Chapter 10

Glacier and Snow Travel

Snow climbing, glacier travel, and ice climbing all differ from one another, but one common element distinguishes them from hiking, rock scrambling, and fifth-class rock climbing—the use of the tools.

We use ice axes, ice hammers, and crampons, which at first seem like necessary implements to make handholds and footholds for ourselves, but these tools have greater impact than that. In particular the ice axe and ice hammer fundamentally change how we approach this terrain because we can embed the pick or the shaft into the snow or ice to give us another means of fall protection. Indeed, the primary function of the ice axe when on snow and glaciers is fall protection. On flat glaciers we carry ice axes to arrest crevasse falls, while in snow climbing we use them for fall protection/self-arrest, before we deploy the rope to the same ends.

Crampons function differently. We use them not exactly as fall protection, but rather to create footholds virtually anywhere we want. Readily available and well-positioned footholds facilitate repetition in our climbing. We adapt our footwork when hiking, scrambling, or climbing fifth-class rock, changing the length of our stride, varying it from side to side, etc. With crampons, we can generally keep our stride more consistent, allowing for better pacing and easier movement, making this form of climbing more efficient and less strenuous.

Ice axes and crampons fundamentally impact how we approach climbing—our physical movement, our psychological approach, and our technical systems. Consider for a moment just the additional weight of the tools, crampons, our boots, and our extra clothing in the alpine environment. Unless we are actively and consciously taking advantage of this gear, upward progress can become tedious, tiresome, and plain hard!

A rock climber with no experience on glaciers or snow might consider her rope system as the first line of defense against falling, when in fact her ice tools are. Failing to recognize the advantages her tools offer and foregoing the predictable, rhythmic footholds only her crampons can provide, ice and snow climbing suddenly becomes exponentially harder than it need be.

Crampons allow a climber to kick a steady, relaxed line up a slope. Compare this to hopping between boulders in a talus field or connecting awkwardly placed footholds on a rock climb, and you’ll see why snow and ice movement can be more efficient and easier. The climber’s ice axe also belays each of his movements, giving him reliable security on steep snow.

Snow

Snow climbing is more related to second-, third-, and maybe easy fourth-class climbing on rock than it is to fifth-class climbing. Occasionally we’ll pitch out steeper sections on snow, but it’s relatively rare. Even when we do use that system, the ice axe functions as our main fall protection.

Short-Roping

Of course, if you are climbing with someone new to the sport or guiding, you may want to use the rope to protect them if you feel they’re incapable of self-arresting. For the guide this is where short-roping can be effective. For the recreational leader short-roping can be used, but it will require training and practice on the part of the leader and only one, perhaps two, less-experienced climbers behind the leader.

Short-Roping: Limits

Short-roping can be a quick, efficient, and safer means of moving a party over moderate terrain, but it needs to be kept in context. By shortening the rope and offering a moving belay to a less-experienced climber or climbers, we offer insurance from a slip becoming a fall—no more. If a slip could mean immediately weighting the rope with full body weight, then short-roping becomes ineffective.

The guide or leader uses tension on the rope, her eyes, and/or her ears to sense when a climber has slipped. She’ll then have a moment, relying on her solid stance and rope tension, to pull the climber back into balance, preventing a fall. If the terrain or the guide’s ability don’t allow for this, then short-roping is not an effective risk-management strategy.

The Risk of “Rope Teams”

An overused technique, in our opinion, is having three, four, or even five climbers on a rope 20 to 30 feet apart on a snow slope. Climbers imagine if one person falls, the others can self-arrest and stop the fall. This might be useful if the entire team is good at self-arrest, but the leader doesn’t feel comfortable trusting everyone with self-arrest individually. If the group is not truly competent with self-arrest, there is a good chance a fall will pull everyone off. Stack multiple rope teams on a slope, and you have a recipe for one team to “floss” everyone off, causing a catastrophe.

So if a group were quite competent and well practiced and tested in self-arrest, using the team-arrest system would be a good hedge, but to be clear—it is at the expense of risking the whole party falling off the mountain. This hazard should not be underestimated—by roping together, each team member is now exposed to the risk of every other team member falling, multiplying the chances of an accident.

Pitching It Out

A party with too many climbers to short-rope, or a team unfamiliar with the technique, needs to consider upping its security by pitching it out. The team leader or guide at this point can quickly climb a pitch; set a belay with a picket, screw, or axe; and then belay his followers up, all of them tied in 7 to 10 feet apart at the end of the rope.

Guides do this frequently when the number of their guests exceeds the guide’s ability to short-rope safely. And as for tying in as a “team,” remember: Self-arrest is for a climber to stop himself, not another climber, and certainly not a group of climbers. Team arrest only works when multiple people can self-arrest to stop another person.

To Belay or Not to Belay

We mentioned a leader pitching out a section on which team self-arrest or short-roping doesn’t provide enough security. As the leader leads that pitch, though, does she take a belay? Obviously taking a belay offers some protection in the case of a fall, provided the leader places some gear (a screw, picket, or deadman) during the pitch. A belay, though, can also slow the leader down, especially with an inexperienced belayer. In rare cases an inattentive or inexpert belay has caused a fall, too, when the leader was abruptly stopped because the belayer couldn’t feed rope quickly enough. Consider the pros and cons and make a conscious choice whether or not to take a belay on easy terrain, where an experienced climber can self-arrest.

Relying on Self-Arrest (in Lieu of a Belay)

Climbing snow un-roped is fast, fun, and efficient, but if you’re relying on self-arrest, you need to be prepared. It may seem simple, but you need to have your ice axe in your hand, in the correct position. You need to be thinking about self-arrest; it needs to be in the forefront of your thoughts. In short, do not be complacent.

If you’re leading less-experienced climbers on a snow slope on which more skilled climbers would be un-roped, you should probably feel comfortable not taking a belay. Self-arrest is a reasonable and proper technique, so in the event you forego a belay (see sidebar), relying on your self-arrest skills is a fine tactic if the conditions and terrain warrant it.

Let’s imagine you’re pitching out a long, moderate (for you) snow slope. Because you feel dialed and comfortable, you leave your climbers at a stance and run the rope out a full length. Once you near the end of the rope out, you can either use a picket or your ice axe as an anchor (or a screw if there’s glacial ice exposed in places). What you use depends on how much force you expect and the quality of the snow.

Snow Anchors

Snow anchors require special attention when choosing one and building it. Here are three things to consider when deciding what type of anchor to use based on the forces you expect:

1. The number of people you will be belaying.
2. The angle of the slope.
3. The “slipperiness” of the snow. Hardness mainly determines how slippery the snow surface will be, but roughness and dirt can both add friction.

Snow hardness not only suggests how slippery the snow surface will be, but it also indicates how strong a picket or axe anchor will be. Usually depth creates strength in an anchor; that is, how deeply you bury an axe or picket determines the anchor’s strength. Knowing this, it would make sense to just dig a T-slot-style anchor every time. T-slots take time, however, and can be overkill in certain situations.

To Slot or Not to Slot

Let’s run through this a bit. Let’s say you are on very hard snow and just finished leading a pitch—a T-slot might take quite a bit of time to build and you would have to chop vigorously. Of course, while you are doing that, you likely have a significant falling hazard. So now you have your axe in a position to chop, so getting into a self-arrest position becomes more difficult. While chopping, you are making fairly big, strenuous motions, and because the snow is hard, a slip will quickly accelerate into a fall that will probably be difficult to arrest.

If the leader is able to use a vertically placed picket or axe, the time and effort to build an anchor will be shorter, exposing her to the fall for a shorter period of time. She may still have to hammer or drive the picket in, but that will require less time and focus. Building a T-slot requires hitting at various angles and often from various positions. If the snow is softer, the amount of time will be reduced, the force you swing will be less, and due to the softness of the snow, a fall won’t accelerate as fast. Therefore, choosing the right anchor style means a balance between how strong it is and how much time and risk it takes to build.

The Mid-Clip Picket

Up until now we have been comparing pickets and ice axes either driven vertically with the attachment point at the top or a T-slot with the picket or axe oriented horizontally, with a midpoint attachment. The newer “mid-clip pickets” offer a substantial improvement over traditional models. Right now one company we’re aware of makes a picket with a wire attached to the midpoint—Yates.

To place a mid-clip picket, you pound it into the snow, estimating the appropriate uphill angle.

The climber helps seat the cable by scoring the snow with the pick of his axe—not the adze. We see people use the adze, but it produces a channel nearly as wide as the picket itself, which risks weakening the placement.

We believe the superiority of the mid-clip will eventually replace the top-clip picket in most cases. In essence, the mid-clip picket forms a vertical T-slot that relies somewhat on the surface strength, but it does so much less than a top-clip picket. Attached to the middle, the cable pulls more evenly across the length of the picket, so it’s less likely to pivot and fail, but a few centimeters of melted snow on top affects the holding power much less than a top-clip. Another critical improvement is that as one loads the mid-clip picket and pulls it downslope, it tends to drive the picket deeper, improving its holding power. If you’re in the market for a picket or two, we strongly recommend the mid-clip model by Yates.

Angles and Such

A topic of much debate and discussion, let’s consider the angle at which we drive our anchors. We discuss ice screws in the chapter on ice, so for now let’s limit our thoughts to the most oft-employed snow anchor, the picket.

When driving a picket, we keep two factors in mind:

1. Without some kind of protractor, you’re estimating the angle at which you’re driving the picket.
2. The variability of snow makes holding power vary considerably.

While some fundamental rules of thumb exist, snow anchors are generally far more difficult to judge and assess than ice and rock anchors. We usually have a good idea about the snow and its strength (its holding power or “integrity”) because we’ve just climbed a pitch of it. Keep in mind, though, if you’ve just led a steep, shady pitch to a sunny ridgeline, snow quality may change dramatically in a few meters. A good rule, however, is that the harder and more slippery the snow, the stronger the anchor. The converse is true, as well: The softer the snow, the weaker the anchor.

Keep in mind, we’re lucky that usually on softer, weaker snow we’re getting better foot placements and more purchase with our axe(s). While our anchor is probably weaker, we’re probably less likely to fall, and if we do, accelerate more slowly. These considerations must be kept in mind, in addition to the skill of our followers, our own skill, and the probability of falling.

But the Angle?!

But enough talk—at what angle should you place a vertically placed picket? The top needs to be tilted back such that the load on the picket drives it deeper into the snow. If the top tilts too far back, however, it can get pulled downward so the picket then points downhill and fails out the bottom. If it tilts too far forward, the picket can pivot and pop out the top. In short, when placing a picket, try to put it at the angle at which it pulls against the most snow.

Things get complicated when the terrain changes abruptly within your pitch or descent—for example, when you are building a snow anchor on sloped or flat terrain to belay or anchor someone getting lowered or rappelling down a steep section. Another tricky situation would be someone climbing from vertical or overhanging terrain onto a flatter top-out. You might have already remarked, “This is usually the problem in a crevasse rescue.” Exactly!

In a crack rescue, we’re going from vertical to overhanging terrain (where the victim’s hanging in space) to much flatter terrain where we’ve arrested the fall. Often this is a sun-baked slope. Other less common situations exist, but no matter the details, in these cases a snow anchor that is robustly built, if not overbuilt, seems prudent. Remember, too, if we’re hauling in a rescue, our forces begin to increase on the anchor. In weak snow this demands careful construction to achieve a bomber anchor.

The Axe as Anchor

For snow climbing our main protection is the ice axe. If climbing ropeless isn’t realistic, pitching may be useful in protecting less-experienced seconds or when short sections of ice or steeper firm snow will be encountered and protection can be placed. In reality, on most snow slopes the old-school saying of “the leader must not fall” is still very relevant.

Pitching becomes much more useful on multiday climbs where the team has large packs. If you know there will be significant exposed snow climbing, the team may make the decision to adjust its packs so that one of them will be significantly lighter. This “lead” pack affords the leader the freedom of movement, making him better able to protect himself with the axe while climbing. It also makes building anchors more efficient and lowers the risk. The second or seconds can carry more equipment because they will be able to more or less just hike up the pitch. Cleaning snow anchors is far easier than building them, too. This strategy will be discussed again in the section on alpine ice, where it is even more important to employ.

Descending Snow

In our opinion, descending snow is best done on skis! That being said, there will be times when you will find yourself needing to go down a snow slope without those tools. Again, simply downclimbing without a rope is reasonable, but just as the rope is employed going up, it can be used in much the same way down.

For a team with one highly skilled member, or if the team is using the lead-pack strategy mentioned above, having him belay the team, then downclimb, can reduce the risk for the group. The belayed climbers tie in as they would on the way up, with one climber at the end of the rope, then one or two others on cow’s tails 10 or so feet apart. Of course, if the last climber falls while downclimbing, he is likely to pull the entire party off. Some suggest that once the team is down, the top climber unties, drops the rope, and downclimbs—in this way he doesn’t expose the others to a potential fall. Obviously, if the fear of pulling the party off is real, then maybe the top climber is overestimating his ability. In other words, if this is a concern, perhaps the terrain is too hard for the climber doing the downclimbing. That means another strategy needs to be employed.

Another option is the belayed, downclimbing members placing one or two pickets as protection for the top climber. If that level of protection is needed, however, it may be faster and more secure to rappel. Rappelling requires anchors that typically need to be left behind. So doing three rappels would mean leaving three ice axes and/or pickets. That is an option but may severely hamper progress farther down the mountain.

Fortunately, snow can be sculpted and is malleable, so anchors like the bollard can work. We can also bury things other than an axe or a picket; rocks can be used so long as their shape is such that a sling will stay on it. Of course, both of these have limitations—the bollard is time-consuming to build and rocks are not always available.

It’s a bit of “garage science,” but try to evaluate the snow’s integrity and build a bollard big enough to be secure. Undercut the rear portion of it to guard against the rope being lifted up and off.

A Little Luck in Alaska

by Howie Schwartz

Howie Schwartz Courtesy Howie Schwartz

Here’s an old adage: “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”

Technical skills do not replace good judgment in the mountains, but they may be helpful both to reduce risk and to respond effectively when things go awry. At any level of experience, some risk is unavoidable and bad things can happen. For those getting started in alpinism with relatively low levels of experience, some knowledge, awareness, and technical proficiency can be critical assets for survival and maximizing enjoyment of mountain endeavors. These same assets may sometimes get us into more trouble than we would like.

In my early 20s, I somehow got my first guiding job in the Wrangell–St. Elias National Park in Alaska, way before I knew much about how to guide. Before the start of the guiding season, I ventured one spring with two good friends to climb the highest peak in the Wrangell Mountains, Mount Blackburn. The North Ridge is a moderately technical Alaskan climb. We were exceedingly high in enthusiasm, middling in skills and knowledge, and fairly low in high-Alaskan mountain-climbing experience.

We skied our way up the massive glacier and onto the ridge. There we encountered a large transverse crevasse that barred our upward progress. We attempted to descend into the crevasse and climb up the other side, but the 30-foot overhanging wall above had faceted deeply and would not hold ice tools or screws, or even pickets.

It became apparent that we would have to either abandon our climb or risk a technical, 200-foot traverse on the east side of the ridge beneath a well-established and fully matured Alaskan-scale cornice. We knew we would be able to rappel the crevasse on the descent so we would not have to traverse under the cornice twice. The cornice overhung the slope we were on by more than 50 feet for most of the way. To this day, it is the spookiest place I have ever climbed. It took us over an hour to get completely across and back up to the ridgetop. I am still not fully sure what compelled us to take that glaring risk.

The climbing continued from there in spectacular form with beautiful alpine ice pitches in a grand Alaskan panorama. We used our developing skills to get ourselves high onto the mountain, where we were met by a storm. We spent an unplanned six days in a deteriorating and malfunctioning tent pitched wonkily inside a crevasse. We ran out of food and lost some important gear in high winds during a failed attempt to descend—a pack, part of the stove, and a sleeping bag. We learned a lot about how to go ultralight after that. Our collective general mountaineering skills and jovial spirit enabled us to survive, and even laugh about the situation a bit.

When the weather finally cleared, we were able to descend. The temperature was −40 degrees on a windless day and the lower ridge had accumulated 10 feet of fresh snow. We found ourselves descending through waist-deep snow across a narrowing ridge above the freshly loaded cornice on the right and a dangerous avalanche slope on the left. We decided to stretch out a 50m rope and travel with one person on each end and one in the middle—an unconventional and low-confidence plan. If one person fell off of the ridge in either direction, maybe at least one of the others could manage to jump the opposite way.

Two of us had just arrived safely at the belay on top of the crevasse where we would rappel when suddenly we felt the mountain quake violently. We could not see what had happened from our position. I went up to get a look and saw the unforgettable sight of a ridge missing a 50-foot-wide-by-70-foot-long section of snow, broken right at the edge of our track, with our rope descending into the abyss. Somehow, our third had taken a 70-foot swinging bungee jump alongside hundreds of tons of snow and ice, triggering a size 4 avalanche that traveled 6 miles. He had little more than a scratch and some soiled trousers to show for it.

Our improvised, last-ditch plan had somehow worked! Our pilot arrived to pick us up just in time to see one of us free-dangling off the ridgeline. Using practiced technical skills, we were able to successfully self-rescue, getting everyone back up to the ridge and down to our pickup location.

Close calls, near misses, and accidents can be fortunate or unfortunate opportunities to identify areas of expertise and judgment that we may be lacking in our mountain pursuits. This experience led me to very actively seek out more knowledge, mentors, training, and new experiences that would help me to better manage my risk and the risk of others, both personally and professionally. As a result, I became one of the first twenty American IFMGA Mountain Guides and an active member the AMGA Instructor Team.

Though technical proficiency cannot replace judgment, it might reduce the potential for, or the extent of, a bad situation as we aspire to grow from our mountain experiences.

—Howie Schwartz owns Sierra Mountain Guides in Bishop, California, where he lives with his wife, Karen, and son, Cosmo.

The Self-Cleaning Rap Anchor

One method not often used, but worth knowing, is the self-cleaning anchor. Few people know the technique and most climbers opt to downclimb, as rap anchors in snow present problems—the bollard can be time-consuming to build and rocks are sometimes hard to come by. The self-cleaning anchor, however, can be a better option than a sketchy downclimb, so practicing it a couple times is worth the effort.

To construct the self-cleaning anchor, we tie a short length of cord to the bottom of a vertical picket or axe, drive it vertically, then place another picket or axe in front of it horizontally. The rappel anchor is the top of the vertical piece. The two pieces are attached to each other at their tops via a shoulder-length sling. The idea is that after the rappel, a climber pulls down the side of the rope (more on this below) attached to a short length of cord (tied to the bottom of the vertically oriented tool). This ends up launching the vertical tool upward, pulling the horizontal piece out of its slot, and the whole anchor slides down the slope.

There are a number of ways to set this system up. With a single rope, you put the mid-mark at the anchor, then on the side you pull, tie a bight knot, and connect the cord to it. When rapping on two ropes joined with a junction knot, attach the cord to the rope you will pull. Lastly, you could use a pull cord with the rope attached to the anchor and the pull cord attached to the bottom of the vertical picket or tool.

The releasable anchor system works well, but the anchor can get stuck if it isn’t built right or if an ice axe is used. There are times when the pick(s) will embed as the anchor slides down, in effect self-arresting, and because the cord is attached to the bottom of the axe, it won’t dislodge. To avoid this you should use a picket or remove the pick of your axe and/or hammer if you can.

Although we use the term rappel, the climbers might find that just walking down using the rope as a hand line is more than enough to reduce the risk of a fall and speed up the descent. If the rope does get stuck because the anchor was built incorrectly, or a tool pick gets caught, going up is pretty simple so long as you have at least one axe with you. Since you can climb protecting yourself with the axe, you can always re-ascend, reset the anchor, and try again. This is one of the few applications in which the pull cord is ideal. If you are practiced with the removable snow-anchor systems, it often can be faster and more secure than just downclimbing.

1. There are two main techniques for the self-cleaning anchor. The first involves joining two mid-clip pickets. You start by passing the end of a thin pull cord through one of the bottom holes on the picket and then out the top hole. Connect the pull cord to the top hole via a bowline. Putting the knot at the top of the picket prevents it from sticking when trying to remove it.

2. Hammer the picket in, as you would to place it normally. After it’s placed, slide it up and down in its hole; this helps with retrieval without significantly compromising the placement.

3. Place the second picket and clip its cable to the top of the vertically placed picket. Orient the second picket horizontally just downhill and in front of the vertically placed picket. The pull cord must exit the snow and run over the horizontally placed picket.

4. Attach the rappel rope to the cable of the vertically placed picket with a locking carabiner. Gently move the vertically placed picket up and down, verifying it will pull upward when the time comes. Now rappel, keeping the end of the pull cord with you. Once down, pull down hard on the cord to get the vertically placed axe to displace the anchor.

1. To construct the ice-axe retrievable anchor, attach a cordelette to the base of the tool. If the knot at the base seems to stick in the snow, you can also feed the cord through the base and tie the cord to the top (as you did with the vertically placed picket in the first photo on page 210).

2. Place the axe vertically with a picket placed horizontally and just downhill of the tool. Clip the picket’s cable to the top of the ice axe. Make sure the cordelette runs over the picket.

3. Feed the rappel rope around the shaft of the axe, with the middle mark on the axe. On either strand of the rope, tie a bight knot and clip the free end of the cordelette to a locking carabiner on it. After your rappel, you will pull the side of the rope with the bight knot on it, which pulls the cordelette down until it comes tight and pulls the ice axe out of the snow. This method is more prone to problems, as the pick of the axe can self-arrest in the snow, stranding your anchor above you.

Glaciers

Snow and ice make up what we know as a glacier. For this reason, the decisions you make in those two mediums are generally appropriate when on a glacier in similar conditions. What the glacier has that is unique, and this is particularly important for snow-covered glaciers, are the crevasses.

If you find that the glacier is steep and melted out to the point you are climbing on ice, the crevasses should be obvious. On a snow-covered glacier steep enough to be concerned with a slip and a fall, you also need to be concerned about the crevasses. This can make choosing a rope system—long for protection against a crevasse fall, or short to protect a less-experienced climber or even pitched out—particularly difficult and especially consequential.

Ironically, it is often moderately angled, melted-out glaciers that can be very scary. With ice exposed, you might be on a very small slope that if it had a good runout, you’d feel comfortable just walking across, but if a huge crevasse waits below, it can be extremely threatening. Imagine four climbers strung horizontally across the slope, with a bottomless crack just below them. One member falls, and he’ll probably take everyone in with him!

In short, with a snow-covered glacier you never know when you are exposed to crevasse fall; on an icy one you know all too well. For snowy glaciers steep enough (and/or with snow hard enough) to have a falling hazard, the crevasses are likely to be well bridged. Hard snow is usually strong snow. Nonetheless, there is still potential for a crevasse fall.

Bottom line, for glaciers you have to make an assessment: Are you more likely to fall down the glacier or into it? Once you answer that question, adjust your rope technique and climbing strategy accordingly. Long rope, short rope, pitched out? Make a careful decision and then execute it.

For all glaciers, route-finding is crucial; but for icy glaciers or steep, hard, snow-covered glaciers, it is often the primary risk-management tool. Since we have already covered how to protect ourselves from falling down a snow or ice slope, let’s start looking at glaciers from the point of view of just having a crevasse-fall hazard. We will then look at situations during which we have both.

A Stuck, Retrievable Rap Anchor on a Glacier

A stuck, retrievable anchor on a glacier presents a real problem. Whether it was built incorrectly or the pick of the ice axe gets stuck, ascending the rope requires some thought. We suggest the following system, as it protects against a crevasse fall.

The climber who will remain at the bottom of the rappel ties into the rope.

The climber going up attaches a Prusik to the rope and slides it up as she ascends. If she falls into a crevasse, she will come tight to the climber below via the Prusik. Remember, this protects her in the event of a crevasse fall but does next to nothing in protecting her from a sliding fall down the glacier. There’s a chance it might stop a slide, but she’ll be relying on a partially removed or a fully removed anchor and stuck ice axe as an anchor!

Glacier Route-Finding

Route-finding and terrain assessment present some of the hardest skills to master in the mountains. Teaching them in a book is an even greater challenge. We offer a couple points to help you start seeing the best line.

But what is the “best line”? On flat or low-angled glaciers where there is no falling hazard—only crevasse hazard—the best line avoids the most-crevassed sections. For steeper glaciers on which there is both a falling hazard and a crevasse-fall hazard, it means finding a route on which you can keep as direct (meaning straight up and down) a line as possible avoiding traverses, particularly those on steep terrain, above open crevasses.

Low-Angled Glaciers

Here are a few things to consider when navigating around crevasses on flat and low-angled glaciers:

1. Think of glaciers as flowing rivers and anywhere there could be turbulence, or “the river” speeds up, there is a higher likelihood of crevasses.
2. Turns on a glacier mean the ice on the inside of the turn is under compression and the ice on the outside is under tension. Depending on how sharp the turn is and the underlying bed surface, both edges can have crevasses—on the inside due to “turbulence” and on the outside due to tension or stretching. Oftentimes staying near the center may be your best option.
3. If two options exist when going around an obstacle (likely a crevasse but not always), try to pick the one that gives you the most flexibility. If one option tends to pin you to the edge versus moving toward the centerline, and both look equivalent, moving toward the center likely leaves you more options when you hit the next obstacle.
4. Utilize views whenever you can and, if possible, take a picture for reference. Once on the glacier your perspective may be limited and a picture may save you time.
5. Be decisive—sometimes you just have to pick a way. When two options around a crevasse/obstacle are possible and neither appears to have a greater chance of success, pick the one easiest to reverse and go find out if it works. Standing in one place agonizing over a choice that is unknowable only prolongs your ignorance. Often you’ll discover both would have worked and you just wasted time and mental energy.
6. Remember that the solution may be behind you. Reversing direction may seem like a huge waste of time, but indecision or forcing a solution rather than going back to try another option is the real time-waster. Going forward may feel more efficient, but going the right way is almost always the better solution. Error correct early.
7. There are unsolvable problems, particularly late in the season when bridges are melted out. Late-season glacier approaches may mean you don’t get to do the route you want, and descents may be far more serious if you can’t reverse the route you took to get there. Planning for alternatives is essential, and be careful to get good info if you are going to get yourself in a committed position.

Crevasse and Falling Hazard

Here are a few things to consider on steep glaciers that have both falling and crevasse hazard:

1. If it really is both steep enough to fall down and has crevasses, you will need to pitch it out.
2. Try to set yourselves up to climb straight up the fall line. Often you can get a good view of the steep section so you can line up with the straightest route.
3. Avoid traverses, particularly above crevasses, even if it seems to be more difficult to climb than traverse.
4. Anticipate crevasses when possible and try to make gradual diagonal pitches to get around obstacles rather than pinning yourself up against a crevasse and then traversing directly across.
5. If as a leader you do run into a hidden crevasse, consider reversing a bit and traversing around it so your seconds can take a more gradual line around it.
6. Even if it seems tedious, if you find yourself approaching a big crevasse with steep terrain above, anticipate the hazard and set a belay, then pitch it out. Trying to climb a short steep slope with a crevasse below while in traditional “long” glacier-travel mode is risky. On a short slope there will be no time to self-arrest, so pitching it out is the best option. Untying and soloing a short section may be safer than staying roped together, too, for a team of equally experienced climbers. If soloing, you need to be confident there are no hidden crevasses.

Roping Up for Traditional Glacier Travel

Roping up for glacier travel is unique in that we will not have an anchor to catch a fall. Up to this point we have advised you to resist the temptation to simul-climb in rock, snow, and ice, but on low-angled glaciers that is exactly what we will do.

It would be nice to have a reasonable alternative, but except for the rare circumstance, belaying is far too tedious for the distance we travel and the risk over that distance. Crossing thin or sketchy snow bridges makes an exception to this rule, but most of the time you’ll just be walking up a consistent, low-angled hill.

Even with awesome views, a long, low-angled glacier can be mind-numbingly monotonous. This monotony is the first thing you need to battle because a surprise bridge collapse or crevasse fall requires you to be reasonably ready to self-arrest to stop the fall. This is even more important in teams of two, when only one person can stop the fall. In parties of three or four, you have more ballast on the team to arrest the fall.

Crevasse Rescue

What low-angled glaciers lack in physical difficulty to climb or descend, they more than make up for in technical difficulty if a crevasse rescue is needed. Glaciers are often called easy hiking terrain—but that can quickly turn into the most difficult technical challenge that can occur in a typical climbing situation.

Many climbers consider rock self-rescue a technical challenge. Crevasse rescue may be shorter in that you usually only have to haul a victim 20 or so feet compared to descending two or three pitches of rock with an injured person. In crevasse rescue, however, you start from a point where you catch a fall without an anchored rope, and from that position you need to build an anchor and then perform the rescue.

Even to compare it to rock rescue is a stretch since rock rescue wouldn’t be considered a typical climbing situation. Although we use the term rescue, hauling or ascending out of a crevasse is not considered to be the result of an accident—it is simply the reaction to a fall. So although glacier travel is something nearly anybody can do easily, catching a crevasse fall and extricating someone from a crevasse requires a high standard of technical skill.

Why can a rope team usually stop a crevasse fall, but often has no chance of arresting a fall on a steep snow slope? Generally speaking, crevasse falls occur on low-angled terrain without a falling hazard. On a flat slope or on soft snow, the arresting climber(s) don’t risk sliding into the crack, so even if the climber(s) on top don’t self-arrest, just their body weight slumped in the snow helps to catch the falling climber.

Imagine a climber falling into a crevasse downhill of his teammates—if the falling climber pull another teammate off her feet and toward the crevasse and she starts sliding, it’s a far worse situation. Now the arresting climber(s) must stop a sliding fall and a crevasse fall—not good! This is why we must be cautious and lean toward pitching out anytime there is both crevasse and fall hazard on a glacier.

Luckily, though, the team usually has only to stop a crevasse fall. Arresting climbers are hopefully ready and can drop into a braced stance or self-arrest position. The bend of the rope going over and cutting into the lip of the crevasse aids the team through friction.

Knots and Friction

In a party of two we don’t have the ballast of several climbers dragging across the snow; we only have one person available to self-arrest and catch the fall. We do still have the 90-degree bend of the rope over the lip of the crevasse in our favor. The rope itself doesn’t significantly slow the fall, but if we can enhance its friction, it can make a huge difference.

Because the rope often cuts into the lip of the crevasse, knots on the rope can add substantial friction. Knots slow down the fall, helping the victim’s teammate to get into a solid position and catch the fall. Often the knots stop the fall entirely on their own, wedging in the slot cut by the rope at the lip of the crevasse.

Like many of our choices and solutions in alpinism, knots aren’t without their problems, though. Knots in a rope between you and your partner will cause drag as you walk on a glacier; this can be very noticeable in the right snow conditions.

A trickier problem, knots create difficulties when ascending the rope and when hauling. Ascending a rope with knots in it can be tedious, but if the knots form loops (alpine butterflies) and are spaced such that you can reach from one to the next, then you can effectively aid between them to ascend the rope. This means that you should be conscientious when placing them in the rope.

Alternatively, you can always “jump” your friction hitch or ascender over the knots, which makes for a tedious ascent. Doable, but a pain.

Passing knots while hauling, although possible, is practically unfeasible. It’s time-consuming and awkward, and if the victim has two or three knots in his end of the rope, it’s usually the second or third knot that catches. This means that when the rescuer begins hauling, she might get the rope started, but if the knot closest to the victim pulled through the lip of the crevasse during the fall, it will probably get stuck when trying to haul it upward.

Knots in the Rope . . . Then What?

Having knots in a rope means getting another strand or loop down to the climber in the crevasse. This at first may seem like a significant drawback to having knots, but in practice getting another strand or loop to the climber in the crevasse is often necessary even without knots.

When someone falls into a crevasse, it is likely that the rope will cut deeply into the lip. This means to ascend, the climber in the crevasse will have to surmount a significant overhang and to haul you’ll need to chop a substantial amount of the lip away, swinging your axe dangerously close to a tensioned rope. Because of this we feel the advantages of knots in the rope for a party of two greatly outweigh the negatives.

In a party of three, however, knots are less necessary due to the ballast on the surface. Even though we recommend still planning to get a separate strand or loop to the victim, the drag generated by knots may be enough to tip the balance away from using them.

One exception is when one person greatly outweighs the other two. This is something a guide with younger rope mates needs to consider. Even a recreational team with a significant weight discrepancy should strongly consider knots between climbers in a party of three.

Roping Up

To rope up properly you need to consider how you and your team will attach yourselves to the rope and how to organize the spacing between members. Because we will need to be prepared to get another strand or a loop down to the climber in the crevasse, the climbers on the ends must carry some rope. That means no one is attached to the ends of the rope.

The easiest way to do that is to tie a bight knot like an overhand, or a figure eight, and clip it into you harness with carabiners (more on what type below). Of course, we could tie in directly with a triple loop bowline or an overhand/figure eight on a bight follow-through, but those could cause some significant problems if we find ourselves needing to detach from a weighted rope.

Since there is no anchor in the system, we need to be as versatile as possible, and not being able to free ourselves from a weighted rope would be imprudent. We’ve seen some people use a clove hitch as their attachment point, the argument being the biners will get loaded in their strongest (long) axis. Fair enough, but consider that you will probably not be able to get the carabiner out of the clove hitch once you’ve arrested a fall. You can probably unclip it from your harness, but the carabiner(s) will probably be stuck—which could become serious if you’re short on gear, which we often are while traveling on a glacier.

Clipping In

We recommend a small overhand on a bight with two locking carabiners for the clip-in attachment on a glacier. You can also use a single, triple-action carabiner with a captured eye, like the BD GridLock Magnetron. The captured eye prevents cross-loading, and the triple-action gate ensures it won’t rattle open over the course of a long day.

Spacing and the Drop Loop

The roping-up process will differ depending on the number of people on the rope. By far the most difficult scenario is a party of two. With only two climbers, one person must hold the fall—a difficult feat in and of itself—but once the fall is held, that person must build an anchor, transfer the weight, possibly build a hauling system, and do the hauling. Because of this we will be setting up to use a drop-loop-style hauling system.

The drop loop adds efficiency by reducing the friction in the overall system. The drop loop is a 6:1 haul system that uses an anchored rope going down through a pulley/carabiner at the victim’s harness, then back up to the anchor where a 3:1 haul system is built.

When not moving, the climber is suspended on two strands and the friction on the lip removes forces on the anchor. Once the haul begins, only one side of the loop moves, meaning that only half the friction needs to be overcome while the other half of the friction continues to aid the anchor.

If we were hauling on a single strand, when the climber was suspended in the crevasse, all the friction over the lip would reduce the forces on the anchor. When we hauled, however, all that friction would have to be overcome by the hauler and much of that force would go into the anchor.

In short, the drop loop is efficient because half the friction stays on the anchor side of the equation, meaning not only less force to overcome by the hauler, but also less force on the anchor (because it’s being “assisted” by the remaining friction on the nonmoving half of the loop).

What the drop loop does require is the rescuer(s) having enough rope to reach the climber in the crevasse and come back up to the anchor. Remember, we’re dropping a loop, so there needs to be twice as much rope available to do the haul. If the distance to the victim is 25 feet, the rescuer needs at least 50 feet of rope to effect a drop-loop system.

Oddly, as you will see, this means a party of two needs a longer rope than a party of three, and a party of three needs a longer rope than a party of four. This fact means that for pure glacier travel, a party of two carries more rope, so the temptation to not use the drop loop is strong. Despite that, as we said above, in a two-person team one person has to stop the fall, build the anchor, and then haul. Having the drop loop as an option is, in our estimation, very important in a climbing area where there aren’t likely other climbers around to help. Think Asia and (most of) Alaska, rather than Chamonix and popular zones in the Cascades.

Because of the technical difficulty and the requisite knowledge required to pull off a haul of any type, many guides do not have their clients carry any rope. The idea is that if the guide falls in, the client wouldn’t be able to stop the fall, build an anchor, transfer the weight of the victim onto the anchor, approach the edge of the crevasse, and build a haul.

Given what we have seen on guide exams, this conclusion is not without merit. This isn’t an indictment of clients’ inabilities. No, we mention it to illustrate the difficulty of crevasse rescue, particularly in one-to-one situations. The warning: Do not take crevasse rescue lightly. This is difficult stuff!

If the guide is carrying all the rope, she can more easily perform a drop loop. As you will see, having enough rope to build a drop-loop system, particularly for a party of two climbers, can be a problem. If the guide does carry all the rope, she needs to only rely on her client to stop and hold the fall. She can then ascend the rope to climb out. Guides may also feel comfortable because on a busier glacier other guided groups may be nearby to help, and typically these other groups will have plenty of rope to effect a rescue (see the “Team C” on page 223).

Virtually all guides carry two ice screws when traveling on a glacier. In the event of the guide falling in a crack, she can perhaps reach the sidewall of the crevasse and can aid out. For the recreational climber, having at least one ice screw each is a good idea; that way you may be able to anchor yourself to the sidewall, making the building of the rescue easier for your partners since they wouldn’t have to hold your weight.

Two-Person Teams

For the two-person team, each climber will have to carry enough spare rope to reach to his partner and back. Simply put, if a distance of 40 feet is used between climbers, each climber will have to carry 80 feet of rope. This means a total length of 200 feet will be necessary. If we add knots, however, we will shorten the distance between the two climbers, hence requiring the climbers to carry less rope.

We suggest three butterfly knots for each climber, starting 6 feet from the climber, 3 feet apart from each other. This keeps the knots closest to the climbers, which reduces rope drag on the section of rope between them. We like butterfly knots because they have a pronounced lip and they jam better than most other knots when pulled into snow. Having them 6 feet away from the victim increases the chances of the knots arresting the fall. Experience shows the first knot often slows the fall and allows the second knot to wedge or “catch” in the groove cut by the rope.

If we want our climbers to be about 40 feet apart, we have to add enough rope to account for the knots. Each knot requires about 2 feet, so with six knots we need to start with about 50 feet between the climbers, which is reduced to 38 feet once the knots are tied, giving each climber 75 feet of rope to carry.

Three- and Four-Person Teams

For three-person teams you will need to break up your rope into quarters. In other words, each end person will carry enough rope to reach the middle person. So if there is 40 feet between each person, the end people will be carrying 40 feet each. Ironically a rope 160 feet long will suffice for a party of three, while the group of two needs a 200-foot rope.

With four-person teams all the rope can be used up. If you want to be closer together, split the extra rope between the end people. For instance, if you wanted to be 40 feet apart with four people, you would need to use 120 feet of rope; if you were using a 160-foot rope, each end person would carry 20 feet of rope. For a 200-foot rope, the end people carry 40 feet each.

Setting Up a Haul

Once someone falls into a crevasse, one method to extricate the victim is to haul him or her out. We will start with a three-person team. In a two-person team we follow the same process, but it’s more complicated because one person has to do all the work. In a four-person team the rescue is similar, except you have more people power.

The first thing you must do is stop the fall. The three climbers utilize the team-arrest technique. Once the team arrests the fall, the middle climber holds the victim using a solid self-arrest position while the third climber approaches the middle rescuer using her Prusik as a self-belay. The end climber then builds an anchor near the middle climber. After the third climber builds the anchor, the middle climber eases the victim’s weight onto the anchor’s masterpoint. The middle person then attaches another Prusik onto the rope between him and the end rescuer and attaches himself to it with a long sling, providing security for himself during the hauling.

The end rescuer can now go toward the edge of the crevasse protecting herself with her Prusik. Once there, she can check on the victim, clean the edge, pad it, uncoil the extra rope, extend her Prusik, and unclip from the rope, leaving only her extended Prusik as her attachment. She can now lower a loop down to the victim. It is important that she does not drop the end of the rope down the crevasse. At this point the victim can clip the loop into his harness with a locking carabiner.

The Haul

Now the rescuers are ready to set up the haul. First, a figure eight must be tied into the rope on which the rescuers have their Prusiks. This knot should be at least 15 to 20 feet away from the lip of the crevasse and in between the rescuers’ Prusiks. Now the end coming up from the crevasse can be passed through a pulley/ratchet system on the new knot. The pulley/ratchet system can be anything from devices like a Micro Traxion, Ropeman, Tibloc, a carabiner-and-ascender combination, or a carabiner-Prusik combination. Some climbers use an Alpine clutch or Garda hitch. The rescuers then pass the rope through another pulley or carabiner attached to a Prusik below the ratchet.

Here is a step-by-step process for the hauling scenario with a party of three:

1. The team arrests the fall.
2. The climber at the end of the rope approaches the middle climber, using his Prusik as a self-belay.
3. He builds an anchor near the middle climber.
4. He clips the anchor into the middle climber’s bight knot or into a clove hitch between himself and middle climber close to the middle climber’s bight knot. The middle climber now shifts his position toward the crevasse/victim to weight the anchor.
5. The middle climber places a Prusik onto the rope between himself and his fellow rescuer and clips into it with a long sling.
6. The end climber approaches the crevasse still using his Prusik as a self-belay, communicates with the victim, and preps and pads the edge. (If the victim requires immediate help, he rappels to the victim at this point.)
7. He secures the end of the rope he was carrying onto his harness and drops a loop to the victim, and has the victim clip the loop into his harness with a locking carabiner. The end climber extends his friction hitch and unclips from his bight knot and unties it.
8. Either rescuer ties a bight knot into the rope that has their safety Prusiks on it about 15 to 20 feet away from the edge and between their Prusiks.
9. Either rescuer feeds the end of the rope through a progress-capture pulley on the new knot.
10. The middle climber places a tractor Prusik on the rope below the progress-capture pulley.
11. He passes the end of the rope through a carabiner or pulley on the tractor.
12. Both rescuers can now haul.
13. The end climber resets the tractor, and the middle climber manages the ratchet.
14. As the original rope that caught the fall gets slack, the rescuers tie a large bight into it to shorten it, securing the victim should there be a malfunction in the haul.

1. Three-person drop loop. Playing with fire! The climber in orange got too close to the crack and now he’s gone inside. Because it’s a team of three, they do not have knots in the rope and arresting the fall is easier with two climbers on top.

2. The end climber approaches the middle climber, belaying himself in on his waist Prusik.

3. The end climber first clips the cable of mid-clip picket to the middle climber’s bight knot—not his belay loop. Once he’s done this, he places the picket so that the cable is as tensioned as possible.

4. The middle climber gradually shifts toward the crevasse to transfer the load to the picket. While he does this he maintains a braced stance in case the picket fails. The end climber places another anchor—either a picket or a T-trenched axe—behind the first picket. He attaches the second anchor to the carabiner on the first anchor via a trucker’s hitch. (The trucker’s hitch is on the blue cordelette in the photo series.) In this way the team creates an equalized two-point anchor. Note the middle climber stays in a braced stance until the two-point is finished and loaded.

5. The end climber (green helmet) self-belays to the lip of the crevasse on his waist Prusik. Before the middle climber (red helmet) unclips from his bight knot, he places a Prusik on the rope going to the end climber—he must do this with a double-length runner or an extension to a short Prusik to allow himself to stand upright.

6. The end climber assesses the victim and decides whether he’s rappelling to attach a drop loop to him or the victim can attach himself. In either case, he removes the stashed rope from his pack and connects the free end to himself so he can’t drop it in the crevasse. He unclips and unties his bight knot, and is now only secured by his Prusik. The rescuer drops a loop to the victim with a locking carabiner on the end of the loop.

7. The end climber comes back toward the anchor and extends his Prusik, and either rescuer ties a bight knot into the rope between their two Prusiks.

8. The rescuers hang a progress-capture pulley on the bight knot and put the rope into the pulley. There are now three strands of rope going into the crevasse. One is tensioned; this is the victim’s original strand on which the team arrested the fall. One strand has the bight knot the team built in step 8 (and in the previous photo). The third strand is where the team will place the tractor on the rope to create the 3:1. This will be a friction hitch or any rope-grab like a Tibloc. The rescuers pass the end of the rope through a carabiner on the tractor and begin hauling the victim.

Here is a step-by-step process for the hauling scenario with a party of two:

1. Arrest the fall.
2. Once the fall is arrested, if the team had knots in the rope (recommended) and if the rescuer has the weight of the victim on her, the rescuer should slowly creep a little toward the crevasse to see if a knot will catch. If she discovers a knot has already caught, or one catches as she moves toward the crevasse, she can reposition herself so the rope is taut. She must stay vigilant until she can build a bomber anchor, as a knot can pop and surprise a rescuer.
3. She builds a quick anchor and attaches it to her bight knot. In most summer snow, a Yates mid-clip picket usually works very well in this application.
4. The rescuer stays clipped into her bight knot, pulls out the extra rope, and attaches herself to it using a clove hitch. She can now unclip from the bight knot. Her new attachment (the clove hitch) extends her a bit so she can build a second anchor. Because the first anchor is a “quick” one, we want the rescuer to stay in the system and ready to take the weight of the victim (again) should the quick anchor begin to fail and the new clove hitch keeps her in the system.
5. Behind the quick anchor, she builds a more robust anchor (a T-slotted ice axe is common here).
6. Once the second anchor is built, she connects it to the locking biner on the quick anchor via a cordelette rigged with a trucker’s hitch. The locking biner from the quick anchor is already clipped into the bight knot that came off her harness.
7. The rescuer places a Prusik on her rope and clips into it with an extension, unclips her clove, and belays herself to the lip of the crevasse with the Prusik.
8. Once at the lip, she checks her partner, then preps and pads the edge. (If the victim requires immediate help, she rappels to the victim at this point.)
9. The rescuer pulls the extra rope from her pack (or drops Kiwi coils), secures the end of the rope to her harness, and drops a loop to the victim and has him clip the loop into his harness.
10. Fifteen to 20 feet from the lip of the crevasse, the rescuer ties a bight knot onto the rope her Prusik is on, between her Prusik and the anchor.
11. She passes the end of the rope through a progress-capture pulley on the bight knot she just tied.
12. She places a tractor Prusik on the rope below the ratchet.
13. She passes the end of the rope through a carabiner or pulley on the tractor.
14. She begins the haul.
15. As the original rope that caught the fall gets slack, large bight knots can be tied into it to shorten it, securing the victim should there be a malfunction in the haul.

Special Problems

Two main problems can occur with the drop-loop system:

1. The loop is not long enough to reach the victim.
2. The victim is incapable of clipping the loop into his harness.

In the first case, the simple solution is to add a sling to the bottom of the loop. This effectively lengthens the loop twice as much as the sling is long. Once the victim has been hauled up enough to have the loop reach, it is often useful to transfer his weight to the now-shortened rope he was originally caught with. This allows you to then lower the loop down to him. We strongly recommend doing this because it can be very difficult to get the extended sling over the lip.

The second problem—an unconscious or incapacitated victim unable to clip into the loop—probably means rappelling down to the victim. This is the preferred method if there are first-aid considerations.

When You Can’t Rappel

If for some reason rappelling won’t work, give this trick a try. Place a mechanical rope-grab onto the rope holding the victim so that it will slide down the rope. Connect the loop to the rope-grab and weight it (a stuff sack of snow works well) so it slides down to the victim’s waist. When you pull on the drop loop, the rope-grab will lock up and you are able to pull the victim out of the crevasse. This trick won’t work when the rope between the climbers is knotted, as is suggested in the two-person rigging, or if you can’t reach below the lip to attach the rope-grab.

Rescuing Another Party

This book is not going to cover outside team rescue in most instances, but the crevasse situation is so unique that a process by which one team can help another needs to be covered. Two groups of friends or guides working together, or a couple of rope teams from the same club, is quite common on a glacier. Beyond that, you may be on a popular climb with other parties nearby. Especially on well-traveled routes, the chances of coming upon another party after a crevasse fall are pretty high. Having a quick, effective system with which to help seems prudent.

The “Team C”

If you analyze the drop-loop system, you quickly see that the party arriving on the scene should be able to simply set up the drop-loop section (the “C,” hence the name) while the victim’s partners manage the belay on the victim’s rope. Here is a step-by-step process for a team crevasse rescue:

1. Once a climber falls into a crevasse, the team arrests the fall, but does not begin building an anchor.
2. The party nearby has one of their end climbers carefully approach the edge, preferably crawling the last 5 or 6 feet to the edge to check on the victim.
3. At this point the climber preps and pads the lip, puts a Prusik on her rope if one isn’t already there, takes out the extra rope, and clips the end to her belay loop with a locking carabiner.
4. The loop of rope is then lowered down to the victim and he clips it into his harness.
5. Now the rescuer unclips from her original bight-knot clip-in (not the new attachment from step 3), so she is only protected by the Prusik. Her team now starts to walk away from the crevasse, in effect hauling the victim up on a 2:1 system. This requires that she manages (releases) the Prusik so the rescuers can pull rope through it.
6. Once the rope that initially caught the victim gets loose, the climber at the lip frees it and puts it on the padded lip.
7. Now the victim’s partners stand up and start to walk away from the crevasse, hauling on a 1:1 system in addition to the other team’s 2:1.

During the haul the climber at the lip will feel a tug downward and could possibly get pulled into the crevasse. If that starts to happen, she should let go of the Prusik and that will stop the fall immediately. At first you’d expect the force to be significant on the climber at the lip, but if she takes a solid stance on one knee with a leg braced toward the crevasse, it is our experience in practice and in actual rescues that it is quite easy to hold the stance during the haul.

1. The team C. The team on the yellow rope arrests its teammate’s fall. The team on the orange rope sends one of its end climbers to the lip of the crevasse to assess the victim’s condition and set up the Team C.

2. The rescuer has approached the crevasse, placed a friction hitch on the rope (if he doesn’t already have one on), taken out his extra rope, and lowered a loop to the victim with a locking carabiner on it. Note that rather than clip into the end of the rope, the rescuer lowered just enough rope for the victim to clip in, and then tied a bight knot and clipped it to his harness. All this does is shorten the distance the team must walk before engaging the haul. The rescuer can now unclip his original bight knot from his harness—the one on which he’s been traveling on the glacier—and the team can begin the haul.

Self-Rescue/Ascending

After a fall, ascending out of the crevasse is a logical solution, but is more difficult than it may first appear. In the following discussion, we assume you’ve fallen into a crevasse while roped and you’re ascending the rope on which you were traveling.

Quick Systems for Ascension

In an un-roped crevasse fall, especially if the most experienced team member is the victim, his teammates will probably elect to build an anchor, fix the rescue rope to it, and simply drop the line to the victim. At that point the victim will ascend the rope, hopefully to a well-padded lip and a quick escape.

Several systems exist for this scenario, from the relatively simple involving a climbing rope and Prusiks to new-school hauling rigs like Petzl’s RAD (Rescue and Descent) System. Either approach involves building a solid anchor, then fixing the rope or system to that anchor, then throwing the free end to the victim in the hole. With the RAD System, partners on top haul the victim.

Particularly with the newer systems like the RAD, climbers and skiers should practice and test their skills before heading into the field. While lightweight and compact, these newer systems use thinner cords of different materials, which can be finicky once wet, frozen, or tangled. Practice up before relying on them.

In many cases it may be hard to touch one of the walls of the crevasse, so you will be free hanging. You’ll probably be wearing a pack, too, which can make it very difficult to stay upright. The other problem is getting over the lip of the crevasse if the rope has cut in substantially. Finally, the ascending needs to be done carefully and in a controlled manner, as you might not know what exactly you are anchored to. If you don’t ascend the rope smoothly, you may cause some real problems for your partner or partners, who may be trying to build an anchor and transfer your weight onto that anchor.

All the same, if you can begin to ascend the rope on which you’re hanging, you can shorten the haul your partner(s) will need to do or get over the lip before the haul can be set up. Ascending even a few feet might also prevent problems if your partner lacks the rope to complete a drop-loop haul. This is most likely in a party of two, so any help you can give your partner in that case will be valuable.

Organization

Having your system ready and organized is important. A well-designed and practiced system will smooth out your ascent. The best way to set up is to use two ascending tools, either Prusiks (or a friction hitch of your choice) or mechanical rope-grabs like a Tibloc, Ropeman, or Micro Traxion.

The traditional ascension rig attaches the higher hitch/device to your waist and the lower one to your foot. This works best when using a friction hitch like a Prusik.

If you are using one or more rope-grab devices, particularly one that runs smoothly up the rope like the Micro Traxion, you can clip it directly to your waist and then have a foot loop on a friction hitch or rope-grab above it.

Rigging the Rope-Grab

There are a number of rope-grabs out there and some may not be suitable when rigged at your waist. The one telltale sign is the cam should be spring-loaded; a passive device like the Tibloc is not appropriate at the waist. Check the manufacturer’s recommendations and do some research before using a rope-grab off your belay loop.

Speedy, Efficient Rope Ascension

First we’ll describe rigging a rope-grab device at your waist:

1. Once the fall has been arrested, place a locking biner and Micro Traxion, or similar device, on the rope a couple of inches above your tie-in or clip-in knot.
2. Set up a foot-loop friction hitch or rope-grab above that.
3. Place a foot-loop sling on the upper friction hitch or rope-grab. The length of this sling should be such that with the friction hitch or rope-grab at arm’s length away when hanging, your leg is bent at 90 degrees.
4. To get started, place the foot loop just high enough that you can gain about 6 inches or so. Stand on the foot loop and clip the locking carabiner on the Micro Traxion into your belay loop on your harness.
5. Weight the Micro Traxion. At this point you should have a small loop of rope between your Micro Traxion and your clip-in knot. Take your pack off and clip it into this loop.
6. You can now begin ascending, sliding the foot loop as high as is comfortable, then standing in it. When you stand, your Micro Traxion should automatically slide up and your pack will move up only half the distance you do (because it’s hanging on a loop).

Hanging your pack tensions the strand below your rope-grab. In this photo the climber’s pack hangs from the Magnetron carabiner by his hip. This makes the ascension smoother and easier. Philbrick Photography

The system described above has some real advantages and can be done very smoothly.

Nothing is perfect, though, and this ascension rig is no exception. While ascending, it is nice—even prudent—to clip into the rope every 10 feet, so if something goes wrong with your system, you won’t fall as far. If you do this with this system, you will remove the weight the pack puts on the rope—this weight helps to keep the rope tensioned so the Micro Traxion slides up on its own as you stand on the foot loop. One practice lap with this system, and you’ll quickly see how helpful the pack weight is. Also, instead of the pack moving up on a 2:1 system, it will be hanging below you, with you hauling it as you ascend.

We suggest ascending within 2 or 3 feet below the lip and clipping into the rope, then pulling your pack up and clipping it above your new clip-in but below the Micro Traxion. This is important due to the complexity of surmounting the lip. Until you get to the lip, the ascent should be straightforward and you shouldn’t have had to go very much past that 10-foot distance. Stopping just before the lip to set this up is also a good time to relax, slow down, and assess the strategy of the next section. The lip will not be easy!

Traditional Ascension Rig

If you don’t have a Micro Traxion or similar device, then using a traditional ascension rig is your next best choice. To use this system you’ll need to have a sling or cord set up in advance so that your top rope-grab or friction hitch is within a comfortable arm’s distance when you are hanging on it. Below that you need to set up a foot-loop friction hitch or rope-grab. The foot loop needs to be rigged so when hanging on the waist Prusik (or rope-grab) you can slide the foot-loop friction hitch (or rope-grab) up, to just below the one you’re hanging on. Your leg should be bent around 90 degrees.

With this system you can keep your pack on, but if you like you can clip it into your rope as you did in the first system. Of course if you do, you will have the same problem clipping into the rope from time to time to protect yourself from a malfunction. We would recommend, as we did with the Micro Traxion ascent, that you at least clip in just before the lip.

Prusik and Ascension Considerations

Often on a glacier we have suggested and will suggest that you protect yourself using a Prusik. We’ve mentioned doing this during the drop-loop rescue when the rescuer goes to check out the victim in the crevasse and in the three-person drop-loop scenario when the back rescuer moves up to build an anchor near the middle rescuer.

It would be tempting to use this Prusik (that is likely clipped short to your harness while traveling) as part of your ascent system. This would mean that the foot loop would be above the waist friction hitch. Why that doesn’t work well is that when you stand on the foot loop, the rope below it hangs loose. You then have to slide the waist Prusik up the rope—far more difficult on a loose rope than on a tensioned rope. With the foot loop below the waist hitch, the rope is under tension and the hitch slides up much more smoothly and easily.

In the event of a fall, if you have a friction hitch pre-rigged on the rope, it should be pretty easy to unclip it from your harness. (It should be set up such that the rope takes the fall, not your hitch.) If you are using the Micro Traxion system, the hitch can be slid up to create the foot loop. With the traditional method, it can be modified with a short extension to be either your waist Prusik or your foot loop. If in the classic system you have a rope grab that is not appropriate for the Micro Traxion system (like a Tibloc, for example), then it should be connected to your waist, making it quicker and easier to push up while you’re balanced on the foot loop.

Belaying across a Bridge—Teams of Two and Three

Crossing an obvious, sagging, spooky-looking bridge should put you on guard. Chances are you’ve already crossed some other sketchy bridges while roped and walking, but if you’re looking at an exposed bridge, that means much of the snow on either side has already collapsed—heads up!

Stay vigilant when on a glacier; it’s that simple. Stay especially vigilant if bridges are sagging and some have already fallen. It’s real-world feedback that bridges are suspect.

If you are ascending and reach a bridge, the leader is likely to be able to cross without a belay. Why? Mostly because of gravity: Her rope team is in a strong position to hold the fall, being lower and having gravity on its side. Once the leader is across, however, the last person to cross is in a far more perilous position. The team now has gravity working against it. In this case a belay maybe prudent for the last team member.

If the team is going downhill, the leader should get the belay. The rest of the team crosses with the security of having at least one person downhill and in a good position from which to stop a crevasse fall. Of course, when we are talking about ascending or descending, we are talking about terrain low-angled enough or covered with snow soft enough that no substantial sliding hazard exists.

Things become more complex when the glacier is essentially flat. For a party of three, all the situations are pretty straightforward, as we’ll see when we go through the transitions to belaying a bridge. In brief, parties of three have ballast that makes stopping most falls far easier.

A three-person team finds itself at a disadvantage, however, when two of the team are on steep terrain but the lead climber is below and falls into a crevasse. If one of the two climbers trying to stop the fall loses control, the remaining climber must now stop two victims—one in the crevasse and one sliding down the snow slope. Smart money isn’t on the lone climber at this point!

Generally speaking, though, a three-person team offers more security for crevasse falls and when crossing bridges.

The two-person team loses security without the extra ballast a third team member provides. Knowing this, when crossing bridges as a team of two, we’re far more likely to stop, set an anchor, and belay with a traditional system.

Recall, too, that teams of two usually have knots in the rope, which complicates belaying (and hauling). To some, knots complicate the belay enough that they consider not using them; however, we see it differently. Given the likelihood of crossing hidden bridges, the knots offer enough security that the benefits outweigh the inconvenience of managing them while belaying.

Belaying a Bridge in a Party of Three, Ascending

First let’s consider a party of three moving uphill, encountering a bridge, and belaying across. In this case the first and second climbers cross without a belay because of the advantage of their teammate(s) being downhill. The last climber will take a belay, though, because the first two climbers will be at risk of being pulled down and into the crack in the event of a fall. (We should mention here that if the steep terrain is significant in length, a transition to pitched climbing should be considered.)

1. When the last climber gets to the bridge, the leader and the second climber stop.
2. The leader takes a solid stance using his feet and/or incorporating a plunged ice axe.
3. The middle climber makes sure the rope to the leader is snug and takes a solid foot stance.
4. The middle climber puts the last climber on belay either by taking in the rope through a Prusik on her waist or using a belay device (or Munter).
5. When the last climber crosses the bridge, the leader and the middle climber begin moving forward. The middle climber simultaneously slides the Prusik along her rope until it comes tight to the third climber.
6. When there is no slack left, the third climber begins to move.

As you can see, we use the ballast of the two climbers as the anchor, making this very fast and efficient. If the bridge had collapsed, the middle climber could have held the fall quite easily with the assistance of the leader’s tight rope. Once the pair arrests the fall, the top (former lead) climber comes down to the middle climber, sliding his Prusik along the rope to keep slack out of the system—protecting himself and backing up the middle climber’s stance should she begin to slide toward the crevasse. The pair then effect a crevasse rescue as described earlier.

Belaying a Bridge in a Party of Three, Descending

For the party of three going downhill, the process is similar.

1. The first climber reaches the start of the bridge and stops.
2. The middle and last climbers descend a little farther than the bridge is long. While they do this, the middle person takes in the rope between herself and the first climber through the Prusik on her waist.
3. Once the middle climber and the last climber have moved down far enough to create enough slack for the first climber to cross, the middle climber belays the first climber across the bridge by feeding rope through the Prusik on her waist.
4. Once the first climber is across, the rest of the team can cross normally.

In this situation it may be prudent for the last climber to introduce some slack between himself and the middle climber as the middle climber crosses the bridge. The downhill climber will almost certainly be able to catch the middle climber should she fall in, but if the middle climber pulls the uphill (last) climber off his stance, he might slide down into the crevasse.

As the middle climber crosses, the downhill climber can turn and walk backward, as it’s easier to keep slack out of the system and to watch the middle climber.

Party of Three on Flat Terrain

On flat terrain the party of three has lots of advantage, and it would be rare for them to feel the need to belay. If they do, it would primarily be for the middle person since it is hard for the other two climbers to easily work together. Who does the belaying—either the leader or the last climber—will be dependent on who is more capable at setting it up and any terrain features that would simplify it for either one.

1. The first climber crosses the bridge. When the second climber arrives at the edge of the bridge, either the first climber or the third climber begins setting up the anchor—it’s a judgment call based on who’s more experienced or in a better position to belay.
2. If the first climber is going to belay, she sets up right where she’s standing. If the last climber is going to belay, he needs to move toward the middle climber while protecting himself with a Prusik. He must move forward a little farther than the bridge is long.
3. The belayer now sets up a quick anchor. We recommend a vertically placed mid-clip picket if the snow isn’t too soft.
4. Once the picket is in, the belayer clips a locking carabiner into the anchor and into the loop of a Prusik on the rope.
5. Depending who is belaying, he or she takes in or feeds out rope through the Prusik.
6. Once the middle climber is across, the belayer cleans the anchor. If it was the lead climber, she removes the anchor and begins walking, protecting herself with the Prusik until the rope comes tight to the middle climber. If the third climber belayed, he removes the anchor and lets the middle climber keep walking while the rest of the rope runs through his Prusik.
7. The party then moves normally as the last climber crosses the bridge.

What is new in the above scenario is how we use the anchor to belay. We know we’ll need to escape the belay in the event of a fall,and our attachment system can either make that escape easier or more difficult. Clipping the anchor to our belay loop would trap us between the Prusik and the anchor, making escape challenging, but by clipping the anchor into our Prusik—while we stay clipped into the Prusik, too—we create a two-point anchor system, the picket and us. With a little body English, we can easily loosen our locking carabiner and unclip in the event of a fall.

Belaying across a Bridge—Teams of Two

Because of the butterfly knots in the rope, the two-person transitions get tedious. The belayer needs to untie his knots to free up enough rope to belay, but then retie them when he crosses. This applies to both team members because they’ll each belay the other. That’s a lot of tying and untying at each transition, but maintaining security takes priority and we do it.

For teams of two the decision to belay becomes easier, because without two teammates on top, you need the extra security an anchored belay provides. So, in a sense it’s an easier choice, but the execution presents problems. Knots in the rope mean lots of tying and untying.

Two People Belaying a Bridge, Moving Uphill

Uphill and downhill bridges may benefit from the lower climber being assisted by gravity, but it’s situation dependent. Traveling uphill is the simplest transition, so we will start with that.

1. The leader crosses the bridge and continues until the first of her partner’s knots just reaches the start of the bridge.
2. The leader places an anchor—we recommend a mid-clip picket vertically placed if the snow is good enough—and clips her Prusik into the picket. She stays clipped into the Prusik as well.
3. As her partner moves forward, she takes in rope, removing her knots as they come along.
4. Just as she unties the last of her knots, her partner should be reaching the start of the bridge. The belayer will have about 14 feet of clear rope, which should be enough to belay her partner across the bridge without having to stop him to untie a knot (because her knots took up the same length of rope that her partner’s did, and he stopped that distance before the bridge).
5. Once her partner is across the bridge, he stops and she removes the anchor.
6. The leader now moves forward, sliding the Prusik along; once she gets about 9 or so feet past the mid-mark, she’ll tie a butterfly knot, 3 feet later another butterfly, then 3 feet after that another.
7. The leader keeps moving until she is out of rope and the party continues moving together.

We feel it is important for the belayer to have a clear rope while belaying her partner across the bridge. Having someone stop mid-bridge so that the belayer can untie a butterfly is unacceptable. By setting up the anchor just as the first of her partner’s knots gets to the bridge, she can untie the knots on her end of the rope before her partner gets onto the bridge. This clears up her rope to give an uninterrupted belay while he crosses.

If you have placed your knots as we suggested in the roping-up section, you’ll have about 38 feet between the climbers. Each climber will have the first knot 6 feet from his or her body, then another 3 feet later, and another 3 feet after that. The farthest knot on your half of the rope is therefore 12 feet away. That means there are 24 feet of rope with knots and 14 feet of clear rope in the middle. It is with those 14 feet we want to belay. If your bridge is longer than that, well, maybe you should look for another option!

The anchor system we use is identical to the anchor we used in the belay across a bridge with three people on flat terrain. Again, you don’t want to complicate the rescue with a belay escape, but you don’t want to have to build a monstrosity of an anchor for a quick belay. The system we describe allows you to use your stance and the picket together to hold a fall. It also functions as a quick anchor that can be backed up should we need to haul. (We used this system in the two-person drop loop described earlier.)

Two-Person Team Descending

If the two people are descending, then the system is similar.

1. The leader gets to the bridge and stops.
2. The uphill (second) climber moves forward, sliding his Prusik along to self-belay, all the while removing his butterfly knots.
3. Once the last knot is removed, he only needs to advance far enough to make sure he has enough rope to belay the leader across the bridge, likely not much farther than the last knot.
4. At that point he can build an anchor and belay his partner across the bridge using the Prusik-picket combination anchor.
5. Once the lead climber is comfortably across the bridge, she should stop.
6. The belayer now removes the anchor and moves forward using his Prusik as a self-belay. When he is about 9 feet from the mid-mark, he ties a butterfly knot. The leader then starts to move again—the second climber feeds out rope through his Prusik—but will stop in about 3 feet so that her partner can tie another butterfly knot. She then moves forward 3 feet and stops so that her partner can tie the third and final butterfly knot.
7. The leader continues to move downhill and the second climber starts to walk as soon the rope comes tight. He crosses the bridge and continues.

Although it sounds a bit complicated to retie the knots before the second climber goes across the bridge, it is prudent since the second climber will not be belayed, so the knots can really help. Of course, tying the knots should not expose the climber to a crevasse fall or force him onto the bridge prematurely. That will depend on how far across the bridge the first climber needs to go before she feels comfortable stopping. If the knots can’t be tied into the rope prior to crossing the bridge, the team should either continue to cross the bridge as planned or the second climber should get belayed. That will depend on how steep the terrain is, how soft the snow is, and how comfortable they are with the bridge.

As with the three-person belay across the bridge, the most complicated scenario is crossing a bridge on flat terrain. This requires two anchors and the removal and replacement of all the knots. In the three-person system, we didn’t need to remove knots and we only had to build one anchor.

Two-Person Belayed Bridge Crossing, Flat Terrain

1. The leader arrives at the start of the bridge and stops.
2. The back climber moves forward using a Prusik as a self-belay and removing the butterfly knots as she goes.
3. Once the last knot is removed, she only needs to advance far enough to make sure she has enough rope to belay the leader across the bridge, likely not much farther than the last knot.
4. She then builds an anchor and sets up a belay.
5. She belays the leader across the bridge.
6. Once the belayer runs out of rope, the leader stops.
7. The second climber now removes the anchor, and the leader and second move together until the second is at the start of the bridge.
8. The leader now self-belays back toward the bridge and removes his knots.
9. The leader now moves away from the bridge until the rope is tight and sets up an anchor and belays.
10. He belays the second across, and she stops when comfortably across it.
11. The leader then removes the anchor and starts to walk away, self-belaying with his Prusik and replacing knots in the rope—the first knot about 9 feet past the mid-mark and so on.
12. Once the leader has replaced his butterfly knots and runs out of rope, he stops.
13. The second climber now moves up, sliding her Prusik forward to the point where she needs to tie the butterfly 9 feet from the middle mark.
14. Once she ties that knot, the leader starts to walk forward. After about 3 feet the second ties another knot and then that process repeats. As soon as she ties the third knot and the rope comes tight, the team moves on as normal.

1. Two people belaying across a bridge. The leader arrives at the bridge and pauses.

2. The back climber uses his Prusik to move forward while removing the butterfly knots.

3. When he determines he has enough rope with which to belay the leader, he stops, builds an anchor, and connects it to his Prusik—not his belay loop. This connection is the red carabiner in the photo. By connecting the red carabiner to his Prusik, it becomes a two-point anchor (the picket and the climber). This is both more secure and also simplifies transferring the load should a crevasse fall occur.

4. The rear climber belays the leader across the bridge in a braced stance. He belays until he runs out of rope.

5. The leader has crossed the bridge and run out of rope. The team moves together until the rear climber arrives at the start of the bridge. The team stops.

6. The leader walks toward the bridge, self-belaying on his Prusik and removing his butterfly knots as he goes.

7. The leader moves away from the bridge, feeding rope through his Prusik until he runs out of slack. He builds an anchor, clips it to his Prusik, and belays the second across the bridge.

8. Once the second is safely across the bridge, the leader removes the anchor and begins walking away, self-belaying through his Prusik and retying the butterfly knots at the appropriate locations.

9. Once the leader ties his butterfly knots and tensions the rope, he stops. The second moves forward from his position, self-belaying with his Prusik, to the location of the butterfly knot that will be farthest from himself. He ties it, then the leader starts to move forward and the second releases rope through his Prusik and ties the second and third butterfly knots in the appropriate places. Once the rope is tight, both climbers continue moving across the glacier.

Maintaining Space during Transitions

We try to leave our excess rope stashed in our packs when performing these transitions. We do this to make sure we have enough rope to effect a rescue and to keep things simple. As soon as we go for our excess rope, we add complexity to the transition itself, but we also potentially complicate a rescue if we’ve used our extra rope to belay. Keep in mind that we need twice as much as rope available in the event our partner falls, because we’ll use a drop-loop system to rescue him.

Having said that, if a bridge is long enough that we need that rope, you should deploy it and use it. It would be foolish for both of you to end up on the bridge or in a sketchy stance, only to have your excess rope in the pack. If you need it, use it, then problem-solve if a situation arises. It’s more important to give an effective belay when your partner crosses a bridge than to avoid theoretical problems that may or may not come to pass.

Let’s take a bird’s-eye perspective for a moment, though. If you’re on a bridge long enough and sketchy enough that you need most of your rope for a belay, it’s time to consider whether or not you’re in the right place and whether or not conditions permit traveling on this glacier. Don’t force a route and risk an enormous bridge collapse because, remember, that person could take a huge pendulum into a crevasse wall. Rope or not, he’s going to get jacked. Heads up!

Transitions from Glacier Mode to Pitching and Back

As we mentioned at the outset, there will be times when the glacier is so steep that moving together is no longer appropriate. It becomes impossible to protect against a crevasse fall, so pitching out increases the security.

The transition from glacier mode to pitched climbing can be quite simple if you feel comfortable not being secured by the rope during the transition. This is reasonable if a) you do the transition before you are at risk from the falling hazard, and b) you are as certain as possible you’re not on a snow bridge. If that’s the case, you can bring your team/partner to you by protecting him with your Prusik or by having him slide his Prusik as he approaches. Once all together you can break out the extra rope from your packs, tie into the ends (if there is a third climber, put him on a cow’s tail 10 to 15 feet from the end), and begin leading up.

Unlike on a snow slope, however, it is prudent for the leader to take a belay. If the glacier has enough snow on it to feel comfortable for the leader to self-arrest, it is hard to be certain there are no crevasses lurking. And consider the opposite: If the glacier is snowless enough to know there are no crevasses, it is likely that it is icy enough to warrant a belay and some protection for the leader. Either way, the leader takes a belay.

Staying Protected throughout the Transition

The transition becomes tricky when the team wants to stay protected throughout. This could happen when crossing a crevasse below a steep section of the glacier. Bergschrunds pose the same situation. Often the leader will feel comfortable crossing the bergschrund in glacier mode because the slope is just starting to get steep and that uphill approach makes it pretty easy for her partner to catch a fall into the crack. Once across, however, the leader is now on pretty steep terrain and a fall into the bergschrund by her partner would be very difficult to hold, if not impossible.

Having neither climber tied into the end of the rope complicates things. Also, the leader is likely going to be belaying close to the upper edge of the crevasse or bergschrund, so rope management will need to be good so that a loop of rope doesn’t end up hanging down into the crevasse and get caught on something.

Certain situations change the transition. For the first one, we’ll assume you switch leaders once you go into pitched climbing. We’ll cover more below.

Switching Leaders Going into Pitched Climbing

1. Once the leader gets across the crevasse and is comfortably above it, but before the next climber reaches the bottom edge of it, he builds an anchor.
2. The leader now takes his rope (between him and the next climber) and places a Munter hitch on the anchor.
3. The leader then takes out the rope from his pack, lap-coils it, and ties into the end.
4. He then anchors himself with a clove hitch using the rope he just tied into and hangs his lap coils across his new tie-in.
5. He then belays his partner(s) up to him.
6. If he has two partners, when the first climber gets to him, he ties into a cow’s tail on the backside of the leader’s clove hitch so that it will be appropriate spacing for the upcoming pitch.
7. The middle climber then unclips and unties the knot he had been clipped into, and the leader continues to belay the third climber off the Munter.
8. When the last climber arrives, he stays on belay or the Munter gets muled off. The last climber now takes out the extra rope.
9. As the third climber frees up extra rope from his pack, the leader adds it to his stack or coils he made with his extra rope and the rope he took in while belaying.
10. The last climber can then tie into the free end, grab any gear the others have, and begin climbing as the new leader.

1. Transition from glacier mode to pitching. The leader has crossed a crevasse or bergschrund and stopped where he can belay the next teammate. He builds an anchor and clips into it with a Munter hitch, which counterbalance-protects him with his teammates.

2. He takes the excess rope out of his pack and lap-coils it, and then ties into the end.

3. He clove-hitches into the anchor (blue carabiner) and transfers the lap coils onto his tie-in. He can now unclip from his bight knot and remove the knot. Once he does this, he should maintain control of the brake strand.

4. The leader belays his climbers in and when the middle climber arrives, he attaches himself to the backside of the leader’s clove hitch on a cow’s tail (yellow and gray carabiners on his belay loop in the photo). The middle unclips his bight knot and unties it, allowing the leader to continue to belay the end climber into the stance.

5. The end climber (green helmet) has arrived and stays on belay on the Munter (orange locker on the anchor), takes out his excess rope, and lap-coils it. He finds the end and ties into it.

6. After he ties in, either climber puts him on a lead belay (in this case the climber in blue does so). The new leader transfers his lap coils to the coils made earlier. The leader unclips his bight knot, unties it, cleans the Munter off the anchor (blue carabiner), and prepares to lead out.

7. The new leader takes a deep breath and leads out.

As we learned in the transitions chapter, some simple tools aid this transition, making it easier and giving the team more room to work.

When our leader first arrived at the anchor, he clipped into it with a Munter hitch and he was then counterbalanced with his team below. That allowed him to free up the rope he was carrying and tie into the end and anchor himself. Once that was done, the middle climber attached himself to the backside of the leader’s clove hitch with a cow’s tail. For the middle climber this becomes the attachment on which he will climb the next pitch.

Maintaining the Same Leader, Going into Pitched Climbing

If transitioning and the same person will remain leading (as a guide would), the transition is similar but a bit more tedious.

1. Once the leader gets across the crevasse and is comfortably above it, but before the next climber reaches the bottom edge of it, she builds an anchor.
2. The leader now takes her rope (between her and the next climber) and places a Munter hitch on the anchor.
3. She takes out the rope she has stored, lap-coils it, and ties into the end.
4. She anchors herself with a clove hitch using the rope she just tied into and hangs her lap coils across her new tie-in.
5. She belays her partner(s) up to her.
6. If she has two partners, when the first climber arrives, she clips him into a clove hitch tied on the backside of her clove hitch.
7. When the last climber arrives, she clips him into a clove on the backside of her clove hitch below the middle climber.
8. The back climber then frees up the rest of his rope and ties into the end of it. All the while, the leader adds the freed-up rope to her lap coils on her tie-in.
9. Once the last climber ties in, he clove-hitches into the anchor.
10. The middle climber then gets cow’s-tailed into the backside of the last climber’s clove hitch.
11. Both the last climber and the middle climber unclip from the backside of the leader’s clove hitch.
12. The leader flips the lap coils onto the middle (most likely) or the last climber’s rope.
13. The middle or third climber puts the leader on belay and she starts leading.

As you can see, this transition is a bit more tedious. The second and third climbers need to temporarily anchor themselves (steps 6 and 7) until the third climber can free up his end of the rope. The leader must also flip her lap coils. Most parties opt to anchor temporarily via improvised tethers (like a double-length sling), but we find that by using the backside of the leader’s clove, the climbers have more room to work and it speeds things up.

A Short Steep Section

One thing to note is if the steep, pitched climbing above the crevasse is short, it may be more efficient to keep one section of the extra rope stored. In a party of three with 40 feet between people, if they free up one section and the middle person reties 10 to 15 feet from the end person, the leader frees approximately 130 feet of rope on which to lead (assuming a 60m rope). In a party of two with 40 feet between the climbers, they free up 120 feet of rope by deploying one section of stored rope.

In a party of three of equally skilled teammates, it makes sense to have the first leader free up his rope. He’s working alone at the top anchor and will have space to do so. When the new leader takes over, he’ll have excess in his pack. If the pitch proves longer than the team estimated, it’s a simpler transition to have the new leader deploy extra rope than having the two climbers behind do it—so, we elect to have the new leader leave the belay with extra rope rather than have the original leader keep his extra rope.

In the guiding scenario (the same person continues to lead), it’s a bit more complex decision which rope you will free up. If the guide frees up her rope, it will make the transition back to glacier mode easier—since the guide will be quicker at putting the extra rope away—but if the extra rope is with the clients at the anchor, it is all but impossible to put it into service if the guide needs it. To get that rope into the system, the cow’s-tail client (middle client) needs to unclip and then build a new cow’s tail, not to mention leash in, etc. The end client would need to do a similar process.

Bottom line, it would be inappropriate to have clients do such a complex transition unassisted. So the guide must make a decision: If she decides to go short and have the clients keep the rope, she’ll have to belay within 120 to 130 feet. If she wants to have the rope available, she will need to deal with a more tedious transition back to glacier mode.

Transitioning Back to Glacier Mode

The transition back to glacier mode needs to be thought out as well. Once you arrive onto terrain where the falling hazard no longer exists, it usually means the glacier is lower-angled or the snow has gotten softer. If the glacier has gotten lower-angled, it likely means that some kind of transition has taken place in the underlying bed surface of the glacier. That terrain change can stress the glacier ice, and crevasses must be expected. If the snow has gotten softer, the chances of a crevasse fall may not increase, but it’s probably hidden and the softer snow also means any bridges may be weaker.

Whatever the case, surmounting a steep section and belaying your team into the anchor risks staging it on a hidden bridge. If you are reasonably certain there are no crevasses, this transition can be made simpler, as was the case when we transitioned into pitching. Remember, the reason the team was able to come together in the pitching transition, though, was because they moved into the steep terrain already rigged in glacier mode. The team arrived where the ice was going from low-angled to steep, so they were in an area where the ice was compressed, meaning fewer crevasses. They were also in terrain that was more likely firm, so any bridges were probably stronger, too.

Balancing Fall Hazard vs. Crevasse Hazard

In a perfect world, we simply finish the steep climbing once the angle eases and we perform a relatively simple transition. It’s the same transition a team uses when starting on the glacier—flat terrain and no crevasse hazard.

Most of the time, however, we don’t have this luxury. We need to balance the fall hazard with the crevasse hazard. So as we move up the slope in pitching mode, we are always somewhat at risk of a crevasse fall. Every time the party comes together, it is in a high-consequence situation. That means throughout the pitching section we must continually assess the balance between the falling hazard and the crevasse hazard. As soon as we no longer see a falling hazard, we must transition back to glacier mode. In other words, once there is no benefit or little benefit to pitching, the risk we take to pitch out is no longer acceptable.

The team should transition where the risk of crevasse fall is lower. In many cases this means stopping before the angle eases, where there is still falling hazard but before the crevasse hazard begins. This transition requires an anchor at a crevasse-free spot, and the team then departs the anchor in glacier mode.

Transitioning Back from Pitching to Glacier Mode, Party of Three

1. The leader finishes the pitch, builds an anchor, and belays as normal.
2. As the seconds climb, the leader watches for the mid-mark on the rope.
3. Once the leader has the mid-mark in his brake hand, he tells the seconds to stop, clips a clove hitch into the anchor before the mid-mark, and ties a bight knot at the mid-mark.
4. The leader continues belaying the climbers up to the anchor.
5. When the first climber arrives, he clips into the bight knot hanging from the clove hitch on the anchor, unclips from the cow’s tail he used while pitching, and unties it.
6. The last climber then leads out, after taking any gear she might need from her partners.
7. Once the rope comes tight, the middle climber starts up.
8. Once the rope comes tight to the third climber, he starts up.
9. Once everyone reaches terrain without a falling hazard, the leader stops and belays the team toward her using a Prusik. Because the team is now above the falling hazard, she does not need to set an anchor.
10. When the middle climber is within 30 to 40 feet of the leader, the team should stop. The leader at this point ties a bight knot into the rope and clips it into her harness.
11. The back climber now belays himself using a Prusik in toward the middle climber. Once he gets within 30 to 40 feet of the middle climber, he ties a bight knot and clips it into his harness.
12. Now both the leader and the last climber can untie from the ends of the rope and store the excess rope.

You will notice that the climbers move together while some of the team remains on steep terrain. Shortly after the leader tops out, the middle climber starts, and the third climber begins once the middle climber tops out. This takes place at the top of a substantial falling hazard. The team must recognize this because this is a conscious risk taken to avoid all being exposed to a crevasse fall (by bunching up). The decision to do this must be made with a realistic appraisal of the team’s experience and strength. A fall here would be catastrophic.

To Lap-Coil . . . or Not?

You may notice at times we do not mention lap-coiling. In many cases the slope will be smooth enough that there will be no need to manage the rope; it is perfectly fine to allow it to hang down. If there are features in the snow like sastrugi or an open crevasse, though, the rope can fall and get snagged. In this case lap-coiling and dealing with it during transitions becomes necessary.

Two Climbers Transitioning from Pitching to Glacier Mode

The two-person team does a very similar transition, but the climbers will be 200 feet apart as they top out, so communications become more difficult. The other complication will be tying butterfly knots between the climbers. Here is that transition.

1. Once the leader tops out, he keeps walking back from the edge of the steep terrain.
2. When the leader runs out of rope, the second starts to climb.
3. Once the second tops out, the leader stops, places a Prusik on his rope, and belays the second toward himself.
4. The leader takes in rope till the mid-mark is about 9 feet away and tells his second to stop.
5. The leader then ties a butterfly knot into the rope between the mid-mark and his Prusik. While this is going on, the second places a Prusik on his rope.
6. The leader then walks away from the second, belaying himself with the Prusik, and places another butterfly 3 feet from the first, and then another 3 feet from that one.
7. The leader now goes 6 more feet and ties a bight knot, then clips it into his belay loop. He unties from the end of the rope and stores the extra rope.
8. The second moves forward to within 9 feet of the mid-mark and goes through the same process of putting knots in the rope, clipping into a bight knot, and storing the excess rope in his pack.

Transitioning from Pitching to Glacier Mode for the Guide or Citizen Leader

As the group nears the end of the steep terrain, the guide may suspect hidden crevasses where the glacier lessens in angle, at the rollover to flat terrain. If this is the case, the group must perform a transition to protect themselves.

For the club guide or citizen leader, giving her group responsibility to do the transitions described above doesn’t seem overly aggressive, so long as the team has proper training and the climbers are not overly stressed. The same applies for the professional guide—if he has strong, reliable clients with solid technical skills.

If the clients or the club leaders’ partners are tired, stressed, or aren’t technically skilled, they must rig the glacier rope system for their clients before they leave the anchor. As we mentioned, guides often won’t have their clients carry any rope on the glacier, so if the guide feels the need to pre-build the glacier system for the clients, the clients are likely not technically experienced enough to perform a drop-loop rescue—having them travel with extra rope doesn’t serve much purpose. With that in mind, the party performs the transition such that the guide carries all the extra rope.

Three-Person Transition from Pitching to Glacier Mode for the Guide

1. The guide finishes the pitch, builds an anchor, and belays as normal.
2. When the first client arrives, he leashes in.
3. The guide continues belaying the second client to the anchor.
4. The second client arrives and anchors in.
5. The leader measures out 30 to 40 feet of rope from the end client, ties a small bight knot, and has the first client clip into it for glacier travel (two carabiners, etc.).
6. The leader leads off.
7. Once the leader climbs past the difficulties, she stops 60-plus feet past the point where the falling hazard ends and belays (more on this below).
8. When the rope comes tight to the middle client, he starts up.
9. Once the rope comes tight to the third client, he starts up.
10. When both clients are off the steep terrain and when the middle client is 30 to 40 feet away, the guide has them stop.
11. The guide ties a bight knot into the rope and clips it into her harness, stashes the rest of the rope into her pack, and heads out with her team.

As you’ll note, we have the middle client leash in so the guide can set up the spacing for glacier mode. The leash reduces confusion at the anchor when the middle client leaves. Using a backside system here may cause some real confusion as to what to unclip from when the middle client leaves the anchor.

In step 7 the guide belays. The belay may require an anchor like a picket, as when we belay across a bridge, or she might use a braced position using her Prusik. However she belays, she must feel confident in her ability to catch a slip. By using the Prusik, she is also protecting herself if she inadvertently stopped on a crevasse.

1:1 Guiding on a Glacier

When a guide has only one client on a glacier, it is likely that client will have a higher knowledge base. Should the guide fall into a crack, the client must be able to perform some basic tasks. This may be less important on a busy glacier where the guide can be assured other parties are nearby.

It is safe to say that in a 1:1 guiding ratio, the guide must seriously consider if the client has enough skill to deal with a crevasse fall. At the least, the client must hold the fall so that the guide can ascend her line out. For the guide, ascending out becomes more complex with knots in the rope. This makes it harder, but a guide needs to feel comfortable that if her client can stop the fall, she can get herself out.

Of course, it would be optimal if the client can build an anchor, transfer the load to it, safely get to the edge, and drop the extra rope into the crack. The guide will have a much easier climb out because the new strand won’t be cut into the lip. If the client can perform at that level, then he should be able to tie a few butterfly knots and a bight knot with which to clip in, particularly with a guide supervising nearby. Knowing this, having the guide and client perform the same transition as suggested for the recreational party of two seems reasonable.

If the guide determines that it would be faster and cleaner to do some of the work for the client, the guide can perform a modified transition. This modified transition can be useful for the recreational team as well.

In the case of a two-person team—whether guided or not—a climber falling into a crevasse above the angle change would mean significant rope stretch since the party can be as far as 200 feet apart. In the three-person team, the distance between climbers is significantly shorter and so the problem isn’t as severe.

There is an argument for one of the climbers in a two-person team to put some of the rope away and rig up for glacier mode at the anchor. When 1:1 guiding, the guide will help her client do exactly this, prior to leaving the belay.

If the guide doesn’t want the client to carry any rope, she would do the same transition as the three-person team above, without having to deal with the middle client leashing in. The only addition is the guide may want to add butterfly knots to the client’s end at the appropriate places.

If the guide wants to have the client carry rope, they follow this next transition.

Two-Person Transition from Pitching to Glacier Mode

1. The guide finishes the pitch, builds an anchor, and belays as normal.
2. When the client arrives, the guide attaches him to the backside of her clove hitch.
3. The client unties from the end of the rope and begins to stuff it into his pack.
4. The guide finds the middle and starts to put butterfly knots into the rope. From the middle moving toward the client’s end, the guide puts the first butterfly 9 feet from the mid-mark. The guide puts two more butterfly knots in, 3 feet apart, and then finally a small bight knot 6 feet from the last butterfly (the clip-in point).
5. The guide helps the client put his pack on, place a Prusik on his rope for glacier travel, organizes his system, and has him clip into the small bight knot for glacier mode (two locking carabiners).
6. The client clove-hitches into the anchor, unclips from the backside of the guide’s clove hitch, and puts the guide on belay.
7. Once the leader climbs past the steep terrain, she stops 40-plus feet past the point where the falling hazard ends and belays.
8. When the rope comes tight to the client, he starts up.
9. When the client climbs past the falling hazard and arrives 40 feet from the guide, he stops.
10. The guide ties a bight knot into the rope and clips it into her harness, and stashes the rest of the rope into her pack.
11. The guide then belays herself with her Prusik toward her client and once she is about 9 feet away from the middle, ties a butterfly knot. She then moves away from her client, tying the next two butterfly knots 3 feet apart. Once she is out of rope, the team continues its climb.

Rope Types for Glacier Use

It is fitting we ended the previous section with some concern about rope stretch in a crevasse fall. Because of all the dynamic aspects to crevasse fall—climbers sliding on the snow surface and the rope bending over and cutting into the lip—it is becoming acceptable to use static rope. In fact, Petzl has conducted tests that suggest the spring/rebound nature of a dynamic rope actually makes it more difficult to stop a fall. Some of this information is new as of this writing so all the ramifications of it are not fully known, but the takeaway is that more and more people are using static ropes on glaciers.

Static Ropes(?)

Because static ropes do not require the kind of mass or material that dynamic ropes require, static cords tend to be much thinner. Using a tech cord can reduce rope diameters to as little as 5.5 mm!

As we said, the implications of this are still being sorted out. For instance, it is shown to be easier to stop a fall with a static rope, but in a two-person team we have been suggesting using a knotted rope. If the rope is 8mm or more, knots seem pretty effective, but what about in a 5.5mm rope? The main debate centers on roped-up glacier travel. Some consensus seems to be emerging that in un-roped travel (usually downhill skiing), thin static rope offers a lightweight, appropriate solution.

New Systems

It seems like another pre-rigged rescue or ascension kit hits the market every couple years. Petzl’s RAD System and Mammut’s RescYou ascender are both lightweight, compact systems, but we recommend practicing extensively with them before taking them into the field. Any super-specialized piece of equipment presents both solutions and challenges.

Edelrid’s Rap Line II arrived on the US market in late spring of 2016. It remains to be seen how it’s used in the field, but it’s a potentially interesting advance. The Rap Line II uses three separate components—a nylon sheath, an aramid middle sheath, and a braided inner core—to act as a static cord to loads up to 7.2kN, but under great loads the aramid sheath “breaks” and the nylon interior cord offers a dynamic catch. It is not a certified dynamic or fall-rated rope at present, but when tested as a twin rope, it will hold two UIAA falls.

Maybe the perfect compromise on a glacier? The Rap Line II is intended for use as a tag/rap line, first and foremost. Engineers created the dynamic “backup” in case a climber needed to re-lead a section to retrieve his stuck dynamic rope. While glacier travel isn’t its intended use, no doubt climbers and skiers will experiment with it due time. Worth watching.

Conventional Cords, Static and Dynamic

Let’s move past the super-skinny ropes for now and focus on a thicker 8mm-plus static rope. The first question we need to ask is, what about a steep section on a glacier that we would like to pitch? Using a static rope for a pitch provides very effective protection for the second(s), but a lead fall is an entirely different story. The question we need to answer is, what is our expectation of a lead fall on a steep section of snow on a glacier?

If we’re pitching because we feel a team arrest won’t work due to the steepness of a particular section, it doesn’t necessarily mean a leader or more experienced climber can’t individually self-arrest. The leader might be perfectly capable of self-arresting on a given slope. Knowing this, a team might be comfortable having a skilled leader lead a section on a static cord—assuming she can self-arrest were she to fall—and then provide adequate protection for less-skilled seconds. This is a judgment call, and one with potentially dire consequences should the leader take a fall on static cord.

Limits on Static

There is no question that a static rope limits what the party can do. Steep ice pitches on the glacier change the decision balance from static to dynamic, and, of course, if you are planning to do any rock pitches, this makes a static rope inappropriate.

Now this is where things get really interesting. What if two climbers are going to do some short rock pitches during a long route involving glacier travel as well? Well, if you are carrying, say, a 40m (120-foot) dynamic rope for the rock, then a very strong 40m, 5.5mm static might be appropriate if there is a rappel.

So if one person carries one of the ropes and is tied into the end of the other while their partner is clipped in about 40 feet away in glacier mode carrying the rest of that rope, then one team member has 120 feet of extra rope in their pack while the other has 80, and each carries enough to do a drop loop but one has a very light skinny rope.

The question becomes, which rope do the climbers use on the glacier and which goes in the pack? The old-schoolers might use the dynamic rope with knots, while the new-schoolers might use the skinny rope. The jury is still out whether it’s easier, when in a team of two, to catch a fall on knotted skinny rope or on a conventional dynamic rope with knots. Time will tell.

Right now just be aware that skinny static ropes are being investigated and used in some cases. One last, important consideration: All your rope grabs will need to be specifically designed for skinny rope, and as far as we know, there is no material that is appropriate for a Prusik on a 5.5mm rope.

Bottom line, consider a static line on simple, relatively low-angled glaciers when pitching is rare, and start to look into the skinny version of the static for ski mountaineering.

Short-Roping on a Glacier

Because certified guides are trained and examined in the art of short-roping, they use that skill on a glacier when appropriate. Often a guide will have a considerable knowledge of the glacier on which he’s working. That means he’s seen the glacier in a wide variety of conditions and can be comfortable no crevasses (or very small ones) are in the area in which he will short-rope.

Significant falling hazard often renders crevasse hazards secondary. In those situations the recreational party may just decide to remain roped up in traditional glacier mode and simply not fall. A guide or experienced leader may deem the crevasse-fall hazard low enough and the fall-hazard significant enough that short-roping becomes the answer. Remember, though—there is no benefit to short-roping when a team of equivalently skilled climbers are tied together on a rope. Short-roping, by definition, suggests one climber is more skilled than her teammate(s) and further, that the leader has been trained in the application and technique.

So many may ask,why not pitch it out? The guide must ask that question as well. Short-roping becomes useful on traverses with significant falling hazard, when pitching is of little help. This happens when an open crevasse is a short distance below the team. Another situation suited to short-roping is a brief section of terrain with significant consequence, when most recreational parties would simply move through without any real concern.

The standard of care and of decision making for the guide is much higher than for the average team of climbers. Remember, the guide may have two or (watch out!) three climbers on her rope and those climbers may have just met a day or two before. The guide needs to understand that friends may accept the risks posed by the other climbers, but the guiding team has to accept that putting strangers together on a rope team requires a higher standard of risk management.

We are not going to get much beyond that as to when to short-rope on a glacier, since that decision requires high-level, professional training, but since we expect many aspiring guides will read this book (or at least we hope they do), we feel going over the technical transitions so that they can have a head start in their courses is appropriate. We must emphasize that we see no useful purpose in doing these short-roping transitions on a glacier for the recreational party.

As difficult as the decision to short-rope is, the transitions are simple. The fact that the guide is making the transition to short-roping means he feels there is little to no crevasse hazard and he’s comfortable with the team coming together. In this situation, bringing in the group and changing the rope system should be easy.

What the guide must consider, however, is the transition back to glacier mode. Again, this may be simple because the guide feels comfortable about the lack of crevasse hazard, but that’s not always the case. We mention in the pitching section the potential for crevasses to exist where the terrain goes from steeper to lower-angled, due to the tension of the ice over the convexity. In this case the guide will want to extend out quickly and over some distance as the party reaches lower-angled terrain. The rope systems we describe allow for this eventuality.

1:1 Short-Roping Transition

In a 1:1 situation, the transition to and from short-roping is very simple. When the guide decides to short-rope, she belays her client in using her Prusik. While she does this, she unties all the butterfly knots between her and her client. Once her client arrives, she coils off the rope and is finished.

When she decides to go back to glacier mode, she has her client stop and she uncoils the rope and belays herself out using the Prusik. As she moves, she ties butterfly knots in their appropriate places.

2:1 Short-Roping Transition

For the 2:1 transition, the guide belays the middle client into him with his Prusik, then asks the second client to belay himself in with his Prusik. As the second client approaches, the guide ties a bight knot behind the middle client, at the appropriate distance for short-roping. When the second client arrives, he clips into the new bight knot. The second client coils the excess rope and wears it on his body (no need to tie these off, as the bight knot closes the system). The guide coils the rope between himself and the middle client and ties off, as was done in the 1:1 transition, and begins short-roping.

To go back to glacier mode, the guide asks the clients to stop. The guide unties the knot securing his coils and starts walking away, protecting himself with a Prusik as he goes. Once out of rope, the last client unclips his bight knot (his attachment while being short-roped) and feeds out rope through his Prusik while the guide and middle client walk away, until all the coils are gone. The party moves together once the last climber is out of rope.

If the last climber is clipped into the rope in glacier mode (because the guide wanted him to be carrying some rope), it is important that during the transition this client unclips the appropriate bight knot. The bight knot for his attachment in glacier mode will have two lockers and only one for the short-roping clip-in point; differentiating should be easy but care should be taken to remind a less-experienced climber.

If the last client is tied in (rather than clipped), there is only one bight knot to unclip, so the situation is even simpler. Because we short-rope for only short sections, a single locker is usually appropriate (even more so if it’s triple-action). Also, that single locker is made somewhat redundant via the Prusik on the rope directly behind the knot.

Descending

Descending on a glacier introduces a few variables to our transitions. While mostly similar to our transitions while climbing, we need to consider:

1. Crevasses in steep terrain, which we downclimb or rappel.
2. Steep terrain on which we walk while descending: A guide or very experienced climber with beginners will be conflicted whether to go first to route-find or last in an effort to provide more security against a fall from a teammate in the front.

We decide to rappel based on the same criteria when climbing steep snow, but the addition of crevasse hazard means just using the rope as a “hand line” may not be enough security. A rappel device, or at least sliding a Prusik along, improves security. A Prusik, or an auto-assisted braking/rappelling device like a Mega Jul, offers the advantage of goings hands-free immediately after a crevasse fall, too.

As for who goes first as the party walks down, this decision will be highly terrain- and team-dependent. If the terrain is fairly low-angled and/or the snow is soft so that a fall will be easy to hold, then having the most experienced climber go first and route-find is likely best. As the terrain gets steeper, however, having the most capable climber above, ready to quickly arrest a fall, is likely best.

Flipping the team as the terrain changes also exposes the team to a bad situation (everyone lined up on a horizontal crevasse), so executing this maneuver with some finesse, and in a place where there is a low likelihood of a lurking crevasse, is important. The best way to do it is:

1. Have the back climber move forward sliding her Prusik on the rope while the team is stopped.
2. The back climber catches up to the middle climber and keeps going until she is fully extended again and near the lead climber.
3. Once there, the lead and the back climber can communicate and then the back climber leads off.
4. The previous lead climber now slides his Prusik as the middle climber approaches and passes.
5. Once the previous lead climber is out of rope, the flip is complete and the team resumes with a new leader.

In conclusion, there will often be times when it is very tempting for the party to come together to rest, do transitions, or communicate. Although we wouldn’t suggest this is “never” appropriate, we feel it should be done with great discretion. For this reason, much of what we discussed keeps the party separated for crevasse-fall protection. We believe if these transitions are practiced, they can be done with little time disadvantage. The decision to come together to simplify or speed things up should be based on terrain, not on an inability to perform a transition efficiently, or at all.