also as I asked earlier, "How accurate is this type of test?".
It depends.
You dig a pit. You can do lots of things in your pit. You can take a paint brush and gently sweep the snow away from the wall. This will show you the hard and soft layers.
You can punch your fist, your finger, your pencil into the layers.
You can use a thermometer to see the temperature gradient in the snowpack.
You can isolate a column and test it to see how easily the layers shear off each other. You can look at the crystals in between each layer. You can put them on a special crystal card and look at them under a microscope.
You can isolate a big, skier size block and jump on it to see how a theoretical skier will affect the theoretical snowpack...
It's all subjective to the testers experience and the location of the pit versus the location of the slope...
Pits show weakness in the snowpack. They dont show strength or give permission...
They knew that weak layer was there. That's why they didnt dig a pit.
How do you know they didn't dig a pit? I've not seen mention of that fact one way or another in any published articles on this incident.
You're correct. I was replying to the post above questioning "why wouldnt resort officials dig one".
I should have been more clear in stating that they didnt need to dig a pit (regardless if they did or didnt) to know that the weak layer was there as it has been well known and forecasted.
A pit or several pits may have shed some light on how extensive and how reactive it was in that particular area, but they knew it was there.
One knows the risk, one takes the risk, one sometimes pays the ultimate price.
All we can do is educate ourselves and try to mitigate the risk.
Life is not always safe, especially when one is having fun.
Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
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Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
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