hero snow
n.—Gloss: snow that is soft on top and firm underneath, providing excellent conditions for sport skiing.
«The firm base and soft granular top layer found in spring is also sometimes referred to as “hero snow.” It is so good for skiing that it bolsters confidence, hides technical mistakes and allows heroic recoveries from gross errors.» —“Realm of the Back Country Skier” by Michael Zeugin New Jersey’s Great Northwest Skylands (Columbia, New Jersey) Oct., 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital is a sensuous, exhilarating meditation about the strangeness of life on a space station, with its mix of tedious tasks and jaw-dropping views. And: a musician who rode the rails in his youth shares the slang he...
Jim in Columbia, South Carolina, has noticed sportscasters’ use of the phrase on the season with reference to a period of time. This construction shows up in the sports pages as early as the 1880s, first referring to a team’s revenue and...