In 2002 Karl Birkeland was researching a new stability test, the Stuffblock, and needed willing participants to try it and record their data. Since Karl sits in the cubicle next to me, I was an easy recruit. All that season I filled a stuff sack with ten pounds of snow and dropped it from ever increasing heights, dutifully recording the results in my yellow Rite-in-the-Rain book along with other pit information. It was a relatively easy task. The real work came at the end of season when Karl sent me a spreadsheet to fill in every detail of the pit and test: score, quality, hardness and grain type of the weak layer and adjacent ones, signs of instability and stability rating.
Publication
The Avalanche Review
Date of Publication