zippetydude wrote:In just 3 seconds, you will have traveled almost 200 feet and will be going around 65 mph.
Zip,
Do you have a source for those numbers? My vertical free-fall calculations give 145 feet and 65 mph in 3 seconds. Multiply those numbers by 0.5 for a frictionless 30 degree slope.
OK, what the hell, I am a retired professional nitpicker. You are absolutely right, fall on ice and you are off like a rocket. And a rocket pointing down, not up. And I think the trees and exposed rocks in our local mountains can make a fall more dangerous than on some classic snow climbs.
The 2014 edition of Accidents in North American Mountaineering has a nice introductory section on snow climbing. Snow climbing, not ice climbing. It makes the point that while self-arrest skills are important, if you do much snow climbing you are probably going to find yourself in times and places where a self-arrest is not likely to be successful. And, I might add, due to the variability of snow conditions it can be on a route that you have done before and thought was a milk run.
I wish our local accidents had published analysis similar to what is found in AINAM. I think there was a reference there to privacy laws making it more difficult.