Maya Calderon
Glissading is sliding down a mountain on your backside. Plunge-stepping is a way to ski steep down-hill lines in deep snow by always planting the heel of your ski into the snow in front of you. Both methods save a tremendous amount of time and energy for long mountain days. Both also have the potential to create some very unique injuries if not done properly.
Glissading
Controls are managed with an ice axe that is swung behind you to control your speed of descent. Caution is needed with this type of descent as it can cause serious injury if not done correctly. Such situations should be carefully evaluated to ensure that the terrain is appropriate for such a slide (ie: good snow, moderate incline, clear runout). Also, make sure you are wearing crampons, as this is the only time when glissading with such is appropriate. Additionally, the edges of your boot and your ice axe will provide little protection on very hard snow/ice, and thus would not be an ideal place for such a slide.
The first rule: no crampons, no hard ice, and always have a view of the exit (‘run out’).
Plunge-stepping
To plunge-step, you lean back slightly while keeping your upper body up straight and then drive your heel down into the snow with each step. This is done on consolidated snow on moderate slopes. It’s an extremely aggressive technique and should be treated as such.
The safety rules
Helmet on for any snow descent. Ice axe ready for self-arrest. Verify the runout before committing. Slipping into a crevasse is especially to be avoided when descending by glissading or plunge-stepping.
The summary
Both techniques are valuable. Both can be very hurtful when used in the wrong circumstances. Learn them from someone who knows how to use them well.
Practical Considerations
Adventure travel rewards careful preparation. The gap between memorable trips and rough ones often comes down to logistics that travelers underestimate at the planning stage. Backup gear, contingency days in the itinerary, and clear communication plans with someone at home prevent most of the situations that derail trips. I prefer arriving a day early. Twice it saved me from a missed connection.
The Insurance Question
One final note on travel insurance: most policies are designed to cover travelers who engage in a relatively standard set of activities while traveling abroad. However, adventure activities (trekking at altitude, scuba diving, rental of motorcycles, etc.) are typically excluded from standard policies. While there may be additional “riders” that can be added to cover such activities, these typically cost a bit more than the base policy, but will provide far greater financial protection in the event that an unexpected emergency arises. As a rule, read the fine print on any travel insurance policy very carefully before buying, and make sure that any additional riders that you purchase are appropriate for your specific plans.
The Local Operator Factor
And how much should one rely on local guides and local operators? Generally speaking, it is better to go with the older, more-seasoned local operators who have run their specific route many times before. If a company, for example, has a 5-star rating on some travel site, that is nice but reading some reviews and chatting with previous clients is even better than just reading the great reviews.
The Takeaway
For adventure travel, the best trips are those in which you have gone into them with proper physical preparation, you have picked a good local operator, you have the right insurance, and then on the trip itself you are able to adapt to changing weather or other conditions. It is the flexibility on the trip that is as important as the preparation before it, and trips that are too rigidly planned tend to fare worst of all.
The Equipment Question
The equipment you use for your adventure travel also plays a critical role. No matter how mild your travel plans are, equipment can fail at the worst times. Most travel gear is designed for use under normal circumstances and can easily fail when put under unusual stress. The best advice for travelers is to consider renting high quality equipment while at their destination. Often times, the rental fees are well worth the trouble of transporting your own inferior gear.
The Physical Preparation
If a trip requires long periods of strenuous physical activity over several days, it is wise to start training several months prior to the trip. Even with the best of planning, physical activity at high altitude, in hot weather, or on long treks over rugged terrain is always harder than anticipated. Moreover, physical training helps to test your gear before you leave.
After my last trip, I have become even more of a believer in pre-trip physical training. Sure, your body will get into shape during the trip, but you’ll be more able to enjoy the trip instead of struggling to get through it. And you’ll also discover any equipment problems before it’s too late.
The Worst-Case Plan
Admittedly planning out worst-case scenarios sounds a bit paranoid, but when you are stuck in a situation on an adventure trip and have no clue what to do then every hour of planning beforehand is worth weeks of wasting time on the spot. Communication with your family and friends, a plan for evacuation, helicopter rescue insurance, and the nearest hospital, etc. are all things that you should plan out in advance and possibly even write down.
The Mental Game
The hardest moments on any long adventure will be primarily of a mental nature. Day 5 on a multi-day trek, 3 days in the wet, and a disagreement in the group as to what to do next are just examples. Remember that before setting out on your long adventure you are expecting difficulty. It will therefore handle you, as opposed to you expecting an easy adventure and it handling you badly. Reading other people’s true experiences, good and bad, is one of the best ways to get a true sense of what an adventure actually is.
What Local Operators Wish You Knew
In traveling, it is so important for a traveler to realize the cumulative effect of fatigue and that local guides know best about conditions of where you are traveling. Many situations can be avoided by the traveler’s trusting of local guides who have experience of traveling the routes that they are being taken by the tourist. The rare bad situations have been the result of tourists ignoring the experience of local guides and their overriding of local advice as to when to continue and when to take a rest.
A Note on This Topic
Many skilled travelers go from trip to trip armed with only a few simple principles and apply them with great success on their journeys. These travelers take the time before they leave for their trip to do more than the usual first page or two pages of search results to learn about a destination. Such travelers always ask locals genuine questions while traveling and keep notes of their journeys while they are still happening — rather than trying to recall them from memory after the fact.
About this article: Moxie Trail covers travel as a craft. We write for travelers who care about how trips actually work, not just the highlight reels. More about our work.
