In reply to zmv:
Excellent article.
This thread and your article confirm for me the importance of mindset and humility when it comes to climbing, particularly winter climbing. I've only climbed a few ice routes, all within a single climbing holiday some years ago. I went with much more experienced (rock) climbing partners, whom it subsequently emerged had somewhat overstated their abilities. After being led unknowingly and against my stated wishes into a no-retreat belay on one of the region's hardest routes, and subsequently having to arrange rescue for myself and my hapless leader, I feel I'm a bit wiser.
In the various lower-grade routes we climbed as a trio, my partners committed every error noted by Mr Gadd in his article and more besides: belays under falling ice, south-facing routes climbed inexorably slowly in the midday sun, redundant pro... And their ethos was very much that while one should *try* not to fall, such a situation was ultimately inevitable when pushing it. On the route I mention above, the leader laced the first pitch with pro approximately every 2.5m (constructing abalakovs on pitch due to running low on gear, this with something like 10 ice screws available). As a result, the abortive first pitch took something like 2.5 hours before I insisted on abandonment.
After considerable difficulty in retreat (due to water cascading down the route and freezing the ropes in place) the leader arrived back at the belay drained, frightened and mildly hypothermic. Serious harm did not result: we were rescued quickly and with a minimum of fuss, thanks to excellent mobile phone signal and excellent local rescue services. However I was stunned by my partners' ability to subsequently deny the frightening catalogue of errors leading up to the event. These occasional HVS leaders, with the benefit of a couple of near-disastrous trips to Scotland in winter, and some ice top-roping at the North Face store in Manchester, had felt they were sufficiently skilled to onsight WI6.
Apologies for the long story; it feels a bit cathartic. Anyway I think my point is that it's important to firstly choose your team carefully, and to have a safety-first mindset in which you feel empowered to question practices. Falling simply shouldn't happen. In winter climbing one relies so much more on one's partners to do right and get you out of trouble, and the hazards in comparison to summer cragging are so much higher.
Hope all that is not dreadfully off-topic.
Post edited at 20:47