Ski New Mexico

Skiing and Snowboarding in the Land of Enchantment

Archives for March 2022

Diving into Winter, Differently

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Santa Fe NM

Ski Santa Fe is well known for downhill thrills, but the excitement is enhanced by the nearby town. If there is a more charming place than Santa Fe in winter—cozy adobe dwellings, chilly nights, warm lights, the scent of pinion smoke wafting through the air—I have yet to find it. Add a little snow, which is entirely possible from December to March, and it becomes one of the most unique and lovely settings anywhere in the United States. I’ve called Santa Fe home for more than 20 years and I’ve never grown tired of this picturesque tableau.

Few events capture this character better than the town’s Christmas Eve Farolito Walk. When the sun sets every year on December 24, the traditional candle lanterns lining sidewalks and rooftops light up by the thousands. Soon the crowds arrive to stroll historic Canyon Road, past pinion bonfires, sparkling trees, and groups of carolers. It’s like walking through a living fairy tale. 

For all its old-world charm, however, these days Santa Fe is a bustling contemporary destination. Long a popular and much-celebrated vacation spot, Santa Fe’s special history—the rich native culture, the oldest continuously occupied building in the nation, the art and architecture, to mention a few—is well-known. But new currents are coursing through town. Take, for example, Meow Wolf, a must-see immersive art installation that began in Santa Fe in 2008 and has grown to become a thriving entertainment fixture, with additional outlets appearing around the country. Include other world-class venues, like Site Santa Fe and the Center for Contemporary Arts, along with the many independent galleries around town, and the “City Different” becomes worth a visit for the art alone.

But of course many other options abound. Celebrated for its outdoor recreation, Santa Fe sparkles during the colder months, too. Ski Santa Fe, just a 16-mile drive east of downtown, is the main attraction, but you can also venture out for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, biking, horseback riding, year-round fishing, and off-road exploration—all easily accessible from a Santa Fe basecamp.

Work up an appetite? Good, because the food and beverage scene in Santa Fe is worthy of its reputation as one of the best “foodie” towns in the country. That’s because Santa Fe excels in a variety of regional specialties, particularly its world-famous red and green chile, ladled onto enchiladas and burritos, served alongside posole, tamales, tacos, sopapillas (fried bread), and huevos rancheros.

For top-notch chile samplings, try local favorites like The Shed and La Choza. Other great options can be found at Harry’s Roadhouse, Counter Culture, Tune-Up Cafe, Tesuque Village Market, El Parasol, El Farol, or the excellent new Horno, which opened in Summer 2021. Both Bobcat Bite and the outdoor walk-up, Shake Foundation, are known for their terrific green chile cheeseburgers.

Kick off your day with a hearty breakfast at Tune-Up, El Palacio, or Dolina Cafe, which informally compete for the best breakfast burritos in town. Or try a coffee and beignet from the popular French bakery Clafoutis. For lunch, check out the healthy, fresh fare at Opuntia, in the Railyard, with one of the best views around. If you’re looking to take it more upscale for dinner, you’ve got abundant classy spots to choose from, including Geronimo, The Compound, izanami, Sazon, Joseph’s, and Paloma, with their creative takes on classic New Mexican entrees. And if you wind up completely hooked on Santa Fe’s signature flavors, bring some of them home with a visit to the Santa Fe Cooking School for hands-on culinary lessons.

While driving tours can cover a lot of ground, Santa Fe may be at its best on foot. Whether you’re a fit, ambitious hiker setting out to scale Atalaya Mountain, a strenuous 2,000 foot ascent to stunning views just east of town via the Dale Ball Trails, or a casual ambler strolling around Museum Hill or the shops and galleries surrounding the Plaza, walking is the best way to experience this historic place. Did you know Santa Fe has a Margarita Trail? Complete with its own app to guide you to more than three dozen spots mixing top-shelf cocktails, you can plot your own course. Two of my favorites: La Reina, at the El Rey hotel on Cerrillos, and the Anasazi Bar and Lounge, one block from the Santa Fe Plaza.

Naturally, after all that walking (or skiing, or snowboarding, or sledding, or cross-country touring), you’ll want to indulge in a little self-care. The good news is your choices around Santa Fe range from the excellent to the opulent. The Japanese onsen-style spa Ten Thousand Waves is a much-loved—and highly recommended—destination for locals and visitors. La Posada offers deluxe spa treatments in a historic adobe setting. And the newly renovated Bishop’s Lodge, near Tesuque, offers a five-star splurge that Conde Nast Traveler recently called one of the “coolest hotels in the U.S.” And of course there are numerous short-term rentals on AirBnB, VRBO, and other platforms, to find your perfect retreat. Rest up. A winter full of fun, on snow and off, awaits.

Spectacular Spring Snow!

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Don’t cry because we’re on the tail end of winter—Smile because we still have an entire month to get out there and make some snow tracks!

And thanks to Mother Nature’s perfectly-timed and generous storm cycle last week, there is plenty of snow on the mountains! Taos got more than 52 inches of fresh powder, neighboring Sipapu topped 36”, Red River recorded 32”, and Santa Fe saw 31”. For full details on all of New Mexico’s ski resorts, click in!

Get a move on while all of our resorts are open this weekend, and three of them are open into April:

Angel Fire: Closes March 20
Pajarito: Closes March 19
Red River: Closes March 20
Sipapu: Closes April 10
Ski Apache: Closes March 20
Ski Santa Fe: Closes April 3
Taos Ski Valley: Closes April 10

Here in New Mexico, we know how to make the most of our seasonal events and activities. There is plenty of time to pack up your roof rack and head to some fun events:

Maybe the most fun a family can have together on a mountain is the Sipapu Cardboard Derby, back this year on Saturday, March 26, from 8 am-4 pm. Racers arrive with innovative vessels made with only cardboard, duct tape, string and paint and careen down the mountain for a chance to win amazing prizes. Need a little inspiration (or maybe just a laugh)? Check out this video!

Squeeze in one more cool kids event at RED RIVER on Wednesday, March 16th at 6:30 pm at the Kids Glow Stick Parade on Gold Rush Hill. Fuel up on free hot dogs at the Main Chalet before your little “hot dogs” hit the hill! Then stick around for fireworks, too. If your “little kids” are now “big kids” in college, check out the College Days savings between March 17-20 here. And for one last hurrah, send off the ski season at the annual Pond Skim on Sunday, March 20 at 3:30 pm.

Taos Ski Valley will host a World Pro Ski Tour World Championships event from April 7—10, 2022, with both men’s and women’s races on the same weekend for the first time. Photo credit: https://www.sportstravelmagazine.com/

Finally, it’s a good thing TAOS has so much snow and is open for so long, because they still have some major events to squeeze into the 2022 ski season! The Ben Myers Ridge-a-thon on March 18 & 19, the High Hazard Hoedown on March 19, and the USSA Southern Series Championships (March 26 & 27) are cool enough. But the event de résistance is the World Pro Ski Tour World Championships April 7-10. This prestigious event is the country’s foremost professional alpine race tour where athletes race side-by-side in a single-elimination format. Join Olympians Bode Miller, Deb Armstrong, and others to watch as the world’s top athletes go head-to-head in hopes of taking home a piece of the $200,000 purse. Thousands of spectators, competitors, and sponsors are expected to attend, showcasing Taos’ world-renowned terrain on international television. Get your tickets here.

As winter winds down, we hope you take the opportunity to visit a new venue, try a new trail or two, and make some fresh new winter memories with your friends and family.

Tiny Museum—Big History

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If you’ve ever taken a break at Ski Santa Fe’s Totemoff Bar & Grill or had a lesson from the Ernie Blake Snowsports School at Taos, you might wonder about the people behind the legendary names. A great place to learn about the pioneers who made skiing in New Mexico possible and to marvel at how far ski equipment has evolved is the New Mexico Ski Museum.

Located at the base of the Sandia Peak Tramway, the charming museum is free and open year-round. It opened in 2008 and was created to document the history and development of skiing in New Mexico. It is dedicated to Robert Nordhaus who developed the Sandia Peak Ski Area in the 1940s, and who, along with Ben Abruzzo, co-founded the Sandia Peak Tramway in 1966.

Ben Abruzzo (left) and Robert (Bob) Nordhaus were the primary forces behind the development of La Madera into today’s Sandia Peak. They are seen together here at the base of La Madera in 1962. Nordhaus was a New Mexico native, born and raised in the original Las Vegas. He obtained a law degree from Yale University in 1935, and became the founding president of the Albuquerque Ski Club in 1936. His wife, Virginia, first suggested they try out this new sport of skiing. He once told author Daniel Gibson, “We began to learn—no one really knew anything about it.” Low snow years in the early 1950s led him to turn over operations to the City of Albuquerque, but in 1952 he and a group of investors resumed management. Both men were inducted into the New Mexico Ski Hall of Fame’s first class, in 2003, along with Ernie Blake. (Courtesy Sandia Peak.) –Daniel Gibson

Taking up one whole corner of the tiny museum is a full-size Ski Apache gondola from the 1960s, and on another wall is a pair of bamboo ski poles with baskets the size of dessert plates. If you’ve skied around the block a few times in your life, you may remember the lace-up ski boots at the beginning of the “From Leather to Plastic” evolution of ski boots collection lined up in a glass case. Other artifacts like handmade wooden nordic skis, fragments of a tow rope and a weathered t-bar are displayed in between historic photos, stories and timelines.

But the real stories lie in the 37 placards on the Ski Hall of Fame of individuals and couples whose passion and foresight in the last century created an annual economic impact of more than $140 million for New Mexico. You’ll meet Kingsbury (Pitch) Pitcher who led work crews to design what is now Ski Apache near Ruidoso and acquired and developed Ski Santa Fe into a successful business until he sold it to the Abruzzo family in 1984; John and Judy Miller, the patriarchs of Red River Ski Area and the Enchanted Forest Cross Country Ski and Snowshoe area; and even the 2004 NCAA National Championship UNM ski team. If you’d like to read their stories in front of your own fire, you can find them all here.

The exact details of this photo—perhaps the oldest photo anywhere of an American Indian on skis—are lost to history but this image of a Taos Pueblo Indian is believed to have been taken in the Hondo Valley a few miles down-valley from Taos Ski Valley circa 1900. He is thought to have been a mail carrier who delivered letters in a pouch on his back to the mining community of Twining. His long single pole was the early favored means of controlling speed and for turning. The effort both uphill and down generated lots of body heat; thus his trim figure and relatively light clothing. (Courtesy TSV.)
–Daniel Gibson

If those stories whet your appetite for more New Mexico ski history, and you want to go back as far as the 19th century, check out the delightful book “Skiing in New Mexico” by Daniel Gibson and Jay Blackwood. Packed with vintage photos and anecdotes, this book may have you thinking a few things: “Wow, they had a lot of snow!”… “Wow, they did not dress very warmly.”… and, “They did all that skiing with no chair lifts?” For an additional short magazine article by Gibson, click here.

The ski industry in New Mexico has come a long way, thanks to passionate and tenacious people who channeled their love of the sport into entrepreneurial endeavors for the rest of us. There’s still time this season to write your own ski story!