Joe loves to come out to Canyon to ski, or in summer to ride horses. Here we cross one of the warm water runoff channels near the Crater Hills.

The close proximity and interactions of steam, hot water, snow, frost and ice in the thermal areas is endlessly curious and interesting.

Always an interesting area to ski to and visit. Always there is the spoor of buffalo and often that of wolves. Here we see the context of this thermal area in the snow-choked landscape of the Hayden Valley.

I have rarely been able to resist photographing a handsome buffalo pie (see the portfolio of interesting buffalo pies throughout the seasons). This one is encrusted with frost flowers.

After our days’ ski I prepare to cut the snow pillow off the attached shed at the back of the house. The saw is a traditional two man cross cut timber saw that I have modified with a D-handle shovel handle in order to better cut snow.

The reduction of a snow cornice, on a different scale, is like cutting a rough diamond. The cutter evaluates the geo morphology of the accumulated snow pillow and makes his saw cuts accordingly. Then he attempts to pop the cut block free with a shovel with the minimum of effort (part of the winterkeepers’ mantra says, “gravity is our only ally”).

My read on the first cut was good but not right-on, so I correct and expect to do better with the next cuts now that I better understand the morphology of this particular snow artifact.

The whole process of clearing this small roof takes perhaps fifteen minutes from start to finish. I always regret having to demolish these lovely pillows, but my roofs begin to groan, and as the weight of snow grows so do their groans, until I can no longer ignore them. Happily Mother Winter will immediately begin to restore the pillow and I will have the pleasure of watching its’ re-growth.