Pickets

[rollo]

Keep them lashed to the side of your pack. Just reach over your shoulder and slide em out.

[imorris]

short shoulder-length webbing over one shoulder w/ picket clipped to webbing dangling. loud and obnoxious. I try to predict if there is traversing involved to keep the pickets to the outside.

[salbrecher]

I carry pickets on my harness while in use. I'll put them on the gear loop farthest back so they don't keep getting in front of my legs. I havent used the longest pickets so it hasn't been a problem yet.

[rbw1966]

quote:

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Originally posted by rollo:

Keep them lashed to the side of your pack. Just reach over your shoulder and slide em out.

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Yes, great idea but what do you do with them after you pull them out of the snow? I'm talking about scenarios when you are using them on every pitch of climbing.

[iain]

on a vaguely related note I like SMC's I-Picket over the MSR ones. Seems a little less bulky and lighter. Dunno about it's holding strength in comparison

[forrest_m]

i girth hitch a long sling through the top hole, then clip a biner through the sling and the bottom hole and wear them bandolier style.

 

alternately, i stick them through the compression straps on the side of my pack, but clip in the sling to something. (i lost a picket once when i didn't clip it in, it fell down a steep buttress striking like a bell in a clock tower, bong, bong, our friends could hear it over four miles away!)

 

finally, if it is steep, you can put the biner through the second hole and clip it to your harness - it won't poke your leg if the terrain is reasonably steep.

[sketchfest]

Most times I leave them in the side pockets of my pack. I then take the runner w/biner and feed it under the compresion straps on the side of my pack, then clip the biner into the loops of the shoulder straps. When I need a picket, I just unclip the biner and pull the picket straight up over my head (kinda like pulling an arrow out of a quiver) Can't think of a single time this didn't work well.

[iain]

if I keep them on my pack and expect to use them in a glacier emergency (while lying down, etc) I clip webbing to them and clip the webbing to a pack strap by my shoulder so I have a reference point to grab and pull on (like a ripcord) to get a picket in quick (rather than flailing with an arm trying to grab the top of a picket, which is not hard, but when you might be freaked out a bit could be difficult).

[rbw1966]

No, not the mountains. The protection. How do you folks "rack" them? I usually carry them either inside my pack or lashed to the side when not in use but what about when you are doing belayed climbing? Clip them to your harness and wack yourselves on the legs as you move? I've tried a couple different ways but none seem terribly satisfactory. The most common way for me to carry them lately is under my pack, between the shoulder straps for steep climbs but could result in losing one.

 

So, how do you rack your pickets?

[Nick]

I like Charlet Moser tubular pickets. I slide mine up into an ice tool tube on the back of my pack and clip the eye-loop into the buckle at the bottom of the ice tool tube. It is easy to reach back and get the picket when needed. Although it is not too hard to replace the picket in the tube while wearing the pack, i is probably easier to clip the picket to the back of your harness for frequent placements.

[philfort]

I played around with using an OR-style rope bag (long and narrow) as a picket bag: clip one end into the ice axe loop on the bottom of your pack, and then the other end somewhere higher up on the front or side of you... sort of makes a diagonal bag you could slide them into. I have never tried it in the field though. I usually just let them bang against my legs and start getting pissed off at them. Clip them to my harness, or sling around the shoulders, but clip a hole just about the middle so they don't dangle so low.

[Cpt.Caveman]

I sling the middle hole of the pickets I have. If this section is buried I can have a long enough sling so that it is not buried. If not then I just clip a draw sling anchor to it instead. Plus it is easier to use them as a snow buried anchor that is centralized. I rack them on my pack. If the terrain is that easy then it is so that I can just take off my pack.

 

[ 11-18-2002, 03:14 PM: Message edited by: Cpt.Caveman ]

[Dr._Ben_Krazy]

Hold them in your teeth like a pirate holds a knife!! Similar to this little guy - Then you will be a cascade HARDMAN!

[mattp]

If I am climbing terrain where I will be using them frequently, I clip them about a quarter or third of the way from the top, kind of like one of the methods Forrest describes, and I often hang them from my pack strap rather than my harness because it is a little easier to clip/unclip and when I dump my pack they do not remain in my way. While clipping a hole or two below the top is better than letting them dangle all the way down, they still get in the way. Forrest's bandolier method and Philfort's sheath sound intriguing.