Staying Safe in the Hills: A V-Thread Primer

Part of the skills-quiver: Building a V-thread ice anchor to facilitate safe descending while ski mountaineering.

The elegance and efficiency of ski touring often comes to a screeching halt whenever we encounter technical terrain, as we trade the simplicity of up and down tracks for anchor building, rope tangles, and shouted commands. What a bummer. One aspect of the technical bits that can satisfy even the most idealistic of mountain travelers, however, is the humble V-Thread. A tube drilled through the ice by two carefully placed screws turns out to be the simplest, strongest, and lowest impact anchor we can make. Given enough ice and a lot of patience, it’s possible to rappel an infinite distance, leaving nothing behind. Not exactly powder turns, but you have to appreciate the system.

To construct a V-thread, you don’t really need much, just an ice screw, and a small piece of wire. These tools are available commercially, but you can also make your own out of a bit of clothes hanger if you want to be frugal. For practical purposes though, if I expect to be rappelling off threads, I carry two ice screws: one 13 cm, to clip myself to, and one 17-21 cm screw, to make the thread itself. Of course, if you are rappelling, you also need the rest of the kit—rope, harness, rappel device, 120 cm sling, and a couple lockers.