French crampon technique?

[Anonymous]

Breaking this out to a second thread.

"Yes, and the first thing you will learn when testing yourself on an icy surface is that your chance of getting a solid plant before you reach a speed that will make self arrest a non starter is damn near nil; so you had best train even harder on not falling in the first place. " -tom kirchner

FOTH talks a fair amount about optimal foot placement with crampons in order to maximize traction and minimize fatigue. They discuss French vs German styled placement for different grades. My question is how often do beginner mountaineering courses teach this? Once you learn initially how much attention do seasoned climbers delegate in the real world to making sure you use French styled ascending foot placement to conserve energy?

[rOg w]

deleted

[Richard Fischel]

with a stiff mountaineering boot your ability to use french technique is limited somewhat, but you can kick step and front point much more easily thn you can in a softer boot.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I found a trip report from an EMS guided trip up mount washington. The report indicated the guide spent more time teaching french technique than self arresting (an hour total). Interesting stuff.

[Richard Fischel]

the run-out is safe.

[Will Elliott]

Let's say you climbed a big ridge and have now taken a stream gully as a shortcut down. By and by, the gully narrows and suddenly you find yourself looking at a frozen stream. Or maybe you're on a gentle glacial slope with a big crevasse at the bottom. Or trying to take the strain off your calves while belaying. Or you dropped one of your ice tools. Or you broke one of your front points. Or you are wearing tele boots and your front points are shorter than the duckbill. Super important.

[Roger Caffin]

I will get howled down I imagine, but people have used French style while wearing joggers. That's very different from plastic boots, 12 point step-ins and front pointing. Yeah, but get very experienced first!

Cheers

[Richard Fischel]

will be a function the µ.

[r m]

Was a German IFMGA instructing, we spent a morning walking around on sloping ice practicing.

Since then I don't really remember the exact details of French technique, instead I ended up with an appreciation of being mindful of which crampon points will provide traction in a given scenario.

I'm pretty new to this, probably only have around 3 weeks clocked up with crampons on, so can't help re seasoned mountaineers.

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