But when one overcomes the trials and tribulations of getting up, and you can right your powder wrongs, a world of opportunity opens up. Ski guide Kitt Redhead says it’s “like swimming in a lake your whole life – and then someone [takes] you to the ocean.” Others think of it as a weightless experience – Canadian heliskiing owner Mike Welch describes the sensation as like “[riding with] someone holding you up by the hat.”

It’s a wonderfully poetic description, and with this gravity-defying aid, there’s no end to the fun to be had. Push in a turn, hit a lip, drop cliffs, take on pillow lines, hit hips… everything is covered in a magical landing juice. And then there’s the beauty. Anyone who has looked at an untouched cornice on their way to slash it to pieces has seen a natural sculpture that beats anything man has ever conjoured up. “What we believe is beautiful, we will not wantonly destroy,” offered the Reverend Sean Parker Dennison to his Salt Lake City congregation – but the good lord’s agent had obviously never seen snowboarders attacking an untouched powder field. And as for that virgin cornice lying there waiting to be pillaged? We’d stand up in court and verify that it was asking for it. Your honour.