Have you ever tried to figure out how steep the slope in your mountain garden or alpine meadow is.
This steep slope question now has an answer, due to a recent brainwave I had. As I enjoy snowboarding and skiing in the Swiss winter mountains, I try to stay as safe as possible. Therefore, I use an app called “White Risk“, which is usually used to help keep you informed about your off-piste skiing. One of the features is an inclinometer. See the image of the app. You use the inclinometer to check the steepness of slopes before skiing, along with information on the snow pack and direction of the slope to determine avalanche risk.
I found I could use the inclinometer feature along with taking screen shots of my phone, a Sony Xperia XZ3. I have included some photos taken outside my home, where I made my first test run. See earlier blog post “Remote mower test run“.
Results to measuring slope steepness
The following steep slope photos show the variation of the terrain that was used for the filming of our remote controlled alpine steep slope mower. You may need to tilt you head to line up with the red markers for the horizontal.
My next project will be to try the, Goat 22T, out on a real Alpine mountain garden steep slope. This will be once the weather is better and the land had dried out from the snow melt. But as a preview I have some more photos, which shows the inclination of the land in the following gallery.
I am so looking forward to using the Goat 22T as it was difficult just walking around the slopes to take the photos and mapping the steepness of the terrain.
I hope you now have a better idea about measuring the steepness of your slopes that need annual garden maintenance.