Glissade (climbing)

A glissade is a climbing technique mostly used in mountaineering and alpine climbing where a climber starts a controlled slide down a snow and/or ice slope to speed up their descent. Glissading is ideally done later in the day when the snow is softer.^[1][2]

Mountaineers glissading down snow slopes

Most glissading is done in a seated position (and ideally with a water-proof durable surface on which to sit and slide),^[3] with the legs bent to absorb shocks and bumps, and an ice axe held diagonally across the body to be in a position to perform a self-arrest if the glissade starts to get out of control.^[1] Crampons are explicitly not used while glissading as they can cause serious injury.^[1] Some climbers can glissade in a standing-up position (also called 'boot-skiing'),^[2] which has a greater risk and is unfeasible for longer slides.^[1]

As glissading is typically done on the descent of a climb when climbers are tired, it can lead to serious injuries.^[4] Glissading with crampons is particularly dangerous and can lead to broken ankles, but tired climbers sometimes forget to take them off.^[5] High-speed glissading is also not advised and can make any self-arrest more difficult and also dangerous (e.g. such as dislocated shoulders);^[4] it can also result in uncontrolled falls onto more dangerous terrain, and has been known to set off avalanches under certain conditions.^[6] Glissading near crevasses (e.g. a glacier or a bergshrund) is also very dangerous, and even more so when attempted as a rope team.^[2][4]