It was a surreptitious meeting. While marveling at the array and difficulty of The Chutes, mini-couloirs, and heart stopping fall lines, I rested for a few brief lung-refilling moments. That's when I discovered his kingdom. Secluded in a warren of pines below a steep spine, his picture was tacked to a tree. It was a photo of a young Elvis, the one that launched a thousand screams. Beads and bumper stickers hung around his image. The place had the look and feel of a shrine--a hidden place of worship.

I arrived at this deified outpost by adventuring into one of North America's most monstrously mean places to rip.

Towering over the Mount Rose Highway, and situated just under the resort's 9,700-foot summit elevation, the Chutes reign supreme among all the left hooks that drop on the point of Rose's jaw. Half northwest facing, the other half northeast, with a vertical drop of 1,500 feet, the Chutes seasonally offers every variety of snow. The menu runs from stormy, pillow-mounded chutes to mid-season, shadowed slopes and springtime corn that funnels into sparsely timbered benches.



The 200-acre fantasia features 17 designated runs, several which offer grades of over 50 degrees in steepness. Nine of its chutes are designated double diamond (experts only). The remaining eight of the chutes are rated single black diamond (advanced). There are other wild shots and playful pitches to be discovered in the trees. The resort's trump card has always been the Chutes. Dropping into some slopes is as abrupt as falling into an elevator shaft. Straight-lining its steeps and sweat-induced romps is a forbidding thigh-burner. If you lose it along the way, the rest of the fallen ride is like a wave tank in physics class.

Consider the steepest run. It's called El Cap. Popping off its crest is like dropping a dime into a pay telephone. Aficionados love to take initiates down its 55-degree pitch for their first time. Sliding along the highest point, they'll say," Close your eyes," and then,"Okay, now open." You look down and suddenly the ground has dropped beneath you. It's terrifying yet exhilarating.

Fittingly, on January 5th,the resort hosts its special all-day tribute celebrating Elvis's birthday.

Although Elvis Presley probably never put on a pair of boards during his all too short life, skiing in his aura is empowering. Discovering his sequestered image within the Chutes heralds a place that swells beyond the buffed beltways of groomed and predictable snow surfaces.

"Shed the yolk of hesitation, don the cloak of commitment," whispers the king.


Photos from Mark McLaughlin