Could avalanche warnings be added to the snow reports?

ise wrote:

Pablo Escobar wrote:The only way to be really sure is to have the knowledge yourself and start digging.

We don't dig pits in Europe really, it's not an effective decision making tool. We dig pits for snow science purposes and study but not to give a go/no-go decision on any given day. I would perform quick shovel shear tests while moving sometimes but at least partly to explain to people how the snowpack is evolving as much as decision making.

Interesting that, I did my avvy 1 (which ovviously makes me an expertz) and digging holes was part of it and explaining about all the different layers and how they could be used to assess slope stability etc including the Reusch sp?! block thing and different assortments of fingers and fists.

Pablo Escobar wrote:
Interesting that, I did my avvy 1 (which ovviously makes me an expertz) and digging holes was part of it and explaining about all the different layers and how they could be used to assess slope stability etc including the Reusch sp?! block thing and different assortments of fingers and fists.

It's vital to be able to do it if you're out in the mountains leading groups, the only way to understand how snowpacks work is to dig down and test it out. But it's only really a study tool, not something you'd do while out moving. Various tests show that if you dig many pits over a slope that (a) you've trashed it and (b) they give a range of results.

For example, after the Buachaille avalanche it was widely commented that if they'd dug a pit they'd have known it was unsafe which is a nonsense, if they'd read the SAIS advisory they'd have already known that it was dangerous. And that's a common scenario, you've generally got enough information without digging pits. And the question is, when and where to dig one? At the top of a slope? How did you get there? What's it going to be like lower down? Or around the corner? and so on.

By doing that as study you're armed with enough background to read the more detailed reports, like this :



that made me do a double take :lol: failure at RB4 :!: then I realised it was 10 days ago :D