2009 Ski Hall of Fame

Tom Long was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1946. His father, Ed Long, was a ski coach at Boston College and Tom started skiing early at age two. The family moved to New Mexico when Tom was six years old and started skiing at La Madera outside Albuquerque. Ed worked as a ski instructor and coached the junior racing team. Tom started racing at La Madera and volunteered at the area as it transitioned to Sandia Peak in 1964.

He worked for Western Electric in Albuquerque after graduating from high school, then was offered a job as console operator at newly opened Sandia Peak Tram. Tom worked at the tram for several years while being able to ski at the ski area in the winters and do some instructing and coaching with the junior racing team. In 1970, he was named the Ski School Director at Sandia Peak. In 1985, when Ben Abruzzo purchased Santa Fe Ski Basin from Kingsbury Pitcher, Tom was named area manager at Sandia Peak in addition to his ski school director duties. His wife, Lynn, took over some of his ski school duties and eventually moved to running the ticket office at Sandia Peak.

Tom was also active in the Professional Ski Instructors of America Rocky Mountain Division at times serving as President and Chief Examiner. Between 1985 and 2004, both Tom and Lynn worked tirelessly to improve Sandia Peak. Their two sons, Tom and Mike grew up there. Tom carried the Olympic torch in Albuquerque when it passed through NM in 2002.

In 2004, Tom was offered the job of General Manager at Pajarito Ski Area outside of Los Alamos, NM. Skiing at Los Alamos started in the early 1930s at the Los Alamos Ranch School and then in the 1940s when scientists working on the Manhattan Project started skiing at Sawyer’s Hill and then moved a short way north to present-day Pajarito Ski Area. The area had always been dependent on volunteers from the community and Tom oversaw the installation of a snowmaking system, promoted summer mountain biking and summer activities in addition to cross country skiing in the winter to broaden the scope of Pajarito.

Tom was voted into the New Mexico Ski Hall of Fame in 2009. Tom was picked to be Director of Ski New Mexico in 2011 and is on the board of the NM Ski Hall of Fame and oversaw the reconstruction of parts of the Pajarito Ski area after the Los Conchas fire of 2011 burned through parts of the area. In 2021, the PSIA/AASI presented Tom, GM of Pajarito Mountain, with the Distinguished Service Award for his many contributions to ski teaching. Tom retired as GM in 2023.