Just Another Foggy Grey Day in Little Old VT.

An old man went for a stroll up the old Rueben Snow farm in the rain this morning. Around forty years ago the farm became Carinthia ski area. Twenty years back one of the various owners of "Mount Snow" bought the farm and it's defunct ski spot. It might have been Killington Ski Limited, It was somewhere between the ownership eras of founding owner Walt Schoenknect and Les Otten's American Skiing Company. Who cares really ? The name of Carinthia was resurrected as a whole seperate peak of Mount Snow. The current and relevant ownership is a family from Pennsyvania and while they own plenty of property they are not particularly interested in Real Estate, I'm told. Fun Parks. "Ski areas". If your lucky they will buy a mountain near your home, because this is what the old man saw when he walked up the hill...that part of Carinthia currently being referred to as Nitro (yes just like the guy on american gladiator!) on your trail map. From the bottom up he first encounters a four foot wide by ten foot long plastic covered box nearly buried in snow. A little further and the next similar feature is six feet longer and only 30 inches wide. Beside this on the hill is a five inch wide steel bumper that is ten to twelve feet long set like a bench in the fall line. Odd he thinks but the kids seem to like it. He hikes on up and over the varying terrain groomed into the snow and finds first one and then another jump just above it. Twelve footers. He's not totally clear on the concept but he thinks he sees some switch methods going down on these little jumps. On he goes up the nearly slushy corduroy snow between the steep plastic covered bench and a similar bumper. sparks and colors. he needs a quick breather. He steps through the rollers and finds what looks like a ten foot cut off of a lift tower. Pretty slippery.
A kid named Kyle has style that bends one knee alot and the board a little. Across the flat, and upward between a trapezoidal bench and a bumper that goes up and then down. Past a kid laying on the snow glorying in his own wipeout and the too-loud music from the wires in his ears is run over by a runaway four foot corrugated pipe that is rolling down the hill. Good thing that boy wore a helmet.He couldn't hear the warning. Another jump twice as big as the first two. Up and between more bumpers and benches. One dark steel rainbow. He'd sit on a bench but its not a safe place to sit. "Yahoos" he thinks. Three more jumps. A bunch of boys overshoot the first- the third of the three from their direction. Anyone can see you are supposed to land on the downhill built into the jump. They spin forward and backward, left and right, CAB AND SWITCH FRONTSIDE holding onto their boards as if the bindings don't work so well. Benches everywhere and no place to sit. Bumpers mounted on the slope as if they expect a collision from on high. A big tractor tire someone forgot to clear out has been plowed upright right next to a pole that looks to be falling over downhill. The old man is doing math in his head as he hikes up to the top of the chairlift. A secret esoteric formula revealing a timeless reality in it's present incarnation. Long forgotten symbols punctuating the chalkboard in his head, a drifted look between the creases and mumbles on his lips and face...Nine jibs, six jumps, one crew... The five big kids in brown, grey, black or brown and grey and black and the little one wearing all the color...plus one, carry the camera, ought to know better, times eleven laps. That makes ninety nine jibs plus sixty six jumps per kid, divided by the time it took me to do half my morning walk, about two hours and let me see here YES, add one corrugated steamrolling and it all adds up to equal: The death of monotony. The SMS Pro-Am Snowboarders, Killing it on the old Rueben Snow place. They sure do look happy to be back home, and he walked off toward the "sunbrook" area in the drizzle.

photos: top rt. Kyle Dorfman fs three
mid-left Cameron Howe shifty fs three
bottom rt. Dan Landy sbs five.