We also saw at least three people glissading with crampons on while holding their ice axes upside down. Where are people learning this "technique"? It seems rampant. I watched one girl lose control of a glissade and saw her left crampon get ripped off her foot while her ax was lashed to her pack. She managed to stop (without a snapped tib-fib), put her crampon back on, get her ax off the pack, then amazingly attempt to continue her glissade, which she lost control of again, and since she was holding her ax upside down, it was ripped from her grip (physics...) and she slid 30 feet towards more serious terrain before she waddled to a lucky and awkward stop.
Just reading that is equal parts terrifying and baffling.
Feels like crampons while glissading is becoming more common. Though I think "we" all try to point it out, you're dead on about how hard it is to get people to listen or realize an axe hold direction actually matters.
Hopefully reports like yours get seen enough to impact people's decisions but I suspect we need the shops / brands to actually put warnings in for wide recognition (obviously everyone should be actually training but that's not happening.)
