Burton's crusade could pay off

That's the mantra of snowboarding pioneer Jake Burton Carpenter's new crusade to "liberate" ski areas that ban snowboarders. The founder of Burton Snowboards (he usually goes by his middle name) is offering a $5,000 prize for the best video documenting snowboarders infiltrating any of the four areas that don't allow knuckledraggers. The areas include Mad River Glen in Vermont, Alta and Deer Valley in Utah and Taos in New Mexico, which plans to lift the ban in March.

You can hear Burton's clarion call to "sabotage stupidity" on burton.com/poachers. With the beat of patriotic drum ruffles in the background, Burton says: "Until snowboarders everywhere are free to ride where they want to ride. Until the snow and slopes of this great nation have been purged of this scourge of segregation. Until the four elitist and fascist resorts lift their Draconian ban, there should be no rest, no justice.

"In the face of this blatant aggressive disregard of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America, poaching isn't simply a peaceful form of protest, it's your patriotic duty. Power to the poachers!"

Covering the company's legal butt, Burton's contest "commandants" urge snowboarders to follow the law, buy a lift ticket, stay inbounds, wear safety equipment, "always respect ski patrol, even if they tackle you," and "last but not least, keep it brofessional ."

Burton's privately held company, the world's

Today, snowboarders account for about a third of all lift ticket sales.

Burton's employees had a successful poaching last month at Mad River. Wearing white clothing and hiking up the mountain before dawn, a group of Burton riders dropped into the MGR base area just as it was dedicating its restored 1948 single chair. The Burton dudes smiled, posed for photos and gave out doughnuts before leaving on a bus.

" They were incredibly respectful of the dedication ceremony," says Mad River's Eric Friedman. Since then, several other snowboarders have poached the area, including one dressed as Santa Claus. He said Mad River isn't calling out the Border Patrol just yet, "they just can ride the lifts."

As a marketing director, Friedman knows the value of a publicity stunt. "This is really about Burton trying to remain edgy. The snowboard industry has matured so much and they've got a huge percentage of the market, but they still need to stay edgy."

What does annoy Friedman, a Jew who had relatives killed in the Holocaust, is Burton's "patriotic" argument that it's an equality issue against the "fascist" resorts. "To associate this with civil rights is a stretch and an insult to the civil rights movement," Friedman says.

Mad River's snowboarding ban goes back to 1991 when shredders were blocked from using the single chair. Because the ride ends on a flat surface, boarders often pushed off the old chair, causing it to become cockeyed as it entered the turning cogwheel. A total ban came when then owner Betsy Pratt had a verbal confrontation with snowboarders and kicked them out for good.

Unlike other areas, Mad River is owned by a non-profit cooperative of skiers. To join the cooperative, people must buy a share (costing $2,000) to have a say and vote on how the area is run. The skiing public can buy lift tickets, but shareholders get price breaks and incentives.

The co-op, Friedman says, saved the area from closing when it purchased it from Pratt in 1995.

And while finances are tight, he said the co-op still doesn't want snowboarders, which could bump up revenues 10 percent.

"The bottom line: Mad River Glen's decisions, like snowboarding, are made by the shareholders, not by someone in an ivory tower or by a corporation." Friedman says. "If they want to be involved, buy a share."

To Friedman, that's democracy.

The fact that MGR is on privately owned land shoots down one of Burton's key arguments that resorts on national forest property should be open to all taxpayers, not just elitist skiers.

Yet the 53-year-old Burton says there are other issues. "We have been snowboarding at major resorts for over 20 years now and in the process, we have demonstrated our sport to be real and of no threat to society," he says. "If you have spent as much time in the mountains as I have, you would know that every mountain has a personality, and while they can be brutally cruel at times, discrimination is not in their DNA."

Friedman thinks MGR was poached first because it's in Burton's backyard. "I know Jake Burton likes to play golf, but we don't play crochet on a golf course."

SNOW KIDDING - Ski conditions don't get better than this in the East, with most areas reporting 100 percent of their trails open. Although southern Connecticut has been hit by mostly rain and sleet, northern New England areas enjoyed the snowiest December in decades.

Burlington, Vt., got 45.7 inches, far above its 17.2-inch average.

Killington in Vermont got 92.5 inches, just shy of the 96-inch December record set in 2003.

If there was ever a season to go skiing or snowboarding, this is it!