Steve thought it may be helpful to start a discussion on glissading, since many people don't know how to do it, and get hurt glissading in the wrong conditions. If you don't have experience with glissading, Trail Crest is not the place to learn. There have been multiple fatalities in this area and others have been badly hurt. Here is a video showing my glissade, as well as some self-criticism.
I apologize for the shakiness of the video. I did not have a chest harness for my camera.
Some notes:
Glissade starts @ 1:38.
We intentionally kept our speed down and stopped several times to move over to the right, to avoid the rocks on our left. You can see us moving over at 2:37.
I believe we started our glissade around 11 am. The snow was very soft for most of the trip down. At 3:10 I stop with very little effort.
Conditions change quickly. At 3:36, you can see my first self arrest. It is so icy that immediately pick up speed when I turn over and I need to self arrest again @ 3:45.
The self arrest at 3:36 could have been performed better. I can see that the ice axe was nearly perpendicular to my body. It should have run diagonally across my body, from my left shoulder to my right hip. It appears that my 2nd self arrest @ 3:45 was better.
At 4:01, I move to the left and use the path that my father-in-law just created. It usually isn't a good idea to take an established path as they can be very icy. Since this path was just broken though, the snow was soft and the rest of my glissade was very controlled.
