Know your snow

While the Inuit people are purported to have 39 words for snow in their vocabulary, the English language has long been considered much more limited in its ability to describe when water falls white from the sky.

However, here are some terms used by many to describe snow conditions:

Powder: fresh snowfall that's low in moisture content. Powder is the best snow to ski or ride on. In the West, some resorts (particularly in Utah) have fluffy powder with extremely low moisture content, which they'll call "champagne powder."

Crud: powder that's been skied over. It looks like cookie dough; it's chunky-looking, but still soft. Crud is a preferred snow texture.

Corn: hard, re-frozen pellets of snow - a preferred snow texture.

Grapple: like very small hail pellets, or like sleet, but rounder and thicker. Grapple isn't the best snow, but it's not the worst. It doesn't stick to your skis or board.

Groomed: combed powder. Groomed is a preferred snow texture for some.

Crust: hard-packed snow that's frozen, but not icy.

Dust on crust: a small amount of fresh powder snowfall, but crust underneath. This snow texture is the most notorious for causing you to fall; your edges can easily slip when you hit a bare patch of crust.

Mashed potatoes: warm, melting snow, most common during the spring at the base of a mountain. It's notoriously slow to ski or ride in.

Sierra cement: Wet, heavy snow, which is common in the Sierra Nevada. Unlike mashed potatoes, Sierra cement isn't melting.

- Source: www.ski-bums.org, http://snobear.colorado.edu

At ski-bums.org, they also describe briefly the ways in which snow defines the quality of the day:

Types of conditions:

Bluebird day - The most gorgeous day imaginable. A bluebird day is a bright, sunny day after a fresh snowfall the night before.

Vertigo - foggy conditions, which make it very easy to lose your sense of balance.

Flatlight - a cloudy day, which makes it hard to perceive definition on the snow surface, and can easily trigger a headache. A yellow-lens goggle will often help the best.