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Backpack: Highcountry: Hiking on Scree & Talus
If you're used to well-groomed packed dirt trails, the mountains have a surprise waiting for you just above that first rocky rise: Scree - the crumbling stuff that you skid down on - and Talus - the bigger rock rubble (boulders and slabs) that forms a high-altitude obstacle course. Both can be very nerve-racking: Having the ground move beneath your feet. Climbing scree.- Climbing scree is a little like climbing a sand dune: You can work awfully hard and end up in pretty much the same place you started.
- But unlike sand on a dune, scree isn't very deep. You can actually kick steps into it and get purchase with the front of your boots. Even so, it's a laborious way to climb.
- Another choice is to try to switchback by traversing the slope and gaining a little elevation at a time. This makes the climb less steep.
- As you ascend, you'll probably see bigger rock chunks here and there. These can make good footholds, but test them first since they are subject to the same law of gravity that keeps trying to pull you downhi
 ll: A stable-looking rock could be sitting on an unstable layer of scree that will start to slide just as you put your foot on it.
Hiking on talus.Talus, otherwise called a boulder field, is made up of big broken rock chunks. Moving on it can be difficult: Big rocks force you to take bigger steps (which is hard on the knees going down and requires strength going up) from one rock to the other. You also need good balance, because all the while the rocks can be moving underfoot. - The key to talus travel, whether you're going uphill or down, is to always look several steps ahead. That way, if a rock starts to shift and throw you off balance, you can simply hop to the next one without taking time to think.
- Climbing is easier than descending: Going up, you're fighting gravity; but going down, gravity is tugging at your balance and can pull you somewhere you may not want to go. The best way to climb up is to take a diagonal route. Not only is it less strenuous than the straight-up approach, it's also safer for your hi
 king partners below you, who could be hit if you dislodge a loose rock. - Going downhill on talus can be frustrating, nerve-racking, and hard on the knees. Beginners usually go one rock at a rime, trying always to stay balanced and in control. Far easier is hopping from rock to rock in a controlled dance with gravity.
- To practice, try moving downhill on rocks without your pack. Keeping your knees bent, hop from one to the next. Use a side-to-side motion; it's slower and easier to control. (Side-to-side is easier on the knees, too, than going straight downhill.) Likewise, choose a less steep lateral route whenever possible. Whether you're traveling fast or slow on talus, hiking sticks help: You can use them to take the weight off your knees for big steps, to test the stability of rocks, or to fine-tune your balance on a fast decent. However, if you've got bad knees or a heavy load, or if the descent is simply too frightening to attack head-on, you may have to resort to the tried-and-true and one-step-at-a-time approach.
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Excerpted from Advanced Backpacking: A Trailside Guide. Copyright © 1998 by Karen Berger. With permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
