Propagation Labs Is Working to Revolutionize Snow Science Observations

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As any recreational backcountry skier who has ever dug a snowpit knows, gathering data in the backcountry is a pain in the ass. It's physically demanding, hard to get accurate data, it's cold and wet, but perhaps worst of all, it takes valuable time away from what you're out there trying to do: ski powder. Luckily, if you are hunting powder turns anywhere with a public avalanche forecast, you probably aren't digging a whole lot of pits during the winter because teams of professional forecasters are out there doing that for you. The problem is, these tests are really time-consuming to do, and there simply aren't enough people out there taking this kind of data to accurately paint the picture of what's going on in the snow across entire mountain ranges. That's the issue Propagation Labs hopes to address with their Snow Scope probe–an electronic pressure-sensing avalanche probe that can identify minute changes in snow hardness to create snow profiles in a matter of seconds. The tool won't tell you where or when an avalanche will happen, but it can rapidly provide loads of data to snow professionals to help them decide how to communicate avalanche hazard more accurately.

As a quick refresher, a snowpit is essentially a cross-section of the snowpack beneath your boots on the slopes of a mountain. They are used by ski patrollers, guides, forecasters, and recreational backcountry skiers as a data point to assess avalanche hazard. As the winter progresses, and storms blanket our mountainsides with fresh coats of snow throughout the season, the different layers of snow bond differently to one another due a variety of weather factors like temperature, wind, solar heating, or rain. The point of a snow pit is to observe how these layers interact with one another in real time in a specific location, and identify any weak layers that may cause an avalanche. It takes years of practice to actually get good at taking these kinds of observations, but they have been the best tool forecasters have to identify what's going inside the snow.

For Propagation Labs founders Garrett Harmsen and Joe Trovato, creating a tool that can rapidly produce accurate data in the backcountry came from a desire to meaningfully contribute to their beloved backcountry skiing community. In fact, Trovato admits that the new venture is probably not a great business decision, saying, "There's not really a whole lot of people who will find a need to buy this, but for those that do, we're confident that it will make a real difference that ultimately trickles down to all of us." For them, it's about meaningful contribution to a community and sport that has changed their lives for the better.

Trovato and Harmsen met while working at a similar company in Park City back in 2015 called Avatech, who produced the original digital snow scoping device called the SP1. Harmsen joined the Avatech team straight out of college after growing up skiing Colorado's I-70 corridor out of Denver. Trovato was raised in New Hampshire but did not set foot in the backcountry until going on a trip to Chile with Avatech where he learned the basics from pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones. These days, backcountry skiing and snowboarding is a driving force in both their lives. 

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Both worked as hardware engineers at Avatech, helping to develop the original SP1 probe, but knew there was much more potential in the product, which suffered from some inherent design flaws and often failed to produce usable data. When Avatech ultimately went under, the two put in a bid to buy back the part of the company they had dedicated the early part of their careers to, eventually ending up with the tools and ability to continue to further develop the probe on their own.

In 2020, they launched the next-generation Snow Scope Probe under the name Propagation Labs. Unlike the bulky and heavy SP1, the new tool looks much like a standard avalanche rescue probe. It contains a slew of sensors in the tip, that when probed into the snow, measure hardness and depth of the various layers of the snowpack, creating a hardness profile viewable immediately on a mobile app. The whole process takes 10-15 seconds. That incredibly short timing is key here–even the fastest and most accurate professionals take many minutes to excavate and test a snow profile. By using the Snow Scope Probe, Harmsen and Trovato hope that forecasters can generate dozens, if not hundreds, of snow hardness profiles in a day, instead of merely the handful they would without it.

The team hopes that the massive increase in data generated by a tool like this will help directly address one of the biggest issues facing forecasters today. "Snow and avalanche forecasting today is where weather forecasting was 50 years ago, the data just wasn't very good back then," says Trovato. "This tool will take a lot of the subjectiveness out of observation data." Essentially, having more usable data will help to better paint a higher-resolution picture of what's going on in the snow across an entire forecast area.

The current lack of data also leaves forecasts open to another pitfall: spatial variability, or the fact that the snowpack can drastically change within a few feet on the same slope. Mountainous terrain is incredibly complex, and data from a snowpit dug in the sunny middle of a certain slope might not represent what's going on a more shaded side of it 20 feet away. It's easy to miss a problem, or create a false sense of security based on too little data. Instead of digging two pits and creating two hand hardness profiles that would take 30 minutes, why not use the Snow Scope Probe to test the snowpack in 15 different locations in five minutes?

Trovato and Harmsen air squarely aiming the product at avalanche forecasting centers, ski patrol organizations, and guide services. Unlike the original SP1 probe, which was also aimed at higher-level recreational users, the Propagation Labs team wants the product to get thoroughly tested, evaluated, and trusted by pros first. They also stress that the Snow Scope Probe only replaces the hardness test/profiling portion of a comprehensive study pit. It can help identify potential weak layers, but it can't test their strength or whether a slab will propagate–that still needs to be with standard tests like an Extended Column Test, Compression Test, or Propagation Saw Test.

They do, however, offer the mobile app to anyone–and it's actually a phenomenal tool for recreational users to use while taking their own obs in the backcountry. A recent software update lets voice recordings translate directly into a snow profile graph, allowing for hands-free data collection in the field. Keep your gloves on and focus on digging, not getting frustrated by cold hands trying to type into your smartphone.

Finally, the team wants to continue sharing all the data submitted into the app. Currently, pit data is shared to Community Snow Obs, a NASA-funded citizen science initiative designed to gather snow depth data from all across the world.