![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Walking in Snow
Jan. 29th, 2008 09:42 pmAs most everyone around here knows, today was a snow day, and all was well. I believe I've explained my affinity for snow previously. While I was out walking around today, however, I discovered there are a few different types of snow you can walk on, and each of them has different properties to them. I'd almost forgotten, really, it's been so long since we've had a goodly amount of snow on the ground.
The first type of snow, of course, is unbroken snow. Pristine, white, untouched, yaddi yada. The snow out here is a fairly soggy type, not powdery like you get in colder parts of Canada, but it's still fluffy enough. Walking in it is a bit of adventure – it really requires you to move your legs, especially if it's deep enough. Shuffling through it like a train just doesn't work, and gets your pants and boots all messy. A lot of picking up your feet high occurs when trying to walk through this stuff. Best to avoid it, but sometimes you can't help it, like when you're first going outside your house in the afternoon and no one's beaten you to it to make a trail.
The second type is the hard, packed snow that hasn't melted. Mostly this comes about because of people trampling all over it, or cars driving over it, or people shovelling driveways and sidewalks without fully getting away the bottom layer of snow. This is fine and dandy to walk on, and takes hardly any work at all. The only thing to be careful of is not slipping, as it can get a little icy on top.
The third type is snow that's been slightly broken in. This is the worst snow for walking on, in terms of keeping your balance – it's been walked in before, but hasn't achieved the even level of the hard, packed snow. There are lots of crumply bits that give way underneath of you if you aren't careful. This kind of snow requires fairly decent ankles to keep yourself upright, and is almost as much as a workout to go through as unbroken snow.
The fourth type is soggy, slushy snow. This usually ends up less pristine than the first two types (which usually stay pretty white) and ends up a dull, icky brown or grey colour. It's also gross to walk in – it's as if rain fell from the sky and jellified slightly on the ground. Your boots and pants do not escape the onslaught, no matter how well you pick your steps, especially if the slush is any deeper than an inch or two.
The last type really isn't snow at all, but a kind of side effect of the snow – the type of ground you get on a freshly-plowed patch of pavement. It's covered in black ice and small bits of residue snow, and is (as I figured out once or twice while out) incredibly easy to slip on. Your ankles and legs might not suffer much from this type of snow and ice, but your posterior certainly will.
The first type of snow, of course, is unbroken snow. Pristine, white, untouched, yaddi yada. The snow out here is a fairly soggy type, not powdery like you get in colder parts of Canada, but it's still fluffy enough. Walking in it is a bit of adventure – it really requires you to move your legs, especially if it's deep enough. Shuffling through it like a train just doesn't work, and gets your pants and boots all messy. A lot of picking up your feet high occurs when trying to walk through this stuff. Best to avoid it, but sometimes you can't help it, like when you're first going outside your house in the afternoon and no one's beaten you to it to make a trail.
The second type is the hard, packed snow that hasn't melted. Mostly this comes about because of people trampling all over it, or cars driving over it, or people shovelling driveways and sidewalks without fully getting away the bottom layer of snow. This is fine and dandy to walk on, and takes hardly any work at all. The only thing to be careful of is not slipping, as it can get a little icy on top.
The third type is snow that's been slightly broken in. This is the worst snow for walking on, in terms of keeping your balance – it's been walked in before, but hasn't achieved the even level of the hard, packed snow. There are lots of crumply bits that give way underneath of you if you aren't careful. This kind of snow requires fairly decent ankles to keep yourself upright, and is almost as much as a workout to go through as unbroken snow.
The fourth type is soggy, slushy snow. This usually ends up less pristine than the first two types (which usually stay pretty white) and ends up a dull, icky brown or grey colour. It's also gross to walk in – it's as if rain fell from the sky and jellified slightly on the ground. Your boots and pants do not escape the onslaught, no matter how well you pick your steps, especially if the slush is any deeper than an inch or two.
The last type really isn't snow at all, but a kind of side effect of the snow – the type of ground you get on a freshly-plowed patch of pavement. It's covered in black ice and small bits of residue snow, and is (as I figured out once or twice while out) incredibly easy to slip on. Your ankles and legs might not suffer much from this type of snow and ice, but your posterior certainly will.
