From the SelectedWorks of David A Bainbridge 2014 Glissading David A Bainbridge Available at: https://works.bepress.com/david_a_bainbridge/41/ GLISSADING David A. Bainbridge 2014 Table of Contents Dedication Ch l. Glissading Ch 2. A Brief History of Glissading Ch 3. Glissading Styles Ch 4. The Purest Form Ch 5. Safer Glissading Ch 6. Glissading Risk Classifications GLISSADING Ch 7. Go Glissading Ch 8. Getting There Ch 9. The Future of Glissading ©David A. Bainbridge 2014 [2] DOUGLAS W. BAINBRIDGE 1921-2007 To my father who introduced me to the joys of the mountains and glissading at an early age. He enjoyed the mountains in all seasons, as an expert skier from the early days of telemark turns and bear trap bindings to his '70s. Backpacker, climber and glissader par excellence. SAFETY NOTE: Safety is always an important concern for activities like climbing and glissading. No book can alert you to every hazard and potential risk. The descriptions of equipment and technique described in this book are not representations that these will be safe for you or your party. You are responsible for your own safety. Do not let your ambition exceed your ability. Keep alert, stay informed and utilize old mother common sense when in doubt--chicken out. [3] 1. Introduction Like body surfing glissading requires a fairly specific set of environmental It is my hope that this book will help conditions. Rather than searching for elevate glissading from its lowly place as "a waves the glissader is searching for perfect way down after climbing" to the reason for firm snow. This can be followed from the "climbing." The emphasis has, as I hope to lower elevations as Spring advances and show, been on the wrong foot. It is almost may only be found on north slopes in the as if over the years the sport of paddling higher mountains in late summer. out through surf had developed and someone was finally writing a book on riding the waves in, "Surfing." One of the first obstacles I hope to overcome is the general lack of understanding of what "glissading" is. As Webster's dictionary defines it, glissading is "to make a controlled slide down a snow covered slope." It might more simply be called "skiing without skis." As Chapter 3 shows glissading has many forms: lying down, sitting, squatting, and standing. The purest form explored in greater detail in Chapter 4 is the art of glissading in the standing position. The skills and sensation involved in glissading fall somewhere between skiing, skate boarding, snow boarding and surfing. It is, however, easier to learn; requires less expensive equipment ($20 or less for homemade glissading shoes); safe (danger is minimal until the advanced stages); and Perfect conditions more fun. The only sport that is at all close The prime glissading season is late in cost and equipment requirements is Spring and early Summer, with flowers in "body surfing" which requires considerably full bloom on the walk in, cold crisp more skill and provides fewer rewards nights, sunny days, and quiet mountains. A beginners. time to settle down to the basics, simple [4] food, clean air, the exercise of climbing up, the joy of glissading down, good friends, and living life to the fullest. Glissading, in addition to being a sport worth pursing for its own rewards, is also a very useful skill for the mountaineer to master. Moving fast in alpine conditions may often mean the difference between beating a storm and being caught out. It is one of the paradoxes of climbing that a slow, conservative, "safety" conscious climber may be exposed to greater objective danger than a faster, less conservative climber. Glissading can allow the climber to drop hundreds of feet in minutes, rather than hours, and can as Allan Steck's story shows mean the difference between life and death. It is also regrettably true that slips and slides on ice and snow account for a high proportion of mountaineering and Excellent form backpacking injuries and deaths. While *A glissade in ballet is a traveling step glissading skills won't prevent all of these starting in fifth position with demi-plié: accidents they can reduce your risk of the front foot moves out to a point, both being hurt. A better understanding of snow legs briefly straighten as weight is shifted conditions, more thoughtful consideration onto the pointed foot, and the other foot of slopes and run-outs, and better control moves in to meet the first. So a glissader when glissading can reduce the danger of on snow, may do a double glissade if they an accident. But the joy of high speed runs point their leading foot. on challenging mountains will always entail some risk. Like any sport, it is a question of acceptable risk and minimizing risk, not eliminating it. [5] 2. A Brief History of Glissading As the golden age of mountaineering The origins of glissading are lost in the rose in the Alps there is little doubt that shadows of prehistory. Early man (or glissading gained increasing popularity. woman), first discovered the sport while Some of the gentlemen and gentlewomen sliding out of control down a snow slope alpinists developed considerable skill at it. crossing some mountain ridge in search of E. F. Whymper gives a good description food (sex usually being less critical than and recommendation, with a good food in the early spring). Undoubtedly, the illustration. Many of the classic climbers first feeling was that of fear (the beginning include a mention as well, including the glissader without previous skiing or early "boys" of Everest. skateboarding may feel the same way at first); but when the exhilaration of speed overcame this primal fear glissading was born. In fact, it is probably unfair to credit "homo sapiens" with the discovery of glissading. The otters and bears are among the most enthusiastic glissaders and have been seen going down snow or mud slopes again and again with obvious glee. An otter is speedy enough to glissade on flat ground, run slide, run slide faster than a person can walk. I have also seen young marmots glissading in the Sierra. Perhaps these animals deserve credit for inventing E.F. Whymper demonstrates the the sport and awakening the glissading standing glissade with ice axe. instinct in humans as they watched them at play. In more recent years glissading has In a riotous glissade we hummed down undoubtedly been practiced regularly by the next one thousand feet, swerving left or the shepherds and hunters of the alps right from supposititous crevasses after the around the world, yet no one has recorded fashion of ski-runners. their endeavors. Practiced as part of work Geoffrey Winthrop Young on the Weisshorn it remained unrecognized as "fun" or as a "sport" until very recently. [6] My previous exploratory climb had made Rebuffat. In one of his books he described me aware of a convenient snow filled gully a friend's glissade on crampons down a in which an exceedingly rapid standing glacier at night during a remarkable alpine glissade was possible. Reaching this campaign in Europe. This initiates the highway I spun down to the little glacier. period of severe glissade descents. A. F. Mummery on Dych Tau 1895 In 1978 Peter Habeler and Rheinhold Messner completed a successful alpine Arriving on the big snow bed I glissaded assault on Everest. To hasten the descent for some little distance before realizing that to more oxygen rich air glissading on Somerville had stopped behind.... Everest was taken up again. First to the col E. F. Norton high on Everest 1924. and then in stretches below that. Their superb fitness enabled them to climb to ...he closed up the tent, and about 4:30 the top from the col without oxygen and left the camp and made his way down by return, with much controlled glissading, in the extreme crest of the North-East Ridge. less than 6 hours. This tremendous feat is By means of a careful glissade Odell described in Peter's book about their covered the distance between Camps V and ascent, Everest: Impossible Victory, Sphere, IV in barely thirty-five minutes. 1979. Sir Francis Younghusband 1926. Glissading skills may also save your life. It can enable you to move quickly while As mountaineering became more widely using little energy. One of the most known and practiced the skills and remarkable examples was the heroic effort techniques for preventing unwanted slips by Ernest Shackleton to rescue his crew and falls improved and so did the skills of after their ship was damaged by ice. After glissaders. Reports of these early their awe inspiring open boat journey expeditions were generally so terse that across tempest tossed Antarctic seas they glissading was not described in detail. landed on South Georgia Island and were Glissading was often relegated to minor forced to climb and cross an unknown mention "we crossed to the snow field and mountain range with minimal equipment made a rapid descent to Camp III." and little energy. A long and dangerous More recently glissading has received glissade into the unknown on the way more comment, although still appearing as down saved their lives and his crew. a minor footnote. One of the few And finally, Allan Steck and a party of exceptions to this conspiracy of silence Russian and American climbers completed was the master of rock and ice, Gaston a very dramatic glissade in the Pamirs. [7] Shortly after they left a high camp because of severe avalanche conditions, an avalanche did, in fact, break lose. Descending in a very fast glissade down very challenging slopes they managed to outrun the main body of the avalanche.