Snow anchors with Black Diamond and Mark Smiley
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This is a great article on the Black Diamond website about recent snow anchor testing by IFMGA Guide Mark Smiley and the Black Diamond team.
They did a superb job on it, so I'm gonna send you to the link and have you read it there.
The focus is on rappel anchors, but the results are applicable to crevasse rescue anchors as well.
Even better, Mark gives access to a free sample lesson on T slot / deadman anchors from his online class, The Ultimate Guide To Modern Alpinism, as a link from the BD article, so check it out.
Here’s a table summarizing some of the results.
image: https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/stories/qc-labs-snow-anchors/
Takeaways:
Bounce test your anchor before using. If you give it a really good jump, you should test the anchor with about three times your body weight.
Rappel as smoothly as possible.
Buried Snickers bar, not so good. Buried Tyvek envelope, #ProbablySuperGoodEnough.
And a buried 2x4? Stronger then you think! Next time you need an snow anchor, might want to look around for a tree branch.