they fly through the air with the greatest of ease

Racing down a powdered slope may be thrilling, but when those fast-waxed bottoms leave the ground you enter another world. Last weekend in Vermont New England's top collegiate jumpers demonstrated their graceful aerobatics at Middlebury College's 55 meter hill. DAVE RAND [top left and top right], Harvard's Nordic ski captain, flew to one of his best performances of the year. CHRIS AXELSON of Middlebury breaks out of the gate [left] and rushes towards ground zero [above]. A pensive face [right] precedes the jump, but once you've started, there's no turning back.