old snow
Winter's compacted remnant
Old snow is snow that has been on the ground long enough to lose its fresh, powdery quality.
It becomes compacted, granular, or icy through cycles of melting and refreezing.
The term appears in skiing and mountaineering contexts, where old snow presents different conditions than fresh powder: The old snow had a hard crust that made for tricky skiing.
- firnYear-old compacting snow
- crustHard outer layer
- packedFilled to capacity
- icyFrozen or unfriendly
- granularMade of tiny particles
stale · dirty · melting · slush · hardpack · corn · settled · ice layer · compacted · glacier · frozen · crystalline · gray · thaw · refrozen · winter · plow · drift