The Inuit and the Eskimos have many words for snow. The Inuit have at least 300 words for snow and the Eskimos I have heard have at least 3,00 words for the white stuff. Wondering why is not an option now, because multiple words for snow, after living and working in the snow In YNP at the Ahwahnee, really is understandable.
We had reports from a couple of guests who made stellar comments about our snowfall lately. One couple, from Florida asked what it was that was falling from the sky. Apparently they had never seen snow before and were quite shocked by it. They said, "we had no idea that snow came from the sky!" They were from Florida and had never seen snow before. I wonder if they know where hurricanes come from or rain? I wonder if they had ever heard anyone from New York say, "we are visiting Florida because we wanted to get away from the cold and snow of New York!" But then I have always wondered where allegators came from. Maybe someone knows the answer!
The second guest said he loved our snow. He talked to me as I was shoveling snow off the emergency stairs. He says to me, "what are the stairs for and why are you shoveling the snow off of them?" So I says to him, "These stairs are our emergency stairs in case of fire or some other extreme circumstance." He says oh! He then says, "I love it here. You know we have been here only three days and so far we have seen and experienced it all." I ask, "What do you mean?" And he replied, " Our first day here it was warm and sunny, like summer or early spring. The second day we were here it rained in torrents and the air was wet with water and the skys were boiling. Our third day here it snowed all night and is still snowing...look at this, it is a beautiful wonderland of white. This is so wonderful. We just love this. We have experienced it all!"
Truely we are given the four seasons up here at Yosemite National Park and we have not even gotten to spring or summer yet. Last August of 2009 it was Indian summer and the full of fall and the it got cold, but it still was not winter. We had golden leaves everywhere then the weather put dark brown colors on the oaks and dropped off all foliage. Well alot of it anyway. It never puts all the leaves on the ground. Some just hang on for dear life, not wanting the changes of nature to take place. Then followed the snows of winter.
The first snows of early winter were colder than the snows of spring. The snow was lighter and seemed to hold less water. The snows now in March of 2010 are heavy with water. They are very white and bright and then they fluff down and settle everywhere, but this spring snow does not stay long. What fell is nearly all gone within a day and it leaves behind rivelets and streams and waterways everywhere. Beneath the waters is the thick dark earth filled with wetness, and grass seeds and as soon as the sun strikes its surface it drys out and becomes dust of the finest of particles. If you kick up this dust it flies everywhere.
Snow has many qualities. We think of snow as one type of substance: a white fluffy ground cover that drops from the sky. If you watch the snow dropping from the clouds you notice the sizes of snow flakes varies with temperature of the air, the altitude of the snowfall, the water or moisture content of the snow, and the location of the snow...what side of the mountain it is on or if it is on the peak or down the valley. If the wind blows we see angles of falling flakes. If there is not wind then it drops. Sometimes it drops thick and fast and sometimes it just filters down in a lovely slow sprinkle, like sifting a small amount of powdered sugar on top of a cake. The moment it sets to the ground the heat from the earth begins to make the snow change and it melts or, not. If the air and the ground are cold then the snow becomes hard and sometimes it turns to ice or becomes hard just like a granite slab.
The famous ice rock climber Kurt Diemberger, the author of Summits and Secrets describes endless details of ice and snowfall variations that he has endured while conquering Chologlisa, the Tirich Mir in the Hindu Kush, the North Face of the Eiger, the North Face of the Matterhorn...and many other mountains. Where we live in Yosemite we see walls to climb, however the snow is settled upon granite and is not like the ice cliffs that Diemberger describes in his books. The point is snow is not bounded by a few words, nor by a few locations, snow is complex and after living in it and around it you can develop a deep appreciation for its many properties, including those of learning how to use snow to save your life.
Mountaineers use snow to build makeshift shelters for the night and create ice caves to stay warm, not unlike our ancient ancestors of 10,000 years ago, or early man who trekked across the wilderness and used snow for his temporary shelter. Not unlike the Eskimos who never left the ice fields because they knew and understood all the words and all the properties of our miraculous weather condition: snow.
Most Americans I have known use one word...snow or two, snowflakes. And sometimes we express this grand verbal sentiment: "Oh My God! The snow is falling!" Wow and we think we have said a mouthful, as well something intelligent.
Lots of snow means we have lots of water, maybe. If the snow is dry with low moisture content, we are out of luck. Like in Utah. They get great powder for skiing, but not high moisture content for soaking the ground and giving the living waters back to the earth and its creatures. Yosemite does produce snow storms that give us snow with high moisture content and I am sure this makes people feel the liquid wealth from our skies.
