Après: Post-slopes debauchery. Bring on the shot ski! Lots of buzzed people dancing around in ski gear eating chili.

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Avalanche Terrain: This is comforting. The sign posted before you enter into any area that has the potential to collapse if a sun ray hits it wrong.

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Backcountry: No lifts, no trams, just you and a taxing hike with your gear to ski down a run that you’ll try to drag out as long as possible to make it worth it.

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Bindings: A piece of equipment that you secure to your skis or snowboard, and if loose, will send you popping into the air mid-slope like a pilot ejecting from a jet.

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Black Diamond: The expert trail that frequently gets skiers and snowboarders the quickest “trail cred” for descending. Full of obstacles like moguls, cliffs, ice all usually under the lift line and everyone’s watching! The pressure’s on! “Let’s watch this skier try to get through this mogul field we got nothing else to do on the lift.”

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Blue Square: The advanced level trail where you will frequently find Dads yelling at their kids to turn, ski groups standing at the top of a run discussing their angle of slope attack, and college kids in sports jerseys cruising around in chaos. “Turn Timmy, Turn your skis! Turn!”

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Board: A wide ski with buckles on it to strap your feet onto. Snowboarders typically get a punk like reputation on the slopes. “Watch out for the snowboarders I saw a group on Scribble Scrabble earlier.”

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Boot: The plastic robotic boot you place on your feet, which you then snap into your skis, like a LEGO character.

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Bowl: The bowl-shaped bowl at the summit, little trees, plenty of rock cliffs, and a sweet spot to descend like you're circling around in a giant bowl of ice cream.

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Camber: A technical term for the arch of a ski that you can use to blame subpar skiing ability on a powder day. “I’d cruise right through this powder like a knife slicing bread if it wasn’t for the camber on this ski.”

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Carve: The ability to carve your ski or board into snow and ice, if you carve enough, you’ll get frequent compliments like “hey, nice carving!”

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Cat Walk: The long, windy part of a trail perfect for a lackadaisical scenic tour of the mountain. Nice and easy until you run out of speed and have to hop your way up to the top. Selfies on skis area. Just like a runway.

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Chute: Another area frequently found below the bowl, like an open straw into a larger trail. A place of daring attempts for a great photo op hopping off a rock. “Stop and record me going down this chute real quick. If I wipe out cut the footage!”

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Cornice: 1, 2, 3 launch. The curve over the top of a trail that you can usually launch off of into a field of powder like you’re being shot out of a cannon.

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Double Black Diamond: The ultimate test of a skier’s patience after dropping into a mogul field only to find the entire trail is moguls. “Jeez they should just groom this, why did I come down here!”

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First Tracks: The first light phenomenon that overtakes skiers in the wee hours of the morning to forge the very first prints on the trail before other skiers arrive.

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Glade: A trail in the trees, usually one skier or boarder in a group will head down, and take forever to get to the bottom. “Where’s Wendy? We’ve been waiting an hour - She went down the glade. - That explains it.”

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Gondola: The mini-pods that test riders’ agility, like an obstacle course, to put their skis and boards into a rack while racing to get into the pod as it moves before the doors close to go up the mountain.

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Green Circle: The trail that is mostly open with no obstacles other than people slowly perusing across the whole width of the trail like sloths crossing a roadway.

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Groomer: A trail that’s easy on the knees.

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Jerry: Easily recognizable. Jerry is holding up the lift line somewhere walking around skis in hand, jacket zipped open, goggles missing, boots unbuckled, trying to be the fifth edition to a four-person chair.

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Keep Tips Up: Not a monetary tip, keep your skis up so you don’t get hooked off the lift, make a big scene, and shut down the lift.

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Liftie: The employee who is blaring music, standing in place, raking the ground, then swinging the chair around like a carousel ride.

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Magic Carpet: The conveyor belt embedded in a beginner slope that brings you from point A to point B to Point A and B like you’re at an airport.

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Mogul: The bump field on the trail, which only gets ridden to impress fellow skiers. “I just barreled through the mogul field, impressed?”

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Parallel Turn: Once you get a handle on your skis, it’s time to take parallel style turns, moving your skis in lines like French fries, or popsicle sticks, you get the idea.

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Rocker: A technical term for the part of a ski important for how much you can blame skiing performance on the rocker of the ski.

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Ski: The carbon fiber pair of sticks used to ski down the mountain.

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Ski Area Boundary: The imaginary line around the resort. Who knows what lies beyond, it’s no man’s land.

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Snow Cat: The tractor on tank-like tracks that grooms the trails, typically seen as a roaming night light wandering around the mountain in the dark. “What’s that light up there? That’s the snow cat, son.”

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Snow Bunny: Found in the lodge, buried in marshmallows, hot cocoa, and set up with their laptop in front of the fire, saying they’ll get around to the slopes someday.

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Slalom: Giant S turns like the ‘S’ in slalom.

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T-Bar: NOT a chairlift. Sometimes a bar. One to two skiers sit on or hold a handlebar, where you will frequently see a skier or boarder holding onto the bar like a fish on a fishing line, fumbling up the slope, refusing to let go of the rope.

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Terrain Park: The “street” and “edgy” part of the mountain where skiers attempt big tricks off big piles of snow and then grind their skis along rails and box jumps.

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Tram: The subway car on a wire that goes up and around the summit back to the bottom. Where you’ll stand like a minnow packed in a can until the operator opens the doors at the summit.

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Tuning: After you go over a field of rocks and take a chunk out of your ski or board, take it to the tuning shop — the guy there will know what to do. “What’d you do? Half the ski is missing, luckily I’m a pro, it just needs a little wax, it’ll be like brand new.”

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Traverse: The runout on a trail that is usually a foot wide, full of unpredictable bumps, and with enough speed, a skier can traverse to the farthest corners of, the trail like they are blazing into a new land.