#snowfields

Alpine mountain stream cutting through the snowfields - Tour de Monte Rosa, July 2021

Former Map Maker Walks for Hours in Snow To Create Giant Geometric Patterns in Snowfields

For the creatively minded, snow represents a giant blank canvas for art. But often, it's limited to snowmen or other snow sculptures. Outdoor enthusiast and cartographer Simon Beck had a different idea, and over the course of a decade he has carved a path for himself (literally) in the snow art world. He creates massive land art by walking across soccer ball-sized fields covered in untouched snow. Combined with light and shadow, his geometric designs can only be fully appreciated when viewed from above.

Photos by Simon Beck

Les Deux Alpes, France (by Christian Sarbach)

Ah . . . suncups.

Suncups are often bowl-shaped (can be more like the above photo) open depressions in a snowfield. They form closely packed, honeycomb, often hexagonal patterns with sharp narrow ridges separating smoothly concave hollows. They can make for very tough walking!

Suncups form during the melting away of snowy surfaces. I often notice them where there is differential melting away of dirty snow. They may occur melting of clean snow by incident solar radiation on bright sunny days.