Definition of "boilerplate"

I've seen multiple reports recently where folks describe "boilerplate" conditions near the top of one volcano or another, while also noting that it had not managed to soften due to cold temps. As a skier raised in New England, I'm thinking that we may have varying definitions of the term going on here. To me, boilerplate is solid ice (often blue or black, with the surface consistency of a frozen pond) that stays hard until it is back in the melted water state, and never gets softer than an ice sculpture. Anything that has a prayer of softening into corn on a warm day is "frozen granular" or some other version of ice, but not "boilerplate," which implies a hard, steel-like surface. I'm assuming that what I call "boilerplate" is more similar to what I sometimes see being called "water ice."<br><br>Though perhaps not the definitive reference, I find the following on www.duluthstreams.org/explore/iceterms.html :
"boilerplate - skiing term for ice that forms from liquid water (as opposed to compressed snow)" which confirms my usage.

Am I missing out on a different local usage, though?

Probably so, Jim. PNW people are prone to calling any re-frozen snow surface with no "give" to it boilerplate. I remember being apalled when, on my first day of East Coast skiing at Waterville Valley, I could see through about a foot and a half of "groomed" snow to the rocks and dirt below. You probably still haven't gotten used to us moaning about these 85 degree "heat waves" either . . .

However, local usage does seem to conform to the dictionary definition of boilerplate (from M-W's 11th Collegiate Dictionary):<br><br>Main Entry: boilerplate<br>Function: noun<br>Date: 1897<br>1 : syndicated material supplied especially to weekly newspapers in matrix or plate form<br>2 a : standardized text  b : formulaic or hackneyed language<br>3 : tightly packed icy snow<br><br>I was rather surprised that definition 3 was even given there at all! But having been raised on the East Coast, I agree with Jim that boilerplate on a ski slope should properly refer to very hard water ice.

I keep hearing these stories about Eastern 'snow'. When I'm around any ice that is translucent enough to see through, I have crampons on my boots and ice tools on my hands. Can someone give me a photo of this supposed water ice that people ski on? Are the stories true?

I call this water ice:<br><br>

Paul, tilt that thing back so that it has about 30 degrees of slope, and New Englanders would call it packed powder and pay good money to ski it. <br><br>But seriously, the stories are true. Water ice on the groomed slopes is a reality in New England (and probably at all ski areas east of the Rockies). Warm storms even in midwinter bring heavy rains up to the highest summits (the highest lifts in New England reach only about 4200 ft), always followed by NW winds and a hard freeze with temps often dipping to 20-30 F below zero. The rain on snow, along with compression from grooming followed by hard freezing, eventually produces transparent milky gray or blue ice on the ski slopes. <br><br>My best skiing-on-ice story is from when I was on the ski team in high school. We raced slalom 5 nights a week at Blue Hills, MA (340 vft). One winter, a section of the slope consisted of less than a foot of grayish water ice above bare dirt, much too hard to even drill into to set up slalom gates. The solution? Our coach pounded in railroad spikes, with the heads capped by tennis balls with a hole poked in them. A brilliant idea it seemed, until a hapless racer slipped and skied over the head of one of the spikes, ruining his skis.