NM Tourism:	www.newmexico.org
Twitter:	@SkiNewMexico

Articles

Perfect Powder

It’s dry, fluffy, light, like confectioner’s sugar. What makes New Mexico snow so incredibly perfect? — by Amy Seigel

To find the answer, we talked to an expert. According to veteran ski patroller and Taos native Rey Deveaux, “It’s just plain magic.” And for the powder-hounds and ski bums of the Land of Enchantment, there could be no truer statement. Because who would ever imagine that a state so far south—a place that often sees summer temperatures climb well above the 90-degree mark—should be able to offer skiers some of the very best powder skiing in the lower 48? But it’s true. New Mexico snow is some of the best in the business. It’s the kind of dry, white-smoke powder that is most often associated with that favorite buzzword of skiers and boarders alike: Epic. It’s the stuff dreams are made of.

Anyone who’s spent a day navigating the loose groves of Tesuque Peak at Ski Santa Fe or Taos’ whiteout steeps on a powder day is sure to agree with Deveaux’s description of the enchanted nature of New Mexico snow. “But if you want a technical explanation,” says Deveaux, “it all has to do with a perfect storm of low humidity and high altitude.”

The result is a big dump
of that dry and dreamy
stuff so often referred to as
“champagne powder.”

Thanks to the vast Mojave Desert, storms blowing in from the West Coast are sucked dry of the kind of moisture that produces the cement-like snow often found in the Pacific Northwest. “And whatever moisture is left in those storms,” explains Deveaux, “usually doesn’t precipitate until it gets slowed down and hung up in our mountains.” As the storms push their way up and over the high-altitude peaks of the Sangre de Cristos, the remaining moisture is supercooled and the result is a big dump of that dry and dreamy stuff so often referred to as “champagne powder.” “The resulting precipitation is usually less than 5 percent moisture content which makes it extremely fluffy and light,” says Deveaux. “It’s the kind of snow that can pile up in deep, deep drifts and yet be so light and have so little density that you just float through it with little effort.” And that, he says, “is a skier’s dream.”

So next time you’re up at the summit of your favorite New Mexico resort gazing out over expanses of red rock and bright blue sky stretching off to the western horizon, be sure to give a little nod to the Great Mojave before dropping in to enjoy some of that loose, light—and utterly enchanting—powder snow.

Ski Apache

New Mexico