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Sims: Mountain lingo de-mystified

The mountains are chock-full of colloquialisms that often draw blank looks from those unfamiliar with “High Country culture.” That said, numerous members of the Keystone Lodge and Spa staff collaborated on a handy encyclopedia of terms that are thrown around in daily conversation. Enjoy!

• Backcountry booter: a handmade jump that is found outside of ski area boundaries

• Bomb: straight-lining down a slope



• Booter: a jump

• Dude: a male or female partner in crime, oftentimes a fellow shredder or skier.



• Dump: steady snowfall that often enlists the excitement for potential blizzard conditions, therefore the slight potential for “pow pow”

• Epic: another level of cool

• Face-shots: the act in which a skier or rider carves into a powder stash and kicks up a spray that douses his or her face with snow

• Gaper: a tourist who gapes, in jaw-dropped amazement at the scenery

• Huck: to launch oneself off a cliff or jump without regard to one’s physical well-being. See “send it”

• Jib: usually small hits in the trees that have been made out of fallen logs

• Nuke: a blizzard that produces blinding whiteout conditions and enlists the random “whoop!” from across the hill. Definite “pow pow” is in the forecast

• Puke: a snow squall that produces heavy snowfall with big flakes, often foreshadowing “pow pow” and the appearance of “powder hounds” and “weekend warriors”

• Powder hound: those in search of the perfect powder stash

• Pow pow: fresh powder, also known as “freshies”

• Point it: when a skier or rider makes the smallest number of turns going down a steep run so as to gain as much speed as possible

• Rip: ski/ride like a boss

• Safety meeting: a “pre-game” that often includes a joint and/or spirits of the organizer’s choice

• Send it: to launch oneself off a cliff without regard to one’s physical well-being. See “huck”

• Shred: to ski or ride in an enviable way

• Sick: see “epic”

• Stash: powder (as in snow) that is hidden from general knowledge

• Steezy: snowboard trickery that encapsulates “style” and “ease”

• Suitcased: when a skier/rider lands a booter so hard that his or her body bends at the waist so far that face hits knees

• Texas tuck: when skiers position themselves in a full racing tuck position unnecessarily, typically seen on a blue or green run

• Throw a gainer: a back flip off a jump, cliff, rock, crest, etc.

• Tight: excellent, cool, awesome

• Tomahawk: digging the nose of a snowboard or skis deep into the snow, causing the rider to flip head over heels down the hill

• Weekend Warrior: Denver-ites who come up for a weekend shred sesh; often the cause of long travel times on I70 westbound on Friday evening and I70 eastbound on Sunday afternoons

• Whoop!: the call of elation made by skiers and riders as they shred freshly fallen snow

• Yard sale: double ejection from a skier

Paige Sims

Keystone


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