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My book does say that Snowies are harlequin phase wild-type but I have not had anything to do with them so don't really know. If they were wild-type as opposed to dusky, then yes you could cross your snowy with a grey & produce as CityChickers has described, all phenotypically grey birds in the F1s. Inbreeding these F1s should then produce theoretically 25% snowies (M+/M+, lih/lih).
But if your snowies are dusky based ie silver harlequins (md/md, lih/lih), then crossing with greys will produce F1s split M+/md & Li+/lih. If F1s are then interbred you may actually get a very small percentage (6.25%) of F2 progeny that are pure for harlequin phase dusky (as well as 6.25% pure for M+/M+, lih/lih), but large numbers would have to be bred, & unknown factors/modifyers associated with one or the other original stock birds may also influence colour in the new line?
Using a white would not be a consideration for myself really because anything could be under the masking white (black, dusky, wild-type mallard, restricted mallard, blue, dark phase etc etc). At least with the grey you know what you are starting out with & therefore predict colour outcomes as well as our undertstanding of involved genes dictates.
So, if it is snowies you are wanting to breed & not wanting to experiment with colour, as outlined above, likely the best (& shortest, least time consuming, least expensive, least resource requiring etc) route to take would be to source another good quality snowy.
Just one more thought, if I was in the situation where I couldn't source another snowy for what ever reason, & if your snowies are harlequin phase duskies, then I would probably resort to using a bantam harlequin (absent for brown dilution) if I had to, for example needed new blood. But only as a last resort, & certainly not if good quality snowies were available.
Cheers
