Winternal verities

[eclectic_boy]

I should never forget that, even when you get a far-less-than-predicted one-inch snowstorm (down from, at various points in the last week, four, eight, and fifteen), you can still turn it into some fairly massive and long-lasting snow rolls, as long as the snow is the nice sticky kind. Which we got (although the flurries it's transitioned into now are utter powder). I'm just back from making a pair of 30-40"-diameter rolls, which will hopefully last straight through the 55-degree weather we're forecast to have this weekend, as a reminder that this is *winter* dammit, and there should be white on the ground. They'd've been larger, but you can only do so much with one inch.

I was surprised nobody else had already done it, or any other kind of snowbuilding since the snow was of ideal consistency. Hopefully I've set an example to more current students that what's falling from the sky isn't just beauty, it's raw material.


Lη: Good grief, was that some form of voodoo (er, white magic?)? It hasn't stopped snowing since I made those, while the storm is long over for most of the region. Just in Philadelphia and Delaware County it's still snowing, and pretty hard -- we're probably up past 4 inches at this point. Watching the radar over the past several hours has been eerie.

Comments

[irilyth]

I am not actually familiar with this thing. How do you make a snow roll?

[eclectic-boy.livejournal.com]

1) Have very sticky snow.

2) Find a large open area, preferably sloping downhill.

3) Start with a good-sized snowball and roll it. Don't bother with making it into a sphere like for a snowman, just keep pushing it in one direction as it gets larger and larger like a jelly-roll. Once it gets past a hundred pounds it may be hard to keep going, which is why a hill is preferred. Try not to let it topple sideways, or you'll have a broken mound of snow instead of an impressive sideways-cylindrical monument.


Credit where it's due: I learned about making them from Bruce Hahne '90, and still think of him whenever I make one.

[thoroughbass.livejournal.com]

How am I not your friend already? I thought I was & you were just one of those folks who never posts.

AT