A characterization of snowflakes via rectifiability

We prove a generalization of Tyson-Wu’s characterization of metric spaces biLipschitz equivalent to snowflakes to every metric space, by removing compactness, doubling and embeddability assumptions. We also characterize metric spaces that are biLipschitz equivalent to a snowflake in terms of the absence of non-trivial metric $1$-currents in every ultralimit, or equivalently in terms of purely $1$-unrectifiability of every ultralimit. Finally, we discuss some applications and examples.