Edited by Rachel Duncan 4th Edition ISBN 0-907649-91-2 London ...

Chapter 8: SAFETY
Safety 75
This chapter may seem surprisingly short. That is because most of the aspects of safety
have been excellently covered in the following publications: Fyffe and Peter’s definitive
Handbook of Climbing, Langmuir’s Mountaincraft and Leadership, British Antarctic
Survey’s Field Manual (and other national operator manuals) and Chris Furse’s Arctic
Expedition Handbook.
Expedition safety planning and safety management starts at the planning stage. Writing a
Risk Assessment for the expedition and preparing an emergency plan to cover as many
contingencies as you can think of are important and now standard components of
expedition planning. As they are not intrinsically polar they are covered in detail in other
publications and training organised by The Expedition Advisory Centre.
8.1 Snowfields, glaciers and ice-caps
Snowcraft may be your weakest skill and although snow and ice techniques, methods for
roping up, crevasse rescue and other safety procedures are well covered in a number of
publications there is no substitute to pre-expedition training; winter visits to Wales or
Scotland will be worthwhile. Also learn about avalanche dangers and their causative
conditions.
Plan to spend the first day of your expedition on snow re-practising techniques and
re-familiarising yourself with all the equipment. For example, try out crampons; fitting
them in the cold on a slope is very different to that in the warmth of the UK; practise iceaxe
arrests; dig a simple snow hole; set up a crevasse rescue. In other words, hone the
experience gained during pre-expedition training
The safest way to travel over snowfields and glaciers is to rope-up, preferably
wearing a full body harness. However, roping needs to be tempered with experience and
common sense, and a key consideration is the ability to travel safely yet quickly over ice
and snow. Being roped will slow down most parties and whether you are descending
mountains or crossing glaciers, the ability to effect a rapid retreat should weather
conditions deteriorate is most important. Aim to develop your skills so you can correctly
decide when and where not to rope-up. Dry glaciers (i.e. glaciers free of snow) present few
problems even to inexperienced travellers because crevasses and holes are easily visible
and provided you have good crampon and ice-axe technique, ropes are not required.
Beware of a fresh fall of snow which can quickly mask crevasses and make roping-up
necessary.
There are several different ways of roping-up on a glacier and personal preferences
and glacier type often determine which system to employ. Safety relies on keeping a taut
rope between team members. Review and try various methods, but do bear in mind:
• Three is the ideal number on a rope. It is difficult for one person to arrest another's
crevasse fall and extremely difficult for one person unaided to recover another from
a crevasse.
• You must be able to quickly and effectively arrest the fall of the person behind you
as well as the one in front.