Practicing self-arrest

[egilbe]

Does anyone have a favorite mountain or hill where they practice ice-axe skills? I. Looking for a place where my gf and I can practice self-arresting in case of a fall. I’m thinking sliding down Madison would be a bad time to try it.

 

[SherpaWill]

I've practiced on Monroe, above Crawford Path headed towards the hut if I remember correctly.

 

[hikerbrian]

Willey slide. Hillman's Highway in Tuck's, or Tuck's itself, are also popular, but they often come with avalanche danger.

 

[Chip]

Tecumseh maybe. and there's a couple areas you could sneak briefly onto the ski slope.
Try to practice upside down and backwards/awkward falls.

 

[Mark]

I went on an AMC Above Treeline Workshop a few years back. We practiced self arrest on Hillman's Highway. Great spot with a nice run out into weeds, not rocks in case you don't get it right.

Definitely try it backwards and upside down. That was the hardest. The nice thing about this location is you can just climb higher for each run as you get better.

 

[TCD]

Real hard to find a good place that does not require a multi-mile trudge. Same in the ADKs; I have a few potential places to try, but the places with the best layouts are ski areas (permission difficult) or are a multi-mile trudge.

 

[dclynch]

What about Wildcat with the $10 hiker access fee?

 

[egilbe]

What about Wildcat with the $10 hiker access fee?

Hmmm...I wonder if Sunday River or Shawnee peak have something similar. It would be closer to me in Maine.

 

[Lost Dad]

Shawnee Peak has a satellite base area that is only utilized on weekends. A short hike up the ski slopes from that base area gets you to a steep pitch that might work. An alternative would be to hike up the Bald Peak trail to Sue's Way-this will bring you right to the top of one of the steeper pitches @ Shawnee with one more steep pitch as you work you way down. The hiker parking and the satellite base lodge are yards apart from each other on Mountain rd.
A simple map of the trails on Pleasant MT (Shawnee Peak)
http://www.loonecholandtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/LELT-Pleasant-Mtn-Map-June-2015.pdf

 

[egilbe]

Since the AMCtok over, it's a pretty decent mountain for Winter hiking and snowshoeing. Interesting enough, that hike up to Bald Peak was one of the first my GF and I did together after the Fryeburg fair. It almost killed me