Snow Terms 101

Snow Terminology 101

Ever wondered how we come up with the different words we use to describe snow conditions at Hoodoo? Just refer to this when you're in doubt what conditions are really like. It won't tell you everything, but knowing what the words mean can certainly help!

Remember that snow surface is an average of conditions over the entire mountain.

Powder: The product of fresh, natural snow. Cold, new, loose, fluffy dry snow that has not been compacted by skier traffic or grooming.

Packed Powder: Powder snow that has been packed down up the above mentioned forces. It is no longer fluffy, but not hard snow, either.

Machine Groomed: Loose granular snow that has been repeatedly groomed by power tillers.

Hard Pack: When natural snow becomes firmly packed by repeated grooming or continuous wind exposure. Often snow that has never melted or recrystalized.

Wet Snow (Wet Pack): Snow that has become moist due to thaw or rainfall. Snow with a high moisture content when it fell.

Icy: Icy is a hard, glazed surface created by one or a combination of the following: freezing rain, rapid freezing temperatures or saturation from ground water seeping up into the snow and then freezing. This type of snow often has a translucent appearance.

Corn Snow: Usually found in the Spring, this snow is characterized by it's large, corn kernel size granules.

New Over: This snow is used to describe any accumulation of snow over an existing surface, for example "New over packed powder" or "New over machine groomed".

Conditions can change rapidly at ski areas. The time it takes you to get to Hoodoo after listening to the ski report is long enough for a major change to occur.

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