UKH

Myself and friend have experience using crampons + walking axe, and are thinking of doing gran paradiso -do we need to learn how to do crevasse rescue? (I assume yes)

Advanced crevasse rescue is not the most important skill. Avoiding crevasses and good rope management on the glacier are basic skills that you should employ every time you are out.

If someone goes in a crevasse and cannot climb out, it's asking a lot to haul them out using a complicated pulley system. That's an expert skill that would take a lot of time and effort to master.

Whereas, managing the rope, crossing a bergschrund safely and being to set up an effective ice axe belay are core skills that you are likely to need regularly.

Also, rock fall is a much greater danger generally that you should be vigilant about.

On the Gran Paradiso in particular there will be a well made track and lots of people around. The chance of needing advanced crevasse rescue is almost zero. However, if you are walking too close together and one of you goes in a crevasse and pulls the other in, that is a real danger.

PS you see guides all the time teaching novice clients the advanced pulley system. But, the point is this. If I was out with those novices and I went down a crevasse and couldn't get myself out, then the odds of them successfully pulling me out I would estimate at close to zero! 

The guide could probably get me out, but even then, it could be a struggle.

What you're saying is definitely true, but I would emphasise that being able to walk properly roped up, and being able to arrest and kick in when your partner falls in are not advanced skills but they definitely do need learning. In the Alps, if you're sensible and climbing in good weather, when you catch your partner's fall, you can ring for a helicopter and they'll winch the person out. But you have to have not fallen in yourself in order to make the phone call!

One would almost think that's why practical training that goes beyond a very short period with a guide is vital for any mountain sport.

No, but it is an important skill. It's a hot day and you are descending from your route. You are roped up and making good route decisions, but you punch into a crevasse. Now you're hanging on a rope, with cold water soaking you. Your hardshell is in your pack and your warm later is attached to your harness but you're too constricted by the walls of the crevasse to get them on. Your headtorch came off your helmet in the fall and now it's nearly dark; you fumble your prussik because you're panicky and your hands are cold. Now, do you want your partner to know how to make an anchor, rig a 3:1 or a 5:1 and get you out? Or are you cool with calling the helicopter, which is busy and will take a few hours. 

It takes time to learn it, yes, but if taught well it can be picked up quickly and is far from being an expert skill. This also depends on the learner; some people are more mechanically inclined than others. Is it worth spending this time? See above.

All true, but just because you don't deploy a skill as frequently doesn't mean it isn't important. 

I've never been up GP, I just wanted to address the points you made above as they came across as generalisations. Relying on others for help though is something I'd caution against. OP and his partner, being new to alpinism, are slow on the ascent. They reach the summit and are the last party descending; many other parties turned back, seeing signs of coming weather. OP punches into a crevasse, the lid of which has been weakened by the sun. By the time his partner has shouted for help the parties ahead are out of earshot. OP is hanging in the icy, trickling water as previously described. Cloud comes in and now his partner can't signal with a headtorch. There's no phone signal and they don't have a PLB. 

In the distance, thunder.

Well, yes. You accrue experience over time. I don't think anybody would disagree with that.

Lots of sensible comments on this thread.  I would add a whistle around your neck.  Unless you are up there at a very odd time there will be lots of other people around.  Crevasse rescue is much easier with lots of people (depending on how good your Italian is!).

Thanks all. Much appreciated

Rockfall is not a much greater danger on the ordinary route on Gran Paridiso, and moving safely on the glacier is the more important skill set to have.  Did you have significant rockfall when you ascended GP and when was  this?

Isn't the point of that, showing you how cold wet and miserable and potentially difficult it is to be in crevasse (making it real), so that you really try to avoid these things, a really good lesson.

edited for sense! 

The BMC do a video training session on these techniques, well worth a look

Spending a day at the beginning of an Alpine trip doing this with a guide is no bad thing and can usefully be part of the acclimatisation period.

That is an alternative point of view. But, if the OP is honest with himself, then the message is don't go on a glacier unless you have perfected crevasse rescue skills.

There is danger of rockfall everywhere in the Alps. The first time I did the GP (in 1995) one team did indeed have to jump out of the way of a boulder.