I just got 3 screws at AMH in Anchorage, looks like the same kind, and then someone told me you can get surplus ones for about 8 bucks at the surplus store. I got 22 cm Black Diamond screws. An ice climber/pilot friend said to get the long ones, and that was the longest they sold. Haven't tried them yet. I have 3 lengths of rope 25 ft long, figuring if I really needed to, I can rig them together for 75 ft. Do you really need a total of 200 ft of cable/rope?
Have the bunny boots as well. Growing up in Fairbanks, bunny boots have saved my toes on a couple of occasions. Don't leave home without them, all you can use the amex card for is scraping ice off the windshield! One tip a friend gave me was to make sure that the air valve is closed before going into overflow. If it is open, walking pumps water in and the insulation is then trashed. There is no way to dry them out inside between the inside wall and the outside, so if it happens, new boots are in order.
Ski Advice
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sedanpilot
- Posts: 113
- Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2004 03:12
- Location: Alaska
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I once spent a week or so dragging my snogo around in 2 feet of overflow at 50-55 below with the 10-foot cable on my crappy little folding comealong. Think I winched it more than I drove it. Put in the screw, beat the ice off everything, hook up and take up the slack, pull 6 or 7 feet, unhook, beat the ice off, put screw in, beat the ice off, find floating ice-encrusted glove, beat ice off, hook up comealong, beat ice off, and so on and so forth. So no, you don't really NEED more than enough rope/cable to get somewhere to put your ice screw, but it sure is nice to have when you're knee-deep in overflow.
Guess I'm just a little paranoid - I've never had cause to use all this crap on the airplane besides at a camp lake where I _had_ to land, and I had a heated tent and snogo there. It makes me feel better to know that there's one more idiotic thing I can get away with without engaging in unplanned winter camping, and it's not that big or heavy, so I drag it along.
Just for kicks, hook your rope to your comealong between two solid objects and see how far you can stretch the rope sometime. It will be depressing.
Open your bunny boot valves up, pack em full of silicone or shoe-goo, and close them for the last time. They're on there for pressure compensation, which is important if you're climbing to 10,000' in a C-130. I fly with mine, siliconed closed of course, and I've never had then do anything goofy at Aeronca climb rates.
Looks like the wind has FINALLY died down on my trapline (it's been blowing between 30 and 60 for a week), so I'm heading out in the AM. Hope I don't get to use any of my overflow gear!
Guess I'm just a little paranoid - I've never had cause to use all this crap on the airplane besides at a camp lake where I _had_ to land, and I had a heated tent and snogo there. It makes me feel better to know that there's one more idiotic thing I can get away with without engaging in unplanned winter camping, and it's not that big or heavy, so I drag it along.
Just for kicks, hook your rope to your comealong between two solid objects and see how far you can stretch the rope sometime. It will be depressing.
Open your bunny boot valves up, pack em full of silicone or shoe-goo, and close them for the last time. They're on there for pressure compensation, which is important if you're climbing to 10,000' in a C-130. I fly with mine, siliconed closed of course, and I've never had then do anything goofy at Aeronca climb rates.
Looks like the wind has FINALLY died down on my trapline (it's been blowing between 30 and 60 for a week), so I'm heading out in the AM. Hope I don't get to use any of my overflow gear!