Let me preface this outburst by saying that when it comes to original Squaw Valleyicious cherry phat gnarr gnarr Hall of Fame-like ski stunts I include Greg Beck's epic huck off Beck's Rock for the film "Day Dreams." I have to include Scot Schmidt straight lining Schmidiots, Rick Sylvester braving Tower One¹s Sylvester's Slot, Tom Wayes dropping that insane 100-footer in the Tram Bowl Chutes, Shane McConkey's backflip base jump off Lover's Leap and Morgan Lafonte's supersweet acrobatics in Granite Chief during the All-Mountain Extremes.

High atop Mount Rose, while plunging down the Chutes, I found Elvis.

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.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SNOWBOARDER

10am ­ Wake up on couch of a friend. Bong hit.

11am ­ Grab roommate¹s board. Hitch to Alpine Meadows.

11:10 am ­ Get on lift. Take a hit.

I won't say it was the last run on Squaw Valley's opening day that did it, but I carved turns gingerly, indeed, and condemned my lower back for its spasms. Harry the Camel boogied more enthusiastically, shaking the assets that he'd been righteously shaking since he first strapped on skis. Years back, long before MTV, when we dated girls who did homework, Harry and I began our illustrious careers as ski bums.

I spoke with Warren Miller last month. He was laughing about his one year instructing skiers at Squaw Valley.

"It was 1949, the first year the resort opened," he said over the phone from his home in Washington state. "There were only four of us in the ski school: Dodie Post, Stan Tomlinson Alfred Hansen and myself. We were paid $125 a month plus room and board. Although I was lucky to teach one lesson a day (there were so few skiers on the mountain that first year), I nevertheless saved most of my money to buy film. In fact, I made my first movie that winter at Squaw called 'Deep and Light.'"