Snow - A Personal Discovery

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." - 'One Hundred Years Of Solitude'
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"You wanted to see snow up close, right? There!" said the Dutchman, pointing some distance off our trail.

I could make out a white patch on the grassy forest floor. "Is it?" I said, not entirely convinced. " That looks like a patch of rock, all white, perhaps powdered limestone!".

He points at yet another patch just ahead: "Here is another bit of your rock powder! Check, if you don't want to believe me."

"Hieronymus! It is not that I don't want to believe you!. In this green jungle, I just don't expect snow to be lying around. And it is not all that cold out here... anyways, let me check!"

I approached and touched the 'rock'. It was very chilly. And it was loose and grainy. I picked up a handful of the stuff and it was pretty much something like crushed ice; slowly it melted in my hand - it was actually snow!

I turned excitedly and told my fellow-traveler: "Hey, I am gonna write somewhere about my discovering snow, and sure enough, I will write about a certain Hieronymus who showed it to me!"

Note: The above incident happened many years ago. Maybe it was 'packed powdered snow' that we saw (Wikipedia lists many forms of snow). I have hardly seen snow since then; and yes, Hieronymus (that is not *quite* his real name although we used to call him so) appears to have built up a solid career in academics.