The Nissan Path

Ok so I have a couple very nasty downhills on my commute that occasionally turn into ice rinks. The first time I tried crawling down in 4hi by shifted down to 1st gear. The problem is that once the revs got high (no where near redline) it just upshifted on me and I had to get back on the brakes (no fun on ice) then it would downshift again to 1st once I slowed down. So the second time I ran into this situation I put it in 4lo and she crawled down like a champ. Problem this time was that the ice cleared halfway down but I was now stuck in 4lo moving at a crawl until I could get pulled over and get it back in hi-range. So I'm wondering if there's a trick to get it to stay in 1st gear in manual without going to 4lo?

With an auto tranny your probably doing the best you can get with 4Low. Otherwise 4High with light braking is probably the best alternative, which you are already doing.