Cross Country Snow

The story features Hemingway's recurrent autobiographical character Nick Adams and explores the regenerative powers of nature and the joy of skiing.

[4] On October 5, 1925, the expanded edition of In Our Time (with conventional capitalization in the title) was published by Boni & Liveright in New York.

In the early 1920s they stayed in Montreaux and skied at Les Avants; by the mid- 1920s they spent most of the winter months in Austria, at Schruns.

Hemingway wrote "Cross Country Snow" in 1924 after wintering for the first time in Cortina d'Ampezzo with Hadley and their infant son Jack.

[7] According to Hemingway scholar Wendolyn Tetlow the short stories in In Our Time are structured to form a thematic unity.

[8] The volume's early stories are about senseless death and the "ultimate nothingness of existence", whereas the second half of the collection focuses on how to cope with pain, wounding and suffering, and how to accept life.

The Swiss locals in the bar are contrasted with the "boys" as they enter; and in counterpoint to Nick, the waitress is pregnant but unmarried.

[15] The last piece of dialogue shifts from gloominess to hopefulness to defeat, according to Tetlow, ending with Nick's declaration there is no "good in promising".

[16] Hemingway used pervasive snow imagery in many short stories and in A Farewell to Arms, usually symbolizing love and romance.