Twelve people plus two guides steam up the side windows as the cat makes its slow but decisive way up the continental divide and outside the ski area boundary. The cat stops, we jump past the two steps and into the snow like paratroopers out of a plane.
Boots snap into bindings, snowboarders strap up.
We pile near the guide to hear his voice through the wind driven snow. One guide ski cuts the 20-foot face of Mirkwood Cornice, which he says is higher than it has been in years. It overhangs like a wave in the Bonzai pipeline. It doesn't budge. There are no tracks in front of us.