Finding a suitable slope to practice self arrest?
I want to practice my self arrest technique. So I need to find a snowy slope to slide down and practice digging my ice axe in, turning, etc.
What kind of slope should I be looking for? What kind of angle, etc. I obviously want somewhere safe but steep enough that I will actually slide down it.
Also how do you start a slide to practice this? In my experience it's quite hard to start sliding on purpose!
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In general it really depends on the snow condition.
Angle: If it's powder snow you need a quite steep angle (25 degrees and more). If it's icy/ hard/ wind slab snow then you can try it on a less steep (20 degrees) slope.
Safety: I would search for a slope where you have a safe run off, if you can't manage do arrest yourself. And also that your runoff is not in an steeper avalanche terrain.
How to slide: To start sliding you can start on your butt, that's the simple way. You can also start head, knee down with your head to the sliding direction. then bend over and start to slide and enjoy.
Additional Infos: Keep in mind to train it also with a backpack, crampons, rope, ... this makes it also much harder to turn and arrest yourself.
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Also how do you start a slide to practice this?
Go with a friend and randomly push each other over - self-arresting is a lot easier when you expect to fall over. What you really need to practice is how to manoeuvre your body & axe into a suitable arrest position when you're going head first, rolling sideways etc.
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Unless the slopes gradually becomes less and less steep and you're sure there are no glaciers hidden under it, then the only way to safely practice that is to build a solid backup anchor on top of the practice slope and tie into it with a significant amount of rope slack.
How to build the anchor is dependent on the terrain. There could be ice on top of the slope, or rocks, or most likely just snow. How to build an anchor in the various situations is a vast and wide argument.
If you don't know how to build one, learn that before learning self arrest. Seriously. Then, you can build one and also utilize it to practice self arrest even on very steep slopes with the safety of the rope backup.
Source: own experience and this book which is great and has a chapter on the subject.
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