How to (and how not to) rack pickets
What beginning snow climber has not cursed the clanking cowbells and the strangle, tangle and dangle of pickets, hanging from ill-placed runners around your neck and shoulder, threatening to trip you up at each step!
Here’s a better way to rack pickets. Carry 6 pickets like this, with them more or less out of the way yet still easily accessible. (Think of this method as the least of all evils. Pickets are still a drag to carry, no matter how you do it, but this way sucks the least.)
If you have very firm snow, you might be able to use a “top clipped” picket. In that case, girth hitch a single length (2 foot / 60 cm) runner through the top picket hole. Clip a carabiner to the runner, then clip this carabiner to the third hole from the top of the picket.
If you’re clipping the middle picket hole, you're probably going to need a double length (4 feet / 120 cm) runner. Girth hitch this long sling through the middle hole . . .
Then wrap the sling around the picket until there's a few inches left, and clip the carabiner to the 3rd hole from an end.
Then, clip the carabiner to your gear loop (harness or on your pack waist belt). By clipping the third hole, the picket rides high enough to (mostly) not trip you, and stays oriented vertically.
Another option: clip it to your backpack strap.
This works well for the leader and for the second / gear cleaner.
Rack the pickets (to begin with) on the opposite side of where your ice axe is generally held. For example, if you're heading more or less straight up or traversing left, and you're right handed, rack the pickets on your left side gear loop so they don't interfere with your axe.
And, a related tip on who the cleaner should be. Often the slowest or least experienced person can end up in the back of a running belay, and guess what, that person becomes the cleaner. It's usually better to put a less experienced team member in the middle of the team, and have someone more skilled doing the cleaning at the caboose end of the rope.
Also, it’s helpful if the caboose person is taller; the pickets will ride higher and be less of a tripping hazard.
Here’s a few more tips on the running belay.
Finally, it’s fine to girth hitch the runner through the picket hole. That dyneema sling is rated to 22 kN, weakening it by half with the girth hitch means it's still good for about 11 kN, which is way more force than you're ever going to put on a snow anchor. (But hey, if that's not your thing, feel free to clip the sling to the picket with a carabiner.)
Finally, how NOT to rack pickets: don’t put the slings around your neck and let the pickets strangle, tangle and dangle, like this guy.
