Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 70 W I L D W E S T W OR DS W I L D W E S T W OR DS with CHRYSTI THE WORDSMITH D E PA R T M E N T H E R I TA G E As the northern hemisphere tips away from the sun, the daylight hours shorten and temperatures tumble. en winter arrives, bring- ing with it interesting and complex precipitation. Every Montana outdoor enthusiast can tell stories of their experiences with sleet, slush, frost, blizzard, graupel, hardpack, and powder snow. Hoarfrost is one of winter's more charming expressions. With its delicate crystals alighting on tree branch, grass blade, and the arc of wire and fence, hoarfrost enchants the hiemal landscape. e hoar in hoarfrost began life in the language as a specific type of color term. To our English-speaking predecessors, hoar was an adjective meaning "grey or white with age." irteenth through eighteenth-century citations mention "hoar beards" and "hoar hair" on the heads of the aged. e deposit of spiky ice crystals forming under just the right winter conditions reminded past English speakers of an old man's bushy white beard or hair: hence hoarfrost. e term appears in a collection of Old English verses dated 1290. e author notes, "the hoar-frost cometh when it is so cold that it freezeth at night..." German speakers adopted a form of the word and turned it into Herr, a title of respect. Etymologically buried within this designa- tion is the notion of a venerable, grey-haired man. "e shape of graceful ski tracks through unskied powder snow" is how one Helena telemark skier defined his newly-coined term skilligraphy. A playful linguistic merging of ski and calligraphy, skilligraphy is a fitting refer- ence to the elegant curving, swooping and looping of the tracks left by an accom- plished backcountry skier. e term that inspired the tail end of this blend word, calligraphy, deserves a clos- er look. Calligraphy literally means "beautiful writing," and derives from the Greek term kalos, "beautiful," and graphy, from the verb graphien, meaning "to write." So with that in mind, the coinage of skilligraphy is especially apt, implying that, just as a skilled calligrapher leaves graceful ink marks on the white page, a skillig- rapher, turning and looping through the backcountry, etymologically leaves his signature on immaculate powder snow. SKILLIGRAPHY HOARFROST CAROL POLICH CORY BIRKENBUEL Wild SkiJoring in Whitefish www.distinctlymontana.com/skijoring171 DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL

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