We've gleefully quoted it for years, but now it's time to face up to what we've suspected all along: the much-loved anecdote about eskimos and their x words for snow is a hoax, with the real number of words being (according to one expert) as low as two.

The ultimate irrelevance of the whole myth is highlighted, though, when you realise that the English language has at least 90 words for ice and its forms. The list below is compiled from The Ice by Stephen J. Pyne, The ANARE Antarctic Field Manual, and Environment Canada's Manual of Marine Observations:

icebergs: tabular bergs, glacier bergs, floebergs, ice islands, bergy bits, growlers, brash ice, white ice, blue ice, green ice, dirty ice, jade bergs, castellated bergs, capsized bergs.

sea ice: pack ice, ice floes, ice rinds, ice hummocks, ice ridges, ice flowers, ice stalactites, pancake ice, frazil ice, grease ice, congelation ice, infiltration ice, undersea ice, vuggy ice, new ice, old ice, brown ice, grey ice, rotten ice, rafted ice, finger-rafted ice, porridge ice, shuga ice, nilas.

coastal ice: fast ice, shore ice, glacial-ice tongues, ice piedmonts, ice fringes, ice cakes, ice foots, ice fronts, ice walls, floating ice, grounded ice, anchor ice, rime ice, ice ports, ice shelves, ice rises, ice bastions, ice haycocks, ice lobes, ice streams.

mountain ice: glacial ice, valley glaciers, cirque glaciers, piedmont glaciers, ice fjords, ice layers, ice pipes, ice falls, ice folds, ice faults, ice pinnacles, ice lenses, ice aprons, ice fronts, ice slush.

ground ice: ice wedges, ice veins, ice balls, permafrost.

polar plateau ice: ice sheets, ice caps, ice domes, ice streams, ice divides, ice saddles, ice rumples.

atmospheric ice: ice grains, ice crystals, ice dust, pencil ice, plate ice, bullet ice, hail.

Add to this the colloquial forms contained in the Davis Base dialect (including, according to Nikki Gemmel in her book Shiver, 'snotsicles') and it forms an enticing checklist for my trip. First person to spot ninety forms wins an icypole.