I had to squeeze this one in, as consensus is that Santa Fe is the #2 ski hill in New Mexico. It's a nice enough area, but the distance up to #1 Taos is a large gap, and it's understandable why expert local snowboarders are so aggrieved.
The area has a 1/2 hour access road to its base elevation of 10,300 feet. From the base is a 900 foot low intermediate lift that had most of the traffic on this quiet Thursday. The higher lifts are 1500 vertical to a 12,000 foot summit with average intermediate pitch but several runs like Avalanche Bowl have short steep spots. Exposure is about half north and half west. At the southern end of the Sangre de Cristo range there are panoramic views to the south and west of over 100 miles, similar to those from Ski Apache near Ruidoso 200+ miles to the south.
Santa Fe is steeper than Ski Apache and reminded me more of Arizona Snowbowl. It's somewhat better than Snowbowl due to spreading out a bit more and having more north and less west exposure. It had not snowed in a week but all the north facing terrain was packed powder. Groomed runs were in great shape and remained so all day with the light midweek traffic. With high overcast and a light breeze ungroomed west facing runs remained crunchy up to my 2PM departure for Taos.
The tree line in New Mexico is very high, as an adjacent peak to the north was thickly forested to 12,000 feet. Thus most skiing is confined to trails, which will bump up in absence of grooming. As an example Parachute had consistent intermediate pitch, but I needed several rest stops in the bumps on my first day at this lung-busting altitude. On the south boundary of the area is Big Tesuque Bowl, a more open gladed area which continues out of bounds to the access road a couple of miles below the ski area. It faced west and had sun crust so I was not tempted.
The area has a 1/2 hour access road to its base elevation of 10,300 feet. From the base is a 900 foot low intermediate lift that had most of the traffic on this quiet Thursday. The higher lifts are 1500 vertical to a 12,000 foot summit with average intermediate pitch but several runs like Avalanche Bowl have short steep spots. Exposure is about half north and half west. At the southern end of the Sangre de Cristo range there are panoramic views to the south and west of over 100 miles, similar to those from Ski Apache near Ruidoso 200+ miles to the south.
Santa Fe is steeper than Ski Apache and reminded me more of Arizona Snowbowl. It's somewhat better than Snowbowl due to spreading out a bit more and having more north and less west exposure. It had not snowed in a week but all the north facing terrain was packed powder. Groomed runs were in great shape and remained so all day with the light midweek traffic. With high overcast and a light breeze ungroomed west facing runs remained crunchy up to my 2PM departure for Taos.
The tree line in New Mexico is very high, as an adjacent peak to the north was thickly forested to 12,000 feet. Thus most skiing is confined to trails, which will bump up in absence of grooming. As an example Parachute had consistent intermediate pitch, but I needed several rest stops in the bumps on my first day at this lung-busting altitude. On the south boundary of the area is Big Tesuque Bowl, a more open gladed area which continues out of bounds to the access road a couple of miles below the ski area. It faced west and had sun crust so I was not tempted.
