Snow Bow Drill

've been wanting to try this modified hearth board technique for a while, so after the recent snow fall I headed out to the woods to give it a go.
I used a piece of Willow for the hearth board and a Willow spindle. The raised ember pan or ledge worked very well to keep the hot coal and eventual ember above the snow and ice and just above the cold ground moisture. As long as you don't knock over the hearth board there is no chance you will lose the ember, which is possible if you're using a separate ember pan.

A downside to this in-built ember pan is that it does take more time to prepare, which could be spent securing a traditional bow drill and ember pan.
With a traditional bow drill and seperate ember pan it is necessary to tap the ember free from the notch leaving it complete and ready for the tinder bundle. However with this in built ledge I failed to tap it free, which became a problem when I tried to transfer it to the bundle as half of the cherry red ember was left inside the notch. I'm sure I reduced my chances of a flaming bundle when I tipped the ember a second time as it fell apart. Next time with this technique I would still tap the ember free from the notch with the hope if falls freely into a bundle.

All in all fun to try but I'm not sure it's worth the extra time and effort spent preparing the modified hearth board, when the same result can be achieved with careful preparation of the separate ember pan adapted to the conditions you're in.

Has anyone else tried this? How did you get on?