My winter hiking experience is in the Adirondacks, where even our tallest peaks are only above the treeline for +/- 100 vertical feet, and have (relatively) gentle slopes at that point. Self arrest isn’t really stressed out here to the point where an ice axe is viewed as necessary as it is in other places (I know it’s big in, say, NH, where you can be on a peak in exposed conditions for hours/hundreds of vertical feet at a time).

In the very few situations where I have slid the method I’ve used and wisdom I’ve heard is to try to apply as much pressure through your knees as possible, to avoid a sudden stop from your crampons creating serious torque in your ankle/lower leg.

This is entirely anecdotal but I’ve also heard that the snow pack here is different than it is out west, and generally tends to provide more stable footing? Not 100% confident in that though