graupel – Heavily rimed snow particles, often called snow pellets; often indistinguishable from very small soft hail.
Came across this word while doing work (yes, work) last night. I like it.
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Tag: snow
Went to Snowshoe in West Virginia on the weekend. On top of all the snow they’d already been getting, there was 6 inches of new fresh powder on Friday night. It kept snowing all day Saturday, and was a bit foggy too, which led to fun as I checked out new runs, with the visibility suddenly plummeting down to 10 metres. The skiing was still great though. Sunday was beautiful and clear and warm (though a bit windy round the top of the mountain). I checked out the feared Western Territory and discovered the black runs there, although 1.5 miles long, and a hell of a lot of fun, probably aren’t as black as they claim to be. Well, at least by the standards I know (Mt Buller in other words).
Oh, and there were hardly any other telemarkers there – I saw one on Saturday, and one or two on Sunday. A lot of people were asking me about my strange bindings (and then about my strange accent). However, there were quite a few of those really short skis (that people use with no poles) around.
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whitegrass
West Virginia reminds me of Tasmania – an interesting mix of conservationist hippies, and redneck conservatives. Lots of snow around – four hours drive out to Whitegrass from DC, and there was snow the whole way. Camped in the snow both Friday and Saturday; there was consistent cover, but not much of a base, so in places it was just fluffy powder disguising clumps of rocks and bushes underneath. And I’ve now remembered all about those skiing muscles that I only use at that time of year.
Skiing off the mountain after camping up there the night before
Nearly down now, but facing issues…
I found an Australian flag!
There was supposed to be another big dump of snow in DC today – 6 to 10 inches. It spent most of the morning snowing, but not reaching the ground, due to the dry air. By the time it finally got around to building up on the ground, it was never going to make 10 inches. Mind you, it’s still going now, so there’ll be a fair bit of it around by tomorrow.
Russell the Peak Bagging Moose has also had a bit to say about the Whitegrass trip here.
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white weekend
After all the snow, I’m about to disappear for the weekend, to ski at White Grass: “a snowy corner of the Cabin Mountain range of West Virginia’s High Alleghenies”. Should be excellent :)
Well, because it looks like the snow is all gone for the year here (well, there are still bits of it around, but not enough to count), and no more trips will be happening, i’m going to have to post these photos from our last trip for the year. strictly for drooling purposes.
This was our camp (best campsite ever)
and this was the view from our camp – it’s mount feathertop :)
