I know this is late in the season, but the thought of having a trail mile equivalent snow trail mileage occurred to me as being somewhat useful. In other words, being able to say something like "5 miles through calf deep snow felt like 10 miles on trail, energy expenditure wise". To keep it relevant, I think it has to be snow depth relative to one's body; i.e., ankle, calf, knee, waist, ect. I would also be interested in other peoples take on energy expenditure when plowing through snow. My basic thought is something like this;

(miles through snow)X(multiplier)= equivalent trail mile feel

As an example, I feel that calf high snow hiking feels like a multiplier of about 2. Given that multiplier, each mile of calf high snow hiking would feel like 2 miles of regular trail hiking. My estimated multipliers are ...

calf high -- 2 to 3
knee high -- 3 to 5
thigh high -- 6 to 10
waist high -- 15+

I know that there are many kinds of snow, but my take on applying this to on foot backcountry travel is there are only 2 kinds; the stuff you stay on top of, and the stuff you sink into. Let me know what you all think!

Feel free to put in what you think the multipliers are for you(if so inclined).