I guess if this is going to go on for a while, I'd might as well chip in.
When I was a little kid, I must have heard somebody use the expression, "Pure as the new-fallen snow". It kinda stuck with me since then. It never occured to me to think of snow as dirty. I gladly melt and drink snow in camp, fill my water bottle with snow and hang it on the outside of my pack to melt the snow, and eat snow constantly while skinning. I figure, "why carry water when I am walking on it?!". I usually leave camp with a pint of Cranberry Juice for a day's outing, and drink maybe two quarts, thanks to the snow -- adding it to the water bottle, eating small snowballs.
A few years ago, on the Birthday Tour, one of our party was approaching dehydration. He was a bit out of shape and over-dressed, and had emptied his water bottle long ago. I pointed out that, "You are walking on water -- just reach down and put some in your mouth!" Then came the most amazing profusion of horrid exclamations from the group about why you should never eat snow:
"You take more water out of your system with the saliva it takes to melt the snow"
(and where does that water then go?).
"It takes more water to metabolize the food energy lost in melting the snow than the snow provides"
(This from people panting and sweating from exertion?)
"The heat is takes to melt the water robs you of energy"
(See above.)
"Eating snow just makes you even more thirsty"
(Better to eat it before you get thirsty.)
Yes, it is possible to get cold from eating snow, and it is nearly impossible to eat the stuff when it is really, really cold out. But, for us in the PNW, eating snow is a great source of water -- especially in the Spring -- if you pay attention to the principles in the first chapter of the Snow Eating Survival Handbook:
1. Eat clean snow: scrape off the top layer, where things land (think of Mark Harf here) and eat the pure stuff in the middle of the last snowfall accumulation.
2. Don't eat loose snow -- make little snowballs.
3. Don't chew or swallow snow -- set the little snowballs on your tongue and let them melt, occasionally sucking out the loose water. It cools the air you are breathing and recycles your exhaled heat.
4. Don't chow down on snow at resting places, near Camp Muir, at the top of Madison Avenue, or in other places where folks have stood around for a while.
5. Break trail for Mark -- don't let a loogie-slinger get ahead of you!
