For a Skiing Mountain's Snow Report, What Are the Different Types of Snow?
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I was reading a skiing mountain’s snow report, and it said that it has packed powder. Is that good? What is that? Also, what are the other types of snow?
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07/10/2010 at 6:11 am
Packed Powder means that the mountain had some snowfall and they groomed it (meaning leveled it, made everything flat).
Sometime theyll say Powder conditions meaning ungroomed snowfall.
Icy means that it hasnt snowed in a while and the previous snow melted then froze again turning to ice.
Thin cover means that it hasnt snowed enough yet this season and parts of grass or rocks are showing through whatever snow is there.
Its best to have packed powder or ungroomed powder. The more snow the better.
07/10/2010 at 6:11 am
Spring conditions= rocks and dirt showing.
powder= fresh snow
deep powder= fresh snow 4" deep or more
groomed powder= day before yesterday groomed with a packing machine
firm snow= very hard snow with a clear top crust
crusted cover= several inches thick and starting get clear
hard pack= white surface like a concrete street
ice= never ski on ice it is the clear stuff that goes in drinks
true powder is never listed, it does not last long enough for you to get there.
corn snow or spring corn=granules like unpopped popcorn spread all over the hill.
Corn can be fun and challenging if the sun is out and the weather is warm.
True deep powder, also known as champagne powder is the ultimate condition for experienced skiers. This can be sensitive to ski in but it’s like floating in nothing with total control. This should always be skied with equal weighting on both skis in all directions.
Hope this helps, remember the web page is designed to have the customer come up and ski.
07/10/2010 at 6:11 am
Here’s some for the East Coast:
"Packed Powder": Normally dense but not necessarily icy.
"Loose Granular": Packed base, fairly dense with sleet-like snow covering. This usually gets skied off the middle pretty quickly, so ski the sides.
"Machine ( or Man) Made Packed Powder": OK…this means it’s hard and may be pretty slick (some people will say "icy", but due to liability reasons we can’t actually say that ANYTHING is icy in a ski report.
"Powder": Normally a flat-out lie anywhere south of US-4.