What kind of column test is this?

Go to minute ( 2:24 ) and you'll see a guy balancing a column on-top of the shovel blade and tapping from the bottom.

backcountrymagazine.com/videos/mountain-...-escape-glacier-bay/

Shovel tilt test. Googling turns up a number of references.

The Shovel Tilt Test is an excellent tool for identifying weak interfaces in the near-surface snowpack, interfaces that are sometimes unidentified in compression tests because the compression destroys the near-surface layers before any failure can be noted. You'll see Mark Allen (IFMGA/AMGA Mountain Guide, and PNW local) perform an Extended Column Test afterwards, specifically watching for failure along the interface he identified with the Shovel Tilt Test.

Ah..and near surface faceting (just read about this this season...pretty interesting though still a bit "over the head").