[at-l] Katahdin video

[Jim Bullard]

On 8/14/06, Bob C <ellen at clinic.net> wrote:
> The Knife Edge is no where near as bad as the video makes out. There are steep places along the Knife Edge trail, and rock scrambles. Occasionally people fall and break an arm or a leg. They get hurt by falling forward along the trail, or backwards along the trail. No one to my knowledge has ever fallen OFF the Knife edge, that is to one side or the other. One would almost have to deliberately jump off to one side, and even then except for four or five feet along the mile long trail, you wouldn't fall more than a few feet. The slopes to the sides just aren't that steep, near the route of the trail.
>
> It's a difficult trail and a fun trail, but for anyone with any kind of experience at rock scrambling it's not a particularly dangerous trail. Most of those that get hurt are attempting to go down a steep section facing outward. If they trip they have nothing to grab hold of.
>
> I always turn around and face the rock. I go down backward as if I was on a ladder. That way, if a foot or a hand hold fails, there are always another to take its place.
>
> Weary

This fits with my own experience which is that most mountain hiking
injuries occur while descending rather than climbing for exactly the
reason you state. The only times I have been injured fit that scenario
and subsequently I too descend steep sections backwards.
-- 
Jim Bullard
http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/