Yea, the level design and interaction with them is simply the best for the genre, the the avalanches, jesus christ that was a rush and also quite a beauty from a technical point of view. Trick system sucks compared to ssx3 or amped2 but for riding, imo its the best.
On the technical side, the moving clothes in the wind, snow sticking on them, avalanches and the snow trails your snowboard makes, are really good eye candies, NST never got any respect for that, but its really no easy feat, 1080A is the game that mimiced snow the best.