Toughest Place to Ski... If you can.

Ski it if you can. That's the Mad River Glen ski mountain's motto. And if you can ski anything here I think you can ski just about anywhere. This is one of the last mountains in the world where you can ski both snowboard and artificial snow free. Taos is the other one. Here there are no double diamond trails - if it's black it's hard and you better prepare to suffer a little.

Paradise Trail Panoramic (Published here too)

There's a few things that make this mountain particularly difficult to ski:

• Narrow trails
• Multiple fall lines on twisting trails
  
• Rock, ice and powder, cliffs
  
• Sharp moguls

And it's the last point that gives me so much pain. Mad river doesn't have nice smooth moguls you can slide over like most other parks. Rather, they are deeply grooved and sharp, carved out by expert tele skiers. If you don't hit them right your legs drop out from under you and remind you that you took the wrong line.

Every mountain I've skied I could go for a full day without ever taking a break. I've never been able to do that at MRG, even with their slow single chair lift.