Do you Really Need to Dig Snowpits?
How often do you really need to dig snow pits? As a recreational backcountry user, the answer is... Not often. BCA Co-Founder Bruce Edgerly's strategy? Leave the digging to the avalanche forecasters. Bruce recommends reading the avalanche forecast in the morning, and digging hasty pits and hand shears tests to verify what he saw in the avalanche bulletin.Digging snow pits a few times throughout the season is a great way to identify and track weak layers over time. On a regular basis, however, there is so much variability in the snowpack that no one snow pit should be used as a green light to travel on a particular line.