Glissading - not always your best option for descent

Glissading, the skill of (mostly) controlled sliding down a snow slope either sitting or standing, can be a lot of fun and save you time and legs on the proper slope.  Pacific NW routes where this can work well include Mt. Hood south side, Mt. Adams south side, the Muir Snowfield on Mt. Rainier, and various routes on Mt. Shasta.

However, it’s not something you necessarily want to do at every opportunity.  A glissade has some down sides too, and saving a few minutes on the descent may not always be worth it.  Before you glissade, consider these points:

• You wear out your gear faster (seat of your pants and pack bottom)
• You get your butt wet
• You can lose gear strapped to the outside of your pack (trekking poles, crampons) unless it’s very well tied down
  (Never glissade with crampons on!)
• Much greater chance of injury than simply walking (usually a broken/sprained ankle, going too fast and cratering into a rock, or dropping into an unseen crevasse)
• Questionable time savings – saving 20 minutes on a descent by glissading may not mean so much when you weigh it against the downsides mentioned above, and the fact that a round trip climb may take 10 hours.