Play Safe, The “Ice Climber Responsibility Code” – Will Gadd – Athlete, Speaker, Guide

Date: December 9, 2017

“Well, I didn’t hit him with the picks so I wasn’t trying to kill him!” Twenty years ago, two enraged Colorado ice climbers clashed in Boulder Canyon with their ice axes. One of the defendants used the “hammers, not picks” argument, which I roughly paraphrase. As crazy as it sounds, people get territorial about ice and rock climbs. Fortunately, the vast majority of ice climbers share ice well, but ice climbing is really different from rock climbing, and what works on rock doesn’t work on ice. Recently here in the Canadian Rockies we had a dangerous and strange situation between some visitors and locals that, of course, turned into the internet equivalent of an ice tool war. Out of this messy dialogue came the realization that many new ice climbers – or strangers – don’t understand some of the basic rules of sharing ice climbs safely. A group of active climbers and guides, including ice legends and delighted locals, worked on the idea and came up with the following principles, based on the way we do things in the Rockies, prone to current modifications:

Ice Climbing Responsibility Code

1. BE RESPECTFUL – Everyone deserves a safe and enjoyable experience. Educate others with respect and be educated with grace. Participate in online forums as you would face to face. Take away trash, cigarette butts and feces (bring a stirring bag to popular places). Urinate away from the base.
2. LEAVE A NOTE – on your dashboard or in the dirt in your rear window, with the route name, group size and time, to help others with their decision-making in busy places. Have a backup plan for when other people are on your planned route, if it cannot accommodate multiple groups.
3. PARTIES IN FRONT HAVE PRIORITY – It is your responsibility to avoid them. Don’t go under or overtake others without clear communication and a plan that all parties agree on. Multi-pitch climbers have priority over those climbing only the first pitch of established multi-pitch climbs.
4. Expect ice falls from other climbers– Ice falls are inevitable. Climbing under others is dangerous for you and compromises their safety. Plan your movements and belay positions to maximize your shelter from falling ice, which can bounce far and unexpectedly.
5. AVALANCHE RESCUE EQUIPMENT – A transceiver, shovel and probe must be carried by all team members in avalanche terrain, when there is enough snow for an avalanche risk to be present. This can be on approach, ascent or descent.

Play safely. Play fair. Play by the code.
Climb in fashion. Obey the code.

The above are guidelines and ideas for making everyone’s experience safe and fun. What it really comes down to is people recognizing that falling ice is dangerous, and then working together to keep everyone safe. I see the biggest groupings happening with climbers taking up ice climbing; they tend to think that ice falls are rare, like rock falls, and don’t give them the respect they deserve. We have had several serious incidents here in the Rockies with falling ice hitting people, and all of them could have been avoided. Note that communication should be respectful and with the assumption that everyone can cope, but ultimately it is also your responsibility on the ice to protect yourself. During the incident between the visitors and the Canadians, the visitors climbed under the Canadians, then climbed UNDER their leader’s ropes and over the belayers. This is really dangerous not only because of the falling ice, but also because if the visiting leader falls with his ropes passing over the Canadian ropes, he will “clothesline” the belayers, or possibly cut the leader’s ropes Canadian or the ropes holding the belayers to the anchors. . Passing people while climbing is common and more expected, but you need to manage the ropes and the situation so that the passing team doesn’t clothesline the slower team. Again, communication and respect are key. In this situation, the visitors put the Canadians in danger, but the Canadians should have spoken up and stopped the visitors from passing through. If you get hit by falling ice, it’s ultimately your fault, protect yourself.

Don’t do this and don’t let anyone do it. The leader of the “Green Jacket” climbed under the ropes of the leader of the Red Jacket; if Green Jacket falls before he has a piece in his ropes, he will saw through Red’s ropes. A sliding rope on a fixed piece of nylon cuts him off very quickly… Best case scenario, if the green guy falls over the red ropes, he will pull out the red leader… Or green falls to the spectator’s left of Red, he “will do a red clothesline”, probably injuring him. In this case, Green and his group continued over the red and pelted it with ice. In addition to the fact that rope work was dangerous, the lack of communication between teams led to a truly dangerous situation. Don’t do that.

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