A quintet of enthusiastic young skiers and snowboarders shredded their way down a variety of urban locations earlier this month during the storm that dumped 21 inches of snow on Pittsburgh and the region.

Their terrain, whose owners weren't aware of their trespassing, included staircase railings, a pristine hillside under a bridge and a bushwhacking run near the West End Overlook that they thought was the first descent of Mount Washington.

It wasn't.

Howard Engelberg, of Park Place in Point Breeze, beat them to it -- by 32 years.

After using the Duquesne Heights Incline to scout the intimidating terrain the previous summer, Mr. Engelberg, then 35, bought a postcard that showed the bare hillside when the incline was installed.

"It showed the entire topography," he said. Mount Washington is 400 feet high. The length of the run he made is 800 feet. The pitch is 30 degrees.

On Jan. 28, 1978 -- a sunny Saturday -- Mr. Engelberg entered the incline with skis and poles in hand. He was accompanied by his wife Jan, 9-year-old son Scott and 9-month-old daughter Zoe. He wore a vest, blue jeans to ward off brambles and briars, and goggles to protect his eyes from saplings and branches.

After his wife took a few photographs, he started down just to the left of the incline. About two feet of snow had flattened most but not all of the underbrush. It took him 10 minutes of skiing and bushwhacking to get down.

He said the conditions were "super," especially a 3-foot-deep spot that absorbed a 15-foot jump he had to make to clear one of the hillside's many rock ledges. He crossed the railroad tracks and rode the incline back to the top.

"It was a fantastic experience, something I had thought about for years," he said from his office in the U.S. Steel Tower, where he is the managing partner of Prudential Realty. His office windows provide a view of Mount Washington.

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