Steep ground - The kit

The critical consideration is to be able to move securely over steep ground, quickly – on or off your skis, and to be able to improvise with confidence, the use of a rope, ice axe and crampons to ensure your safety. As always though, in the mountains, speed is safety; if you need to stop frequently to get out the rope and/or put on your crampons to secure your party then either the conditions are bad (and you should reconsider your route), your party is not up to the level of difficulty your route presents or perhaps you are being over-cautious and therefore run the risk of spending too much time on the mountain and are susceptible to other problems we’ve already discussed; being benighted, being exposed to changes in the weather, running out of energy, food, or water, and worse still, not arriving at the final powder descent while it’s still in good nick! This means you need a good understanding of your party’s abilities (and phobias) on steep ground!

The kit you need is:

• Slings and ropes: at the very least take a rope and a sling or two for connecting the rope to your anchors. Remember the ABCs of climbing A- anchor, B - belay, C – climber (i.e. skier in our case)
  · Anchor: whatever the choice of anchor, it must be strong enough to take the weight of whatever is tied to it! The different types of anchors you might use in snow are covering in the tricks section.
  · Belay: a belay introduces friction into your rope system and implies control of the rope. Climbing books talk a lot about direct and indirect belays; the difference is simple. For a direct belay, any weight that comes on the rope is directly transferred to the anchor. For an indirect belay, the rope is running through the belayer who is then attached to the anchor. Arguably a direct belay is easier to set up and allows the belayer freedom from the rope system i.e., if someone falls on the rope, the climber’s weight is pulling down on the anchor and not the belayer, so he can move more freely to deal with the situation.
  · Climber: the climber (or skier) who may be traversing, climbing up or being lowered down.
• Ice axe: either to drive into the snow for a quick anchor, for chopping back weak ice to get down to a solid ice surface that you put an ice screw in, or more simply for chopping a few steps in the track thus avoiding the use of the rope altogether. A truly light weight axe (such as the Cassin Ghost which weighs just 220g) will be of limited value for chopping into hard ice for cutting steps, or clearing the way for an ice screw for example, but it will still be useful for a boot axe belay and for self arresting when sliding down a snow slope. Remember you’re going ski touring, not ice climbing, so your choice of axe will largely be determined by weight.
• Crampons: lightweight touring crampons don’t bite well in hard ice but can be useful on steep, hard snow slopes and in boot steps. Depending on your route choice and the steepness of the terrain you anticipate, a compromise might be for only the leader to carry a pair so he can climb up/down icy sections and set up a rope for everyone else.
• Ice screws: carry a minimum 18cm screw that you can put in by hand.
• Shovel: which you will be carrying anyway as part of your avalanche kit is essential for digging down into deep snow to make a “bucket seat” belay.
• Harness: a must have for glacier travel, otherwise, if you don’t have a harness to tie in to, learn how to tie a bowline on a bight, over the shoulder. This makes a secure and excellent improvised chest harness.