“Reading” the snow

Whether I run or I ski, and when I do both on snow - which I better do on skis - what I see tells me a lot about what my feet are likely to feel. I call this “reading the snow.” The texture of the snow, the way the light plays on it, even in the most subtle ways, tells me most of the time about its structure and how it will behave when I come in contact with it. This of course isn’t a revelation; it's the result of years of observation and paying attention to that elusive element. No two situations are ever the same when you find yourself on that sticky stuff and you really have to love it to bring yourself to record what each impression means when you come in contact with it, what kind of sensation you’ll feel and how it will affect your balance in motion. This set of skills is hard to get if you don’t live in the mountains and just see snow as a nuisance or a mere medium on which you can slide. To me, it's much more than that; it is part of my life and reading it keeps teaching me something new all the time…