Soft/stiff peaks

What does it mean: beat egg whites until soft/stiff peaks are formed? I suppose stiff peaks are when you beat egg whites so much that you form a ''snow'' and if you turn the bowl, ''the snow'' won't fall. What is soft peak then?
Thanks

Soft peaks is an earlier stage than stiff peaks. You are making a meringue. You stop to test it by using a spoon to lift up a little mountain. If the top of the mountain is rounded, or bends over, that is the soft peak stage. If you can get a point to stand straight up, that is the stiff peak stage.

Gee, that thread title was certainly intriguing. Imagine my disappointment to find that it was just another culinary discussion.

Hi Mr M.,
Don't these threads make your mouth water? They do that to me, especially the desert-related ones! If you are also a greedy, you can confesse here, I won't tell a soul!
Have a good time,

Ha ha. I am not. I've learned a lot myself, and that was of an area that a foreigner can't explore easily without the help of the natives. Actually it encouraged me to think about translating something that has been long in my back burner. I'm fascinated by the power of herbs and vegetables as alternative medication. I've collected some resources on the web, and I wanna translate them to Persian. However, I have a similar problem to yours, you can't find many of them in Iran, though the Iranian culture is rich in this aspect, just sometimes they use different plants that grow in Iran and therte are a lot which do not grow in Iran! Anyway, I'd like to give it a try, at least for my own interest.
Don't worry Mr P. and Mr M., I am not going to start the new series of vegetable-plants threads soon, since I have lots of other things to do before getting to that!
Cheers,