UKH

For this installment of the QC Lab, we invited IFMGA Mountain Guide Mark Smiley to help us examine and discuss the art of snow anchors. Mark has guided hundreds of clients on climbing and skiing trips around the world and is the founder of Mountain Sense, an online education platform dedicated to climbing, skiing and mountaineering.

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Is all this testing for the North American market? Some of the language is very technical, and might mean something to the 'cousins' but was lost on me. No mention of snow flukes (Deadman type plates). Nobody I know winter climbs in Scotland with skis. Need I go on?

Written by an American , bound to be primarily for a NA audience.

Snowflutes I assumed are snow stakes/ pickets.

Basically, anything buried or hammered into snow has a resistance to pulling out, the hard bit is assessing how good it is for a climbing anchor.