Falling for Snow

by Bastedo, Jamie

• ISBN13: 9780889952652
• ISBN10: 0889952655
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Red Deer Pr

Summary

In this spirited mix of humor, science and adventure, naturalist Jamie Bastedo takes you on an uncommon romp through snow. Share in the quest of early snow scientists to unravel snow's many riddles. Meet a madcap balloonist who risked it all to inspect snowstorms five miles up. Join snow ecologists as they gauge the importance of snow in shaping the lives of plants and animals. Pull your hair out with urban leaders, road crews, and train engineers as they do battle with paralyzing piles of snow. Discover the imprint of snow on native languages and some of our best art and literature. Explore the outer limits of snow-based recreation. And follow in Bastedo's foot, ski and snowshoe tracks as he guides you across creaking glaciers, through hushed evergreen forests and over frozen arctic seas in a playful exploration of the many facets and meanings of snow. As inspirational as it is informative, this light-hearted book will appeal to anyone with even the slightest curiosity about that white stuff you will never again call "plain old snow."

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	6	(3)
Foreword by Arthur Back	9	(2)
Introduction: Notes From a Snowhouse	11	(6)
Stalking Snow
Glimpsing Goliath	17	(6)
Riding Clarence	23	(3)
Under the Giant's Toe	26	(13)
Being Snow
Entering; the Treasure House	39	(7)
Growing Riddles in the Sky	46	(7)
Redeeming Plain Old Snow	53	(7)
Odyssey of Snow Crystal	60	(10)
Living Snow
Signals in the Snow	70	(6)
Living Underfoot	76	(4)
Flea Circus	80	(5)
Indigo Worms and Watermelon Snow	85	(8)
Upper Crust Chionophiles	93	(10)
Beware the Disappearing Gift	103	(5)
Thinking Snow
Drifts in the Mind	108	(6)
Plunging into Winter	114	(2)
Shroud of Darkness and Death	116	(6)
Braving the Storm	122	(9)
Many-Splendored Snow	131	(12)
At Home in the Snow	143	(3)
Inner Tracks and Trails	146	(8)
Melting into Spring	154	(4)
Confronting Snow
Snowed tender by Progress	158	(11)
Hogtown Crumbles under Snow	169	(6)
Blizzards on the Civilized Fringe	175	(6)
The Technical Fix	181	(8)
The Mental Fix	189	(6)
Snow's Final Punch	195	(5)
Playing In Snow
My Life as a Skier	200	(3)
Go Fly a Kite	203	(5)
On Velvet Shoes	208	(6)
Slip Sliding Away	214	(10)
Epilogue: Seeing Snow	224	(16)
Appendix: How to Build a Quinzhee Snowhouse	240	(4)
Bibliography	244	(5)
Endnotes	249