Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Steep slopes and snow: Self Arrest?

I find a cane far more useful and versatile.
Here's a sampling of what I use:


Plus, one's arms are lower with a cane, reducing fatigue.

I find a cane is useful for my grandma, when she goes to the restroom.
Really. A cane?

Where I hunt and have hunted, I'm far more likely to need to arrest on a steep slope of wet rotten snotgrass than on ice or snow.

The Whippet is a good solution but the Petzl Snowscopic is an even better solution. I don't think they they are still available though. I believe Stubi also made a telescoping ice ax. Kind of the best of both worlds.

http://www.backcountry.com/petzl-snowscopic-axe-with-trekking-pole

Like others have said, be sure it is in hand and you have practiced a fair amount on self arrests before getting into a situation where it might be necessary.

Duncan Gilchrist, the late hunter, film maker and author was of the opinion that he didn't take crampons or ice ax on mountain hunts as they would only tempt him to go beyond where he really should. Duncan was one of the most experienced mountain hunters of our time.

My personal opinion is that if you use crampons or an ice ax to get yourself out of somewhere, rather than going farther, they make sense.
Kind of the way I look at tire chains anymore. Not to get further in but to get myself out. If I had had that same philosophy 30 years ago, I could have saved my self some terrible situations of being stuck.

Still watching the thread and taking on board the comments.

It seems there is not much "Alpine style" being done then?

I can understand that Elk and other deer would try to avoid the high mountain tops when there is heavy snow on the ground, but I thought perhaps some would be chasing sheep or goats in places where ice axe and crampons might be needed?

What I use a lot for elk, deer & sheep hunting are Micro Spikes or the smaller carmpons like Kahtoola or Hillsound make. These are life savers on steep slick bear grass slopes.

What I use a lot for elk, deer & sheep hunting are Micro Spikes or the smaller carmpons like Kahtoola or Hillsound make. These are life savers on steep slick bear grass slopes.

I use the micro spikes as well. The only thing I don�t like about them is they will collect mud pretty easy and get heavy. That is if it is muddy out

Would also add, most sheep and goat hunting isn't as rough as some would have you believe. It's above timberline mostly, and there's generally (not always) a "walk-up" climbable/non-technical route available.

I've spent a lot of time climbing with crampons and ice axe, as well as a lot of time in alpine country. I find wilderness elk hunting in blow-downs, steep timber, steep-grass one heck of a lot harder/more dangerous than the bulk of true alpine hunting.

Depends on where you hunt goats and sheep. Getting to these two required some pretty hairy and exposed scrambling, the likes of which I've not seen on rough L48 hunts. Didn't have an axe for the sheep but did for the goat, where I used it for, among other things:

*belaying when decending to the creek from the kill site
*carving a flat bed out of sloped, packed moraine gravel
*chopping steps down a short ice face replete with coarse grit embedded rock shards in order to avoid 1/4 mile loaded detour on glacier during pack out

They're good for more than walking and arresting.