Terrestrial ski bums in the Northern Hemisphere dream of southern slopes this time of year. Some folks even fanatically trek to snow-laden peaks in places like Chile or Argentina.
Serious skiers on Mars, though, would see things differently right now.
It is summer in the southern hemisphere of Mars, and ice there is melting. Even the south polar cap of the red planet (which
with a large backyard telescope) is shrinking to a vestige of its winter self. These mountains on Mars are seen as they were in June, Earth-time, before the melting got fully underway.
The image is not quite a photograph. It's a perspective view created by combining photographic and elevation data from two instruments aboard NASA's orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The flat region north of the mountains is Argyre Planitia. The picture shows an area near 57°S, 43°W.
Skiing would be a lot different on Mars.
For starters, the surface layer of white stuff it typically made of frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice. Underneath the southern polar cap and often exposed in summer is a thick layer of water ice. The northern polar region is mostly water ice.
Given temperatures that average about -58 Fahrenheit (-50 Celsius) at the equator, slope conditions are probably much more like the frequently miserable U.S. Northeast than the fluffy powder of the West. In fact, a study in 2001 suggested that Mars' snow near both poles is more dense and hard than what earthlings are used to.
It gets worse. The frigid Martian temperatures and higher doses of
