When placing a snow picket, a key decision is whether you can place it vertically (preferably leaning back about 25° from the direction of pull for optimum strength) or if you need to bury it as a deadman, a.k.a. T-slot.

If you're using it for crevasse rescue, where the anchor has to be unquestionably strong, a single T-slot or possibly a T-slot equalized with a vertical picket is usually the best choice.

In firm summer snow in ideal conditions, you might get away with a vertical placement, which is good because it's faster.

If you make a vertical placement, you get a much stronger anchor if you clip the picket in the middle instead of the top. From IFMGA certified guide Mark Smiley, on his Instagram, he writes:

“ . . . if the snow is soft enough to push one gloved finger into it, a top clipped picket will likely fail under 500 pounds (~2 kN) Yikes! A deadman style picket placed 60cm down = strength of midclip vertical pickets = ~1500 pounds (6.7 kN)”

(Side note: One of the best studies on snow anchors is from the 2010 International Snow Science Workshop, from a paper called “Snow anchors for Belaying and Rescue”, by Don Bogie (New Zealand) and Art Fortini, (USA). You can see it here.)

But if you're unsure of the firmness of the snow, here’s a good rule of thumb, also courtesy of Mark Smiley:

“Typically if it takes 10+ solid hammer strikes to drive the picket to the deepest hole (top of the picket), then I have confidence the snow is firm enough. If less than 10 strikes, I will switch to building a T-slot anchor...which takes longer to build but it’s stronger.”

Mark’s tip is in the comment section of this excellent Youtube video from Outdoor Research, “How to Build a Snow Anchor.”