"Freeze-Free" snow stakes & flukes...??

I'm spraying all my SMC snow stakes and anchoring flukes with clear polyurethane to hopefully prevent them from being so DARN frozen in when I go to remove them from the snow.

I'll let you know this winter how this BRILLIANT! idea works out. (Now back to another can of Guiness.)

Eric

Uh. Eric, isn't the whole point of them freezing in so they don't pull out when put under tension?

I'd rather dig them out than have them come out in a high wind. Just a thought.

Why not just make disposable snow anchors out of a tree branch and tie them off with something like a trucker's hitch that you can release and pull out the cord?

Really depends on the kind of snow you're playing in - I think on the firmer pack stuff I kinda prefer the way eric's thinking. in the fluff or goo I have to pack down I go for the
bury it deep with a cord coming out approach...

Yeah - I'm happy when they stay in the snow; I wouldn't coat them in any way.

I use a lightweight ice axe to get them out - never have had a problem removing them after a few quick strokes with the adze to crack open any layer of ice, then I pull them out with the pick.

I like the SMC T-anchors best; the snow stakes are a distant second.

Hi Tom,

"Supposably" the stakes & wider flukes are holding on the snow at an "optimum angle". They should be placed so they are pulling against compacted snow and not need to rely on chunks of ice frozen to them.

At least this is the physics. Real world stuff may be different. ("Your results may vary.")

Eric

I've used the bigger snow flukes to make a belay anchor on hard snow, so the little ones should work the same way. The snow stakes are a different deal. When I was up at Yosemite, they kept pulling out because the snow was so fluffy. You don't see powder that often in the Sierra, but this time, it was pretty deep, so getting them to stay in the snow was almost impossible. One reason to use a freestanding tent. The snow was so deep and soft that when I stuck my skis in it, they went all the way up to the binding with little effort.

I asked this question on VFTT and using the stakes or something else as a deadman seemed to be a popular choice. With a deadman made from a branch, you could freeze it in and just pull out the line if you tied it off right.

Tom D

after stomping your tent platform, lay out the tent and then really stomp the stake sites and add more snow until those sites are hard enough to drive in a stake. When it consolidates it will be like ice. After placing the stake, stomp once more lightly to tighten the snow around the stake.

If you use dead men, just loop the line around the buried dead man and tie the loose end above the snow. Then when you leave, simply untie and pull the cords down and around the deadman. no need to dig them up.

Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Jim,That's pretty much what I had to do. Fortunately, there was no wind at all, so I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about it. I was on the way to Dewey Point and it was pretty much dead calm after the big snowfall.