Sparkles

A day studying snow & the snow pack.
Anyone who's read just how fatally dangerous the Alps have been this year will appreciate just why International Guides put so much emphasis on this.
This is a picture of two halves and we're going to start in the back ground - with all those lovely sparkles - the favourite's of any photographer that's taken a picture in winter. The technical name is hoar, the glistening is the crystals the hoar forms rising from the previously fallen snow - beautiful but potentially a killer in the wrong conditions.
In the foreground you can just make out the crystals on the top of the snow in my hand - all the same snow - but changed.
One of the fantastic little facts they've given us this week is that as we study these things we statistically become more likely to be affected by them, a little knowledge it would appear really is a dangerous thing*

*Am aiming for more than a little knowledge :)