When snow turns really bad!

On Tuesday, after a great ski day the day before, my wife and I decided to go skiing together. At the same time I also had promised my skiing-starved friend Marcel Grivel-Delillaz that “I’d make a few turn for him!” We should have gone in the morning, but couldn’t leave till the afternoon when the temperature would hit 49! 

So after getting some new snow over the weekend, whatever was left on the runs turned into “sticky snow” and without getting to deep into the mechanics of what’s happening under our feet, we had conditions that are known as “wet friction”, a fancy term that means there’s high moisture content in the snow creating threads of water called capillaries that attach to the base and slowed us down to a crawl. 

You know what I’m talking about, just like when two pieces of wet glass are press against each other; this creates suction and the two pieces of glass stick together like glue! Normally and in small quantities, water like lubricant against the hard snow crystals, but when there’s too much water, it suddenly begins to slow you down. 

There are waxes against it, but we didn’t have any on our bases, so after two terrible runs we headed back home. As for Marcel’s turns, I’ll get those done next time I’m out skiing!