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I would like to see a ski buried as a T-anchor tested. Thanks for going out into the snow! There's a lot of risks to be explained and things to get tested I think.

In Magnus Midbto's new ice climbing video his instructor claimed "I'd hand a car off that" and "the hanger will break before it comes out" about ice screws. They need a break test

I genuinely had a discussion last week, where i argued that a glove burried in good snow is good enough. 🤫 Would love to see a test on how much force it takes to pull someone out of a crevasse with different (improvised) pullies.

I would love to see ice screw anchors and V threads!

I really want to see if a snow bollard is okay without padding, in alpinism you often don't have the luxury of leaving a backpack behind.

Be interesting to see a test of a deadman as well as pickets (like a DMM deadman, fixe/faders deadman that kind of thing) as a lot of people use that sort of thing rather than pickets

opening the door to snow anchor testing, this channel now has enough potential content for the next decade.

Thanks for starting this! I’m kinda amazed that our cascade concrete wasn’t stronger. What would better snow conditions be? Would love to see some ice axe anchors in better snow.

Definitely need a follow up to this one. Our snow consolidates very nicely up here in the summer. Gives true meaning to "cascade concrete". You can build some very bomber picket anchors in that stuff! Key, of course, would be getting to that snow as it will require a hike of some sort. Still very informative video!

Yeah I'd be very interested in late spring consolidated snow pack up on a cascade mountain (eg. Baker, Rainier)! Also there is lots of comedy to be had with: I'm out on the side of a mountain with no gear, what kind of shit can I burry and still make an anchor. Bags filled with snow, sticks. You did a glove already, but options are endless. Also, welcome to the PNW. It is a good time up here.

If someone doesn't photoshop a picture of Ryan crawling up Everest with that ice axe I'll be sooo disappointed 🤣 Definitely loved the snow anchor videos, would definitely enjoy more along with an ice anchor series 🤞👍

could you test ice screws and anchors, abalak anchor thanks a lot it is great to watch :)

I would like to see an ice screw anchor bolt for ice climbing.

This is great and I think shows a lot about how variable winter snow can be and how weak basic picket anchors in that kind of snow often are as a result. It would be really cool to see these same tests done in a mid or late summer snowpack when things are way more consolidated, my suspicion is that you would probably see the picket break in nearly every test done and it would be cool to see what kind of numbers you get from non standard anchors (vertical/deadmaned ice axe, deadmaned trekking pole, backpack, frozen snickers bar, etc.) when snow strength isn't the limiting factor.

Yet another fantastic video! Keep 'em coming! Deadmen, dry snow, ice axes, screws.....

I usually build a snowman and anchor to the lowest ball.

That was one of the most interesting videos of yours to date! I really enjoyed the professional input from Kevin and Joe. Would love to see this again in different snow and maybe some other anchors (Ice-Axe, Ski, Snow-Shoe, frozen Body,...).

one of my favorite videos of yours yet! There are a million variable with snow anchors and I would love more videos of these kinds of tests!

This experiment would be really cool in the spring in the rockies over the course of a day, before sunrise to mid-day when the snow has had sun exposure. In winter in the rockies I don't think snow pickets would hold anything in our dry snow. I would also love to see ice screws and v-threads as others have mentioned. thank you for all that you do!

Could you do the same thing with ice axes? Europe people never use pickets but burry their skipoles, skis or most common an ice axe

Awesome video thank you. Snow is so variable it's hard to test but you did show the strength of different configurations which is what I was most interested in

I think this is the best piece of educational material I have seen on this topic. So good that you showed the pit and described the snow conditions. So interesting to see the contrast with the packed snow. I would love to see you do it again in different snow conditions. I would like to see more comparisons between 24-inch and 36-inch pickets, as well as a t-slot with a pair of skis. Good to see the folks from SMR.

Due to the incredible variability in conditions, placement, slope angle, and equipment, I'd love to see more snow stuff! Super helpful to have a ballpark estimate on deciding what's super good enough for typical self rescues.

As a backcountry skier in the PNW, so far my favorite episode. More snow types please!!!

Yes more snow and alpine tests!!

Very interesting. So many variables you can explore...thanks for getting some baseline testing!

More snow conditions would be nice to see. I don't see what made this snow so bad aside from the weak layer, it was nice and dense? Dealing with fresh fluffy snow seems like the real issue?

Awesome episode. Informative and entertaining. Thank you.

Excellent! I Learned a lot. Thank you all!

This is awesome! thanks Ryan and team for getting around to testing this for all of us snow nerds! Really cool to see how these behave in a close to isothermic (when the snow is all the same temp, usually 0 degrees Celsius) snowpack. As a bit of a snow nerd myself, I'll try to share some of my thoughts. It looks like his thermometer is down about 15-20cm from the surface. There is usually a temperature change of roughly 1 degree Celsius every 10cm of snow when you have an air temp of around what looks like to me based on the rain/snow of 0°c, if not a little bit warmer. This also works from the ground up, the snow touching the ground is almost always 0°c because the heat of the earth (something you would not have on a say, a glacier), This is probably why you are seeing fairly low results. The snow is close to being one big wet slushie! On the other hand if you took this exact snowpack and tested this on a day after say, 24 hours of below freezing temps, you could probably have very different results. Then all that moisture would freeze all the snow particles together and create a very strong snowpack. Much stronger in fact than snow that never saw above freezing air temperature in the first place (Rockies?). This is why you are able to get cascade concrete =D hope this helps. Also, I second @Deckzwabber and would love to see a T-Slot anchor with skis. Oh yeah and ice screws, V/ A threads would be super cool too! Cheers!

Thanks for the video. I do some mountaineering and I always wondered about the actual strength of snow anchors.

Awesome information and entertaining video. Thanks!

Great work as always! Thanks 🤙

deadman anchors based on skis or an ice axe that you might have to use for crevasse self-rescue would be really cool.

Seeing snow ballard without bags would be really interesting, i would also love some T or verticals anchors tested with some piolets like you would have in the mountain if you don't have pickets. Ice screws and V threads for the ice part would be really cool too!

Yes please show snow rescue methods and equipment.

Cool video. You never know when you may need to make a snow anchor. That climb at the end looks pretty tough. Lol

This was great! I love this type of content! Branching out from the normal stuff. (Not that I don't love the normal stuff)

It would be great to see some fluke snow anchor testing. Also it would be great to compare deadman and bollard anchors in various snow conditions and size of the anchor. Great episode.

Definitely interested in seeing this again in different snow conditions.

I had a guy tell me he rapped off a frozen Snickers bar. Also, that it use to be common to use chapstick tubes. I could see the snickers perhaps. Love what you guys do!

Awesome video, I always worry about half a dozen or like Everest a few hundred on 1 rope when mountaineering.

As a mountaineering enthusiast, I love this vid!

I think we need a good frame of reference for what kind of forces you may exert on a snow anchor. You have shown what a big rock climbing whipper can generate, but what about a rope team on a steep snow climb?

Here in Scotland we use either ice axes or deadmans for our snow anchors and abseil of snow bollards with no padding.

Love the glove anchor - Great mental note for emergency! Now need a clever idea of how to pull a snowmobile out of a ravine with minimal equipment and alone - minimal gear to keep on the sled.... Know Cascade Concrete all too well grew up in Wa, and did SAR there near on 35 years ago...

10:44 Just glad nobody came up with the idea to go try break that mega-picket anchored on top of the hill!

Please, take advantage of the season! more ice climbing equipment test will be awesome

You do great job, thank you Sir 👍💯🔥

Thanks Ryan! Would be awesome to see you do this on the glaciers of rainier, where the snow and ice might be different !

Love this content!!

I agree the boot-axe belay would be really interesting.

The other thing we do on my team in Colorado is after packing down the snow on an anchor we let it "set" for half an hour to an hour (depending on crystals). I'd love to see you test deadman anchors buried in the snow and packed in then pull on them in half hour increments.

I'd love to see some makeshift anchors, ski poles/skis, ice axes, shovel, etc. Love the glove test

So much work to crest the parking lot, Haven't spent much time in the snow but the nightmare would always be to fall in a crevas, definitely want someone quick with the snow ax and a picket there. Yeah different snow types would be good to see too, I've always been curious.

Would love to see some homemade pickets being used, or try with a MSR fluke. Awesome content!! Thanks a ton! Also, test a buried ice axe!!

Thank you for testing anchors. Now you need to build a snow "drop slope" similar to your Sacramento Drop Tower to evaluate the actual forces observed in long simulated falls on steep snow slopes. On snow at least it is unlikely one will be able to generate the forces found in a free fall on rock.

You gotta test ice screws and v-threads!

Finally!!!!!! This exciting!!!!!! Love Cascadia!!!!

Hey, thank you for your content, I love them :) I can't find good information about auto braking devices for ice climbing and winter mountaineering. Can you suggest which devices are "super good enough" and why? Cheers

Yes please test more snow anchors ! The glove test was a riot

different snow pack, the deadman in comparison and then skis, branches from trees would be awesome to see!

One day in crummy snow doesn't mean a whole lot. You could do a whole channel just on snow anchors in different conditions. Take that meter up and do some standard crevasse rescue practice. I'd like to see the forces placed on anchors in that scenario. 2:1, 3:1, 6:1, 9:1.

I would love to see several pickets of various styles all tied together into one anchor, like a T-slot or deadman sliding x'd to a vertical picket above, and maybe x cascade to another picket somewhere. Mix them all together, Something like that would be interesting. Also very much looking forward to ice screw anchors and v-threads! Oh and P.S.- someone has definitely rappelled off a snickers bar frozen in water ice.

Do ice screws! Also, a little out of your scope, but id love for you to get your hands on some of the crusty old anchors and other equipment small scale roofing companies tend to use to see if it would actually withstand a whip.

When we built picket anchors we stomped down the snow in front of where we were putting the the picket. Id love to see if compacting the snow in that way made a difference

From what I know apparently here in Canada an Inuit group has about 10-20 words for different types of snow

FYI: The shorts dont really explain this while your 17 minute 'long' format does a lot better. I wonder what it would be like to make an A frame (2 pickets with a top you pin and anchor from) (the idea of design of the picket might have to be beefed up)

this is gold, can you test the big snow boy without the padding bacpack? We use the rope directly on snow so would be nice to know and maybe different sizes

nice!!!! this was awesome

Ice ax bollard, Ice ax with boot step would be great. I'm not leaving a glove or candy (seriously who would?), but a medium sized stuff sack packed with snow has always been a backup and would love to see what that could get. And please, for the love of all that is sacred on the mountains, can we get Ryan above tree line for some self arrest and glissade?

Good stuff and scary. I felt using these climbing grade 1-2 snow gullies is Scotland snow anchors (pickets) were purely psychological . I thought the bollard might work though. Depends so much on snow of course.

Thank you thank you thank you. There is an old science paper that compared these as well. I've been pointing out that vertical pickets barely hold body weight. But people keep insisting they're useful like that.

Screws in solid ice?

I'd love to see this with improvised anchors, like a ski tied off.

Looks like you guys snowmobiled in, what about using vehicles to anchor off in an emergency? Snowmobiles, motorcycles, bicycles, truck hitches?

I want to know more about different kinds of snow and pickets!

Would love to see more snow anchors, especially in soft or windpacked snow

For the full British experience you need a properly frozen Mars Bar which at -10C probably has a structural integrity similar to the pickets you were using! The snow adhesion of a sub-zero trad shrunk wool mitt may also be a factor. 🙄

This is great. Id love to see you test how cleaning affects a rope (eg normal, muddy, washed with water, washed with bleach, etc)

Nice more snow anchors please 😃

Cool testing spot, I snowmobile right by there!

Super strong enough as anchors. Someone falling/sliding in snow doesn't generate a lot of force. Usually in snow the falling person also has an ice to help slow themselves down.

You guys are dope!

Please test modern pickets ; New Zealand style, 90 degree angle iron mid clip. Typically in NZ tests these are by far the best

Please please please do the same tests in colder conditions!

That snow seemed to be really warm. I wonder how much the air temperature and long wave radiation from the clouds was a factor in the strength of the snow? I bet testing snow that was more frozen or colder would be very different.

Great content! I’d love to see it in different conditions… also I wonder if the pelican case digging in the snow could have made the line scale read less since it was clearly taking some load

Great video. Test twisted straps. Quick draws.

If you wanted a semipermanent (couple days or couple weeks) anchor, and the weather was cold enough, could you add some water and let it freeze to harden up the snow?

Hey this was very nice to see. Could you Test Gras Ankors in Mixed (Frozen Gras) and in Summer not (Frozen Gras)

It would be really cool if Extreme Gear became the sole US supplier for Wide Boyz items. I would love to buy some crack volumes, but getting them out of the UK is a pain. Just a thought...

Classic Ryan, always creating that gear fear... Just kidding man, keep up the good work

sheeeeeesh really cool. I would like to se abalakovs tested, or do yopu allready have them?

Whats the background of placing the T pickets with the vertical line of the T in front? If you put the cross line in front you got more area for the snow to press against that would not be sliced by the vertical part. And shouldn't the picket withstand bending better with the vertical line in the back?

Man, every time I watch your videos I just wanna drop out of college and train on safety and guiding and having fun. Need an intern to make coffee and carry equipment haha?

Please try an ice axe it’s standard on crevasse rescue

Also, the shock load received when your partner on a glacier line falls into a crevasse would be cool to know.

best end to a video lol