I'm an East Coast park rat. I know it... I love skiing mountains, I just never really get the chance to do so. I skied my first day of real, winter powder last year at snowmass. Then Mammoth was really good as well... This trip in Vail, there was really great snow... fluffy winter stuff... I have no idea if even this ways actually really good or not. Some say that vail is too flat to enjoy the snow anyways, but I had a blast, and I actually only took 3 runs in the park the entire trip. I missed most of slopestyle (had to watch it on video afterwards) because we were skiing in the back bowls. I've always been really angry when people say "Get out of the park, ride the mountains." for the simple reason of accesability. I mean living in the East, there really isn't much in the way of huge mountains, so generally when I ski I ride the park. I now do understand after 5 days straight of hunting for snow though, how rediculous it can seem to ride the park. Not that I'm jumping on the trend of "the park is stupid, only ride backcountry" because I do really enjoy parks and think that they're a really fun thing to do at a smaller mountain. I think the real key is that every skier should make sure to do a trip here and there, and get out of their bubble. Perhaps that could even be the larger problem with a terrain park, is one ends up in the little bubble that is the confines of the local park. Well at least I know that happened to me. I forgot that there was a huge world of skiing out there outside of where I was. It's a common thing that happens to people, when you get comfortable somewhere you forget to check out what else is out there. So now I have lived a tiny piece of the live of someone who is offended at the idea of going to the park when there's tonnes of snow. I am a changed man after this search for snow that I went on, and I'll never go back to being the same. Snow is really fun, and make sure to burst your own personal bubble every once in a while.