Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Snow

This is topic Snow in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

I had good luck with the sky diving so I thought I would try my luck on another story situation.

The main character is a cross country ski hobbiest. He is an experianced rock climber and has climbed ice walls.

He is captured in winter country and there has been a snow storm or two during his capture.
He locates his equipment and escapes into the snow, heading into the mountains. If he gets over the ridges, he can reach safety.
A good time after he escapes, persuit starts.

The scene in question comes to his final escape. I have him climbing up a ridge, digging his way through the base of a cornice (the snow overhang that builds up on the leward side of the ridge) and at the top, breaks it free to fall on his persuers, giving him a safe and easy escape. The thing is, is this posssible? Can he dig through a cornice without causing it to collapse, and then dislodge it from the top without being dragged down with it?
I figure he would use the back edge of his ski to cut the snow to the rock.

Thanks ahead of time.

Posted by Inkwell (Member # 1944) on :

First, I'd find out if someone has actually done this...even if they only dug through the snow without causing it to collapse. Second, your character is supposedly an expert in this area. It's his hobby. Moreover, if you can back it up with realistic internal dialogue (arguing over the danger of attempting such a thing) based on real life events your MC is familiar with, it will certainly turn out more believable than Cliffhanger, minus John Lithgow's sardonic growling.

However, I'm not sure how well snow would hold up under his weight, if he is indeed trying to destabilize it and burrow through it at the same time. I'm having a tough time visualizing this, but I'd imagine even stratified snow (snow with many layers from multiple precipitation events, and likely ice layers as well) would collapse under his own weight long before he'd have the chance to make it to the other side. That's assuming, of course, that he's deliberately setting up the bad guys.

If I were you, I would concoct some kind of ingenous way of getting up the cornice without destabilizing it (critically, at least), yet have your MC rig up a catalyst for the avalanche once he reaches the top/other side. Say, a crude explosive cobbled together from the gunpowder charges of several flaregun cartridges. You'd probably have to set off the charge inside the cornice to knock it off the ridge, but it sounded like he'd be tunneling through it in some fashion, anyway. And as your MC would surely know...snow isn't all that hard to get moving. And once it is, it's like a freight train rumbling down on top of you, only twice as fast and half as loud.

If you make your MC confident, your facts believable (in other words, based on some precedent), and your exposition intense, the reader will go along for the ride.

Inkwell
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"The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp."
-Anonymous

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

If the cornice is stable enough for him to burrow through it without causing it to collapse, and large enough to do more than annoy his pursuers, it probably would take a series of carefully placed explosive charges or perhaps a good day's work with a shovel.

Now, if you say that he's desperately trying to get past an unstable cornice by going technical on the underlying face, and then some yahoos come up and start shooting at him, causing the cornice to break away (which he only narrowly survives due to being bolted to the rock), then it doesn't require him to have supernatural control over unpredictable events. It's an accident. He got lucky.

Posted by goatboy (Member # 2062) on :

I think Survivor has nailed it. My experience with packed snow is such that I wouldn't trust my life to the cornice holding my weight. Snow is funny stuff. It can hold your weight for three steps and then you fall through. No warning, nothing, it just lets go. Wallow along for a step or two and then it will hold your weight again, and that's on level ground. I'd be hard pressed to try it at the top of a cliff, and probably count myself lost before I'd try.

Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

My thought is that the cornice is just stable enough for him to get through it. His digging through it makes it less stable. Since the tracking team is following his tracks exactly, they are directly below him when he cuts and pounds on top the cornice. I am thinking he might see cracks in the snow where it looks like it might give way so that is why he makes the attempt.

The other idea is he keeps going, escaping, and as the other group tries to get through the cornice, it gives way, taking them with it.

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

That might make sense. It's less fun than shooty things happening while our intrepid hero is tied to a rock.