Is it possible to make non packing snow outside and make it packing snow?

Question

If you were to go out side and the snow was not packing snow what so ever is there something you could do to make the snow packing snow to make like jumps for snowboarding?

Answer 1

somehow warm it up a bit. Like use your hands. that will make it stick. All snow has water in it, it is 100% water. When it gets too cold, the amount of friction between snowflakes gets lower and lower and at a certain point, they wont stick

Answer 2

When I'm building kickers and jumps and the snow is dry I take a small spray bottle of water with me. It doesn't take much to moisten up dry snow to the point where it will start to stick.

REAL snow will pack up nicely with only a few light squirts. Keep the spray setting on "Mist" for best results. Man made snow will almost ALWAYS be wet. It has to drop well below 12F for it to be powdery...which is not powder, but at least it's crystallizing before it hits the ground. Usually it's slush.

It's really hard to MAKE non-packing snow. Anyone who can do that needs to speak to me because I'd love to know how that is done. It is very eay to make non-packing "loose granular", which is a snazzy euphamism for ice.

If you want that stuff to pack, what you need is a small blowtorch. It has to melt a bit first before you can build a jump. That means it has to be slushy first. Not really a bad thing to make a jump out of, but once it hardens up it's solid ice and nothing sticks to it.

Answer 3

It MIGHT "pack"- if you very lightly spray alittle cold water on it. Because non-packing snow- is essentially DRY snow (has a very LOW water content in it), it won't stick to anything. Whereas packing snow has a HIGH water content- so the snow tends to stick to itself. -Just be carefull not to add too MUCH water to the snow- or all you'll make is SLUSH- & ruin ALL your jumps!