In article ,
Martin Thornquist wrote:
I've heard that people travelling over glaciers with a really heavy
pulk (think skiing to the South Pole) sometimes use really long, rigid
poles. The theory being that if you fall through a snow bridge the
pulk stays on top and the poles hold you up.

The problem is that this presumes your sled's travel is perpendicular to
the line of the crevasse and not colinear to the snow bridge. Most of
the time: it won't be. Skis are very good distributing weight compared
to unshod walking boots except for very wide crevasses as in large enough to
swallow a sno-cat (think Mawson's Will and his ponies breaking
through snow bridges). Then the ski gives you a false sense of security
until you get to the thinnest part of the bridge.
You can get over thin Antarctic snow bridges with skis
which you can't do with a sledge.

I'm a bit skeptical, as
you usually make a big hole if you fall through with skis on, but it
might be better than nothing.

People trying solo traversals and winter ascents of Denali have tried
horizontally carrying ladders or long strong poles (and back packs). The
advantage on temperate/continental glaciers unlike ice sheets is that
you have an idea of flow direction and some sense (but not always) how
crevasses run (rememeber: not always like bends/turns).

N. Uemura's body has never been found on Denali, and he used this solo glacier
travel system.

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