Our high mountains offer a varied and beautiful landscape. If you want to move around in them, you come across glaciers. This very sensitive mountain world is constantly changing and calls for the right equipment, experience and sensitivity. Remember that the right equipment on its own is not enough. It is also important to have a feel for the conditions and the hazards.
Here are some important pieces of equipment you might need:
- Crampons: these are essential for walking safely on hard ice.
- Ice axe: an ice axe helps you to steady yourself on the glacier and to stop yourself in the event of a fall.
- Harness and rope: these are important for belaying on steep terrain and around crevasses.
- Helmet: a helmet protects your head from falling stones or lumps of ice.
- Glacier glasses and sun protection: the intense sunlight on the glacier can damage your eyes, so good sunglasses are essential.
- Carabiners: on the glacier everyone in the rope team should carry one or two HMS carabiners and two or three ordinary carabiners.
- Slings: accessory cord of 5 to 6 mm diameter, plus a sewn 120 cm sling.
- Ice screws: these are the most versatile means of protection in ice.
- Belay device: for belaying or abseiling.
Roping up on the glacier
On sloping glaciers with no danger of falling you move along the rope at the same time. The distance between the people in the rope team should never be less than 8 m, so that there is enough braking distance in the event of a crevasse fall. The fewer people on the rope, the greater the distance. For safety, rope teams of two and three should already have a loose prusik clipped onto the connecting rope. Dividing up the rope on the glacier has two aims: enough distance to hold a crevasse fall and enough spare rope for a rescue. A large rope team (5 people) should be preferred to a small one (2 and 3 people). The remaining rope is divided between the first and the last person in the rope team.
Risk on glacier tours
Thunderstorms are a particular hazard when mountaineering. Low-hanging cloud and fog make visibility worse and orientation harder. Rain, thunderstorms with lightning and snowfall, sun and heat, cold and wind can all have a negative effect on your personal condition and on the conditions around you. The sun can become too much as well, and cold and wind can wear you down mentally. Even in fine weather a hat and gloves belong in the rucksack.
Tip: get the weather forecast and take it into account when planning and during the tour!
On glaciers there is generally a danger of falling into a crevasse. The danger depends on many factors (snow cover and snow conditions, how well the snow bridges hold, temperature, visibility and so on). On snow-covered glaciers the danger is naturally higher than on a bare glacier with clearly visible crevasses. So as a rule of thumb, snow-covered glaciers are crossed roped up.
Cornices form mainly above the steeper flank of a ridge on the leeward side. They often present an invisible and usually fatal hazard for mountaineers, above all when you step past the cornice crack onto the flat top of the cornice and put extra load on it. This break line does not run vertically above the crest of the ridge, but rather where the extension of the corniced slope would meet the surface. So always keep enough distance from the edge and put the track on the safe side below the cornice crack.
The danger of rockfall increases with warmth and sunshine as the day goes on. When mountaineering, the most dangerous thing is stones melting out of the ice, which is hard to predict. During long warm spells whole rock avalanches can come down (permafrost). To keep out of the way of these alpine hazards, an early start is always advisable.
