How to Wax Your Skis In 4 Simple Steps As the snow starts to fall in the western United States, it might be a good time to discuss how best to wax your skis or snowboard. Don’t know how to take care of your equipment? Do your friends ski past you all the time? Do you feel like you aren’t gliding weightlessly across a white ocean? We’ve got you […] Brains Greg Obernesser | November 5, 2024 0 Comments
What Are Suncups and How Do They Form? Perhaps you’ve trudged through them—the several-inch-deep snow pockets that litter approaches during the late spring touring months. Complete with miniature peaks and valleys like the mountains they reside on, the cups can range anywhere from a few inches to over two feet in depth. But what are suncups, how do they form, and where are they found? If you haven’t […] Brains Tate Sundberg | June 26, 2024 0 Comments
How Different Shapes of Snowflakes Determine Snow Quality Granular, Dip-n-dots, sleet, concrete, pins and needles, and of course, the blower pow. If you’re anything like myself, you’ve likely wondered at one point or another what causes so many different ski conditions, and how can you tell when it’s going to be best. Related: The Art & Science of Snowflakes For the passionate all-mountain skier, it’s no secret that […] Brains Tate Sundberg | June 6, 2023 1 Comment
Atmospheric Rivers: How They Work, and How El Niño and La Niña Affect Them This article was originally published on climate.gov When rivers reach the sky Guest co-author Dr. Kai-Chih Tseng is a postdoctoral research scientist at Princeton University and the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory who is an expert on climate variability and prediction, including the study of atmospheric rivers. In the summer of 2022, Dr. Tseng will begin an assistant professor position in the Department of Atmospheric […] Weather WeatherBrains | January 5, 2023 0 Comments
Risk Taking in Extreme Sports | Why Do We Do Things That Could Kill or Injure Us? According to Psychology Today, some researchers define risk-taking as engaging in any activity with an uncertain outcome. It is indisputable that activities such as skiing, climbing, mountain biking, etc., are all somewhat extreme sports that involve an element of risk. These sports are extreme because the outcomes can be pretty dire and inflict severe injury or even death. Within the context of these […] Brains Greg Obernesser | September 30, 2022 6 Comments
How Does El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Affect Salmon? This article was originally published on climate.gov When we discuss the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (“ENSO” for short) at the blog, we often take a rather human or physics-y view of the climate phenomenon. We’ve published loads of articles discussing the mechanics for how ENSO works in the atmosphere and the ocean, and how ENSO impacts humans from droughts and wildfires […] Weather WeatherBrains | August 11, 2022 0 Comments
Do You Know Where the Tallest Trees on Earth Grow? This story originally appeared on Nasa.gov and was published by Kathryn Hansen. Every now and then, a new map changes the way we view our planet. This is one of those maps. The map above shows the height of Earth’s forests, from stubby saplings to timbers towering more than 50 meters tall. It reveals some patterns you might expect, such […] Brains SnowBrains | May 24, 2022 1 Comment
Orthopedic Surgeon Outlines the Science Behind Shin Bang | Causes, Treatment, Prevention Too benign to seek professional treatment for, and too painful not to complain about—everybody hates shin bang. You know, shin bang—that horrid, painful sensation on your shinbone that you get from your boot after skiing hard? Yes, you do. Although die-hard ski racers in 1 million flex alpine race boots that they can barely walk in might tell you otherwise, […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | April 29, 2022 3 Comments
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