In reply to BruceM:
> (In reply to Roberttaylor)
>
> What sort of pits are people digging when they say pits?
I just use my adze to dig away a free standing block about 1m square in an area that will be representative of the area I will be in; it's not a pit as such. On sun I dug to just under the surface of old neve (I assumed that under that was not going be the issue). All four sides are clear and the front is cleared (down slope) so you can see layers etc. If it slides as you are digging you definitely should not be there! Once dug I look for soft spots, grouple any other features in the layers. They may not be obvious though. On Sun on the Ben ice balls/grouple was pouring out of one of the layers...not good!
Then I tap the back gently and systematically with both open palms trying to tease any layers away. If some thing gives at this stage it is an unstable snow pack and still high risk. If nothing moves I tap the top of the block with both open palms. On sun I got to this stage, the block broke up revealing 2 layers, which were moderately bonded...had the grouple layer not been there I would have made this a cat 3.
If no layers revealed when the block breaks the snow pack may be okay, cat 1-2.
There are many ways of doing it, this is not the best or text book way but it is quick and tells me at least something of what is going on...at that particular point. How good it is is a lot down to your interpretation.
I use them a lot as they give me a rough idea of the snowpack stability .