If you watch the news you know that Denver got pounded pretty good the last couple days and every Saturday we get together and play doubles as a FUNdraiser for the Ice Bowl in February (so far we've averaged almost 40 players a week! and raised over $1000).
no wimps, no whiners

so my question is this: what is the best way to find your disc in what will be over a foot and a half of snow? I thought about taping a red ribbon to the bottom or rim, has anyone tried that before? any other ideas?
thanks,
-mikew

The ribbon gambit works pretty well, tape it to the top of the disc. Still not a panacea, you need to keep your eyes peeled too. After you find the place the disc went into the snow be aware that sometimes the disc burrows 3 or 4 feet further. One more bit of advice leave your very favorite discs home.

Rule #1 - Leave all white discs at home

Rule #2 - Remember Rule #1

The ribbon thing works okay, most guys here in Michigan use the thin, package-wrapping kind and tape one end of it in the middle, underside of the disc. A caveat: That ribbon can accidentally wrap around your finger or wrist and when you drive can lacerate your skin pretty badly if you are not careful.

Another thing to do is to use translucent, brightly-colored discs, like "candy" plastic. For some reason, they collect light and shine as though there are lights inside against (or inside) the snow; even in pretty low light levels.

Also, players here, in deep snow, try to stay in each others' footprints as much as possible, so that the snow is as smooth as can be in places where discs might go or have gone in; that way the marks the discs leave can be more easily seen.

If you watch the news you know that Denver got pounded pretty good the last couple days and every Saturday we get together and play doubles as a FUNdraiser for the Ice Bowl in February (so far we've averaged almost 40 players a week! and raised over $1000).
no wimps, no whiners

so my question is this: what is the best way to find your disc in what will be over a foot and a half of snow? I thought about taping a red ribbon to the bottom or rim, has anyone tried that before? any other ideas?
thanks,
-mikew



Mike, there was some recent discussion about using a ribbon and playing in deep snow here:

Snow Gear? (http://www.pdga.com/msgboard/showflat.php?Board=Equipment&Number=618081&Searchp age=0&Main=617576&Search=true&#Post618081)

Spotting is a good idea, especially on the blind holes (or holes that have the potential to be 'blind' if a tree hit or errant throw would cause the dic flight to be out of sight from the teepad). Even with ribbons, its hard to find plastic in the snow if you don't have a real good idea of where it went in.

Up here people just spot. The spotter finds the disc and pulls it up to the surface.

Mike, I left Denver the day before the blizzard! It's been great playing here in Nashville, TN! A little wet for a couple of days, but a great break from the snow.
Hope I have enough time to get a few more rounds in at Sharp Springs DGC tomorrow before we head back to Devnver/Carbondale on Thursday.
I'm sure I'll be reading the snow tips here online when I get back ... I know I'll have cabin fever in less than a week, LOL!

If you watch the news you know that Denver got pounded pretty good the last couple days and every Saturday we get together and play doubles as a FUNdraiser for the Ice Bowl in February (so far we've averaged almost 40 players a week! and raised over $1000).
no wimps, no whiners

so my question is this: what is the best way to find your disc in what will be over a foot and a half of snow? I thought about taping a red ribbon to the bottom or rim, has anyone tried that before? any other ideas?
thanks,
-mikew

mike,
have to say the dec 23rd edition of winter warriors doubles @ paco was pretty fun! though my legs felt like i had spent a day on the slopes by the time we finished. :Deventhough the snowmobile tracks made finding the entry marks tough to find, we managed not to lose a single disc in our group. spotting was definitely the key.

actually, my brother-in-law wanted to do a little snowshoeing so we combined it with a round @ lighthouse on sunday. much easier to get around the course, but a little more difficult to step into a throw! might have had a decent round if the wind had not picked up with those new flurries. fresh snow on nearly the whole course except where you could tell a coyote had been hunting rabbits!

it will be interesting to see how much snow is left on the ground for next sunday @ expo park! hope the melt-off does not flood the course!

nanook

The ribbon thing works okay, most guys here in Michigan use the thin, package-wrapping kind and tape one end of it in the middle, underside of the disc. A caveat: That ribbon can accidentally wrap around your finger or wrist and when you drive can lacerate your skin pretty badly if you are not careful.

Another thing to do is to use translucent, brightly-colored discs, like "candy" plastic. For some reason, they collect light and shine as though there are lights inside against (or inside) the snow; even in pretty low light levels.

Also, players here, in deep snow, try to stay in each others' footprints as much as possible, so that the snow is as smooth as can be in places where discs might go or have gone in; that way the marks the discs leave can be more easily seen.



A translucent disc making the snow light up can actually be easily explained through physics:

Crystalline structures are known to allow a certain percentage of light to penetrate through each layer, while reflecting a certain percentage. If we were to take snow and measure the light intensity each inch going down, you'd find a nice exponential decay. If you inverted the measurement (which isn't really possible as the measuring device would cast a shadow on what you're trying to measure the reflection from), you'd see a predictable value that could be calculated based on the intensity passing down. That light that passes back up also reflects and refracts. A disc that is less than 1/3rd of the max light penetration depth would still have more than enough light reflecting back up from under it (and through it) which would give the snow a hue.

These are all dependent on the sun's angle of incident, where high noon would have the best penetration, but you'd also suffer the most from blue sensitivity. I suspect Red, Pink, and Orange discs would work best at this point in the day. As the sun moves towards the horizon, the penetration drops with a curve following a cosine (I think, been a while since solid state, so this part might get a little off) due to the way snow forms layers as it accumulates.

If you don't care about score, just use an ultimate disc. Hot pink works well. They are big, domey and just plop on top of the snow.