🚀 go-pugleaf

X-Orig-MsgId: <81icgn$27n$2@news1.bu.edu>

Andrew Mitchell (a.mitchell@SPAMFREE.unsw.edu.au) wrote:
: standard practice around here, but maybe not elsewhere.  I am in the
: process of  making some snowstakes based on instructions in the New
: Zealand equivalent of TFOTH, "Mountaincraft".  They recommend 90degree
: V-piece aluminium, with dimensions of 50mm per side and 3mm thick.
: About 60cm long.  

I have two of those. They may have better holding-to-weight ratio but
the particular kind you said is pretty heavy.

:From looking in catalogues/websites for the rest of
: the world + TFOH, it seems that a lot of other places use other shapes
: (T or H cross section?), but the instructors and the book say that the V
: is favoured because "it gives better holding power for the same
: weight". 

I think that is partly because people in Australian and New Zealand
mostly use them in the NZ southern Alps.  There is something like
50m of new snow every year.  Wide pikets that hold better in the soft
snow found there are preferable than strong picket that tuned for
the Rockies, the Cascades, and perhaps the European Alps, where
snows are relatively firmer.

: My question (if anyone has made this style of stake), is what is the
: best pattern of holes, ie size, spacing etc, so as to get best snow grip
: without compromising the strength of the stake. 

As has been suggested, make a prototype and bounce test it.