Re: [Paddlewise] FW: Trip Report: Monday Mo

From: John Fereira <jaf30_at_cornell.edu>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 16:03:10 -0400
At 01:14 PM 10/21/99 -0500, Chuck Holst wrote:
>>>
>Was surprised to learn that one can sometimes hear snow falling on
>water. Anyone else ever experienced that?
>>>
>
>Snow can be surprisingly noisy. For instance, stop on a packed ski
>trail at zero degrees F. and rotate the point of your ski pole in
>the packed snow, and listen to the snow squeak like styrofoam. Walk
>across that same snow, and listen to it crunch. 

I always remember hearing that sound and knowing that it was going
to be a good day because at that temperature conditions were usually
really good.  In "spring like" conditions that sound was more of a splash.

While Snow can be surprisingly noisy it also can hinder one of the other
senses.   I was skiing one day at Squaw Valley when there was a combination
of dense fog and blizzarding conditions.  As I was making may way from the
top of one chairlift to another that had a run with a protected bowl I was
skiing
through an area where the wind was blowing snow over a ridge across the run.
At one point there was so much snow that I couldn't see where I was going
so I stopped for a bit to wait for the wind to die down.   At least I
thought I was
stopped until I felt myself go over a bump.  There was so much snow that
*everything* was white so I had no point of reference to tell that I was even
moving.  I just sat down and waited a minute until I could see the outlines
of some trees.   

***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not
to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************
Received on Thu Oct 21 1999 - 13:04:12 PDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:15 PDT