Kia ora and welcome to the Mountain Safety Council's Alpine Snow Skills Series
in this five part series we'll be talking to a professional mountain guide
from the New Zealand Mountain Guides Association.
He'll be teaching us basic alpine skills for snow slopes and winter terrain.
Keep in mind this video is not designed to replace a training course or hands-on
practical experience. We recommend taking an alpine skills
course from a professional provider or learning directly from competent
friends or family. Since you'll potentially be in avalanche
terrain make sure to understand the current avalanche forecast for the
region you'll be in carry the necessary avalanche rescue
equipment and know how to use it and get the training and knowledge to
avoid avalanche hazards for more info go to avalanche.net.nz
With all cramponing technique the spiky things are what keep us
on the snow. Instead of like a skier that keeps the edges
on the snow if i do that crampons half of my points are not working.
So when i'm cramponing, I put my foot down and I relax particularly the downhill
foot, I just relax the ankle a little bit so that all the points are
touching. If I do this I'm only getting half the effect
out of my crampon if I do this and relax I'm getting the full crampon working for me.
When I'm flat-footing I keep my feet
wider than I would if I was
walking down the street. If I have my feet close together
I can trip, so wide stance. Give that a go.
Is that all good? Well good a little bit wider.
Looks good shoulders back and your weight over your feet.
Remember wide stance like you've been riding a horse.
Think John Wayne.
So Jordan next technique we're going to go through is what we call French
Pointing or French Technique. The French call it cramponing.
And this is where the but when you're going sideways
or up the hill the lower foot is side on to the hill the upper foot still
with a bit of separation is at 45 degree angle up the hill so
if iIm going at a diagonal up here I'm gaining height with good security
with one foot flat one foot angled up the hill.
When I go down the hill I do the opposite, so my uphill foot is
flat across and my downhill foot is angled at 45
down. Still keeping the feet reasonably wide
apart still keeping the body upright avoid bending over
you want your centre of body mass going directly between your feet.
Another technique when you're wanting to go more direct
up a hill or the hill is starting to steepen up is to use a
combination of the French Technique and Front Pointing.
So your bottom foot goes straight across the hill remembering to
relax the ankle and your uphill foot is straight into
the hill so
just like so. The great thing about this is you're only
working one calf muscle at a time so if I get tired
I can swap it and have the other foot flat
and that is conserving my energy.
If we're coming down the slope and we're not diagonally down if we're going
diagonal down we'll use a French Technique.
If we're coming straight down the slope we'll use
a straight down slope technique called Duck Footing or En
Canard and that is feet at 45 degree angles
your body weight the important thing is your body weight goes directly down in
between your feet so you you you're crouching taking the
pressure on to your thighs like you're sitting on the loo.
And you walk down the slope keeping your feet
nice and flat angled and wide. So this way is a good way to go straight
down a slope.
Our confidence in using your ice axe and crampons will come with practice
so make sure that you set aside time to practice these skills on a safe
low angle slope with plenty of run out that way if something does go wrong
you're not in any danger. Now that we've covered these essential
skills though it's time to think about what to do if
everything goes wrong so in the final video of the series we're going to look
at how to self arrest in order to save yourself
if you slip on the snow and start sliding downhill.