Compaction of different types and mixtures of snow including snow collected from the natural snow cover and waste from an ice milling machine, was carried out in a cold room with a small model compactor. Density, cone hardness and shear strength were measured, generally 24 hours after compaction, for specimens compacted in different ways. When the snow was compacted to maximum, densities between 0.55 and 0.60 g./cm.3 were achieved, except for mixtures including more than one third new snow for which densities were lower. For snow collected from the natural cover the highest hardness values after compaction were found for new snow and for mixtures including more than 50 per cent of new snow or fine-grained granular snow. The maximum hardness was obtained with specimens prepared from fine-grained mill waste.
The influence of temperature on density and hardness was also studied.