The sound of snow

The sounds of the mountains have always intrigued me, and the other day they jumped out at me and I had to listen. The herd of frenzied skierslistened to the run closures, then zipped up, goggled down and braced for the windy, 0 degree weather that rushed in when the doors opened. The tram tower was blocking the wind a little, so I had the chance to hear the sound of the snow under my fellow skiers and my boots. The cold, loud crunching with a little squeak of the snow being smashed between the metal deck and the hard plastic of our boots. I'm pretty sure there's no other sound like that. I realized how snow really does have a sound, depending on its consistency and what's being done to it.

• The swish of it as climbs up my legs as I ski through new powder.
• When it is being peed on, it's got it's own sound of melting as the hot liquid disolves it.
• The thought of how an avalanche sounds and feels scares the crap out of me, because I can only imagine it sounds like 10 semi trucks with their brakes out careening down the hill straight at me.
• There are others, but my favorite is after is has just snowed several feet, and I go walking around at night. Everything is muted and even when I listen really hard, I almost can't hear anything except my own breathing. Even my steps in the snow can't be heard.

Snow is amazing, and they say every snowflake is different and I love to think of that, and do feel a bit bad when I crush them with my skis or melt them with my pee, but I still appreciate them, every one.