI (the Association of Mountaineering Instructors), Lowe Alpine and DMM.
WATCH: 32 winter skills films in our playlist: • #MakeWinterCount - lea...
www.ami.org.uk/
lowealpine.com/
dmmclimbing.com/
#iceclimbing #mountaineering
We're the BMC. Climb walls, rocks, hills, ice or mountains? Join us. www.thebmc.co....

[@vasocreta]

solid instruction. I am happy to see that you covered a good range of points such as weight distribution, mindfulnes of your points of contact and concepts for visualizing how things should feel. Good stuff.

[@jmcdowall15]

I really like these tutorial videos. Great information and very clear.

[@MANAVENTURES]

just what I have been looking for. great video mate. thanks.

[@1981stonemonkey]

In moving the axe in that angle terrain I grip it with my hand over the top so in case of a slip turning into a slide I can more easily perform a textbook ice axe arrest by immediately throwing some upper body weight on top (see video 2.5...!). Grabbing the shaft like that compromises the ability to arrest immediately.

[@jmcdowall15]

Great advice, and someone who had to self arrest from a slip on CMD arete, I totally agree you. You should always know how to and be ready to self arrest, it can save your life. However, in this video the person is being belayed. So, even though a self arrest would probably help the belayer a lot, I'm sure the rope and belayer they're tethered to would be sufficient. 🙂

[@Foxyfreedom]

Great tips!

[@Edq51]

Perfect snow

[@charliepeebles2531]

Yes and we don't get much of that in the British mountains any more.

[@leonsimpkin]

What climb is this?

[@mikemike9747]

horizontal front points? and what kind of boot/how flexible is it?

[@Weathernerd27]

What do you do if the day is warm and the snow is softening. I was climbing an ice courilor in the Olympic mountains and despite a forecast high of only 37 F, 3C the snow was softening rapidly and I had to turn around about 500 feet below the summit because no matter how hard I kicked the crampons wouldn't bite.

[@Ryan_hey]

If the snow is too soft, then you don't want to go up. This usually means the snow layers are too weak and, depending on the snow pack, could have the potential of wet sliding. The only way around it is to go earlier in the day when the pack is much more firm. This is good guide books will give sun hit info on routes (when the a given route/line/aspect receives first direct sun light), such as sunrise or sunrise + 3 hours; it depends on the conditions, but you might decide that you don't want to be out 1 hour later than the sun hit, for example. If you have summer glaciers and snow fields, then those can be much easier to navigate because the entire snow pack on a route will feel like 1 large slab, minus the top few inches of the snow pack that are melty from the sun.

[@Ninjamonkey474]

Why one axe and not two?

[@willanderson445]

Are you using 10 or 12 point crampons

[@kjelldegroot5137]

12 spikes all the way mate

[@charliepeebles2531]

Doesn't really matter. 10 points are perfectly good for snow slopes up to at least Grade III.

[@phb6795]

Si Armand Charlet vous voyait !!!!!

[@jodibickham1142]

Toessss would be hurting