Everybody knows the 'Bird is the word as far as steep and deep go. So how do you make Snowbird better? You go big.

Thats just what the Utah ski area has done by opening its Mineral Basin expansion area. The new south-facing bowl increases the ski area by 30 percent and the high-speed quad chairlift increases uphill capacity by 1800 people an hour. In early December, a week before they officially opened the area, I got off the tram at the Hidden Peak summit and prepared to check it out.

An unwelcoming gale greeted me. Plumes stretched like huge windsocks from the spires of the 11,000-foot Twin Peaks that loom over Snowbird. The roar of the wind was matched by the insistent slapping of my jacket collar against my chin. After hooking up with a ski patrol guide, Alta photographer Lee Cohen, actor/skier Brian Wimmer, and Snowbird freeskier Jeremy Nobis, we skied down a windblown ridge to the Little Cloud chair then hooked a left under the boundary rope and dropped southward, into Mineral Basin.

Suddenly there was silence. No wind. No collar slapping me in the face. Benefit number one of Mineral Basin: since the wind comes in from the west, its southeast face remains mostly sheltered, even on stormy days.

Beneath me lay a south-facing bowl studded with granite outcroppings, sheer cliffs, and 400 acres of untracked snow. Our patroller made a big traverse to test the stability of the untouched snowpack then gave the high sign. Nobis sprung forward like an animal let out of its cage. Needing to go one at a time for avalanche safety reasons, we stood and watched the snow blast off his skis like a jets contrail. The great thing about skiing powder behind Nobis is the amount of untracked he leaves; since the guy skis everything as straight and with as few turns as, possible theres no wasted terrain.

After beating the other two by throwing rock to their scissors, I dropped in. The legendary Utah fluff swam up my thighs, flowed over my shoulders. Fully in the white room, I almost skied over the Hamilton Cliffs, an 80-foot drop. Although the patroller said the cliff band would be roped off, I could already see the powder day huckfests that would occur here.

As we traversed over into a long drainage called Powder Paradise, I spotted another high-elevation proving ground: a north-facing rock wall called The Bookends. Striped by 10 perfectly skiable 45-degree lines, footed by the safety net of a powder-filled run-out, the out-of-bounds Bookends will be skiable at safe times by backcountry skiers who dont mind hiking for their turns. I made a mental note: Hike The Bookends this spring.

At the bottom of Mineral, I pulled up to Nobis, Cohen, and Wimmer. We self-loaded onto the chair and found ourselves staring up at the wide bowl with its 1439-vertical foot face.

This place is going to go off, blurted Cohen. Its the goods.

This is just what Snowbird needs, said Wimmer. This is going to spread people out and offer killer terrain.

Nobis was just smiling.

We rode the high-speed quad straight up the middle of the bowl. Beneath us the terrain descended in benches of short, fairly steep pitches that, depending on grooming, could either be intermediate or expert. There were also lines that if groomed just right might qualify as Snowbird-style beginner runs (theyd be deemed intermediate at most other resorts).

The official reckoning of the distribution of terrain in Mineral Basin is 20 percent beginner, 30 percent intermediate, 30 percent advanced, and 20 percent expert - a perfect bell curve of terrain.

From the top we skied to the east side of the big bowl. Here Mineral Basin shares a ridge along Cottonwood Pass with the Alta ski area. Although this cries out for either a ticket that could be used at either areas, or a merger between Alta and Snowbird, neither is planned. Snowbird is, however, going to give Alta skiers a little taste. After 2:30 each day, Alta ticket holders can ski Mineral Basin at no charge.

As an approaching storm slid over Hidden Peak we dropped in for our second run. This time I got the honors. A crust of sun-bake, hidden by the foot of new fluff, tugged at my skis. I had to straighten it out. Going at GS speed, I floated over the crust in a potato-soup world of white on white. It was all very Zen, skiing by feel, flowing with the terrain, until I hit the snowcat road. Never saw the sucker. It bucked me forward. Hard, giving me an up-close-and-personal with my tips. After yelling up to the others, I made another mental note: Mineral Basin is not a place to warp in a white-out.

Halfway down the next pitch, Wimmer got stopped dead by some dry reef (jagged rock barely covered by light snow). We checked his skis. Luckily no core shots. Mineral Basin was teaching us it tricks. This is a bowl that doesnt have the in-your-face lines of the upper Cirque (ala Rats Nest and Great Scott) but its still a place that can slap you down. The benched terrain can give you a false sense of security - theres always a quick end to the pitch - but even where this bowl levels out, youve got to be on top of your boards. Rocks, tree stumps, and of course, cat roads lurk in the hollows. What Im saying is, just because theres a plush high-speed quad, doesnt mean youre in Vail. Yet its visions of a Vail-like development up Little Cottonwood Canyon thats giving some Salt Lakers nightmares.

Although the Mineral Basin area is on land owned by Snowbird (which spent 15 years buying up mining claims in the area), the resort company still needed to conform to National Forest Service environmental regulations. The process took more than five years, during which time a group called Save Our Canyons has fought it.

In a letter to the Salt Lake Tribune, S.O.C. accused the Forest Service of handing land over to resort managers to exploit for the skiing elite of the world.

We listened to Save Our Canyons and everyone else who had anything to say about the proposal, said Snowbirds Mountain Manager Bob Black, and then we implemented changes to please as many people as we could. Weve really tried to be good neighbors.

Perhaps that effort paid off, because Snowbird has also received Forest Service approval for a 50,000 foot building on top of Hidden Peak (down from the 78,000 foot structure it requested). The building will house dining facilities, operational infrastructure, retail shops, and an environmental interpretive center. In addition, Snowbird also got approval for a 12,500-foot day lodge at the bottom of Gad 1, a high- speed quad in Little Cloud Bowl, and 110 acres of snowmaking. Snowbirds planning to kick off the engineering on these projects next summer.

Youre going to see a new Snowbird in 2001, said marketing director Fred Rollins.

Whether thats marketing hype or not, our private poaching day in Mineral Basin assured us that around here the Bird will continue to be the word for a long time to come.