Been thinking about this for a while. Glaciers aside, when would you tie together and not use some kind of protection on a steep snow slope? Do you think a team of 2 or 3 skilled climbers would almost always be better off by themselves or would roping together without running pro be a good strategy sometimes? How likely is it that your rope mates could stop your fall on snow if you could not?
I've practiced team arrest with some friends, and kept the length of rope between us about the length for cascades glacier travel. With just a slight bit of slack in the system, we were able to arrest the other person's fall most of the time with a second or two of warning. Provided the weight difference between climbers wasn't huge. What are other people's thoughts/experiences on team arrest?