In reply to Slugain Howff:
> in the past perhaps too much emphasis was placed on digging a pit to evaluate the slope.
That's what I was taught 20 years ago. I was surprised when I did a refresher course a couple of years back that the digging of pits is no longer recommended (at least, not the digging of a single pit at the beginning of the day). We dug several pits, on the same aspect, a few metres apart, and even in the very stable conditions we had, got remarkably different results.
As you say, continual reassessment wass the current recommendation.