Angel Fire, NM – Angel Fire Resort, 20 miles east of Taos in Northern New Mexico’s Enchanted Circle, will be adding new terrain for skiers and boarders this winter, focused on a new terrain park and an addition to the ski area’s gladed terrain offerings.
Angel Fire will transition its popular summer Bike Park into new terrain for skiers and boarders, resulting in two new half-mile winter trails. The first will offer berms and jumps, similar to the popular Bominable trail, at the top of the mountain. The second will offer skiers a gentle, winding gladed trail through the trees.
The resort is also building a completely new nighttime terrain park on the front side, off Ridge Run on Valley Trail, to be named “Powder City.” The resort will host at least one USASA freestyle competition in Powder City this winter.
Angel Fire officials are optimistic that the new terrain offerings will appeal to families heading to northern New Mexico this winter. “Several resorts offer amazing skiing but very few offer a true family experience,” explains Jamie Seifert, mountain operations manager at Angel Fire Resort. “Angel Fire Resort is committed to creating a dedicated ‘family first’ southern Rockies winter destination.”
To further that effort, Angel Fire Resort is revamping the programs in its full-service Children’s Ski School and on-site day care, known as SnowBear Camp. For the family that has already developed their snow skills, the interchangeable Parenting Pass allows two parents to take turns coaching and skiing with their child, permitting parents to take turns on the mountain in a single day while the other stays behind to care for a little one who is too young to ski. The High 5 Learn to Ski and Snowboard program is designed for first-time skiers and boarders to progress through a series of five lessons and earn a free season pass with their completion of the program. Lessons can be taken consecutively, during successive visits or even split over two winter seasons.
For the tiniest of tots just learning how to ski, the 3 Ski Program allows the little ones a one-hour private lesson with lunch and snacks, plus snow play and activities at Snow Bear Camp. This allows the parents a full day on the slopes themselves, knowing that their little ones are in good hands for the whole day. The resort has also added a dedicated Children’s Chef, creating homemade comfort food favorites, nut-free lunches and snacks for day campers and ski schoolers. Say goodbye to soggy PB&J’s and boxed mac and cheese.
Angel Fire’s Children’s Ski & Snowboard School has partnered with Flaik, a GPS-based Alpine Guest Tracking System. Children enrolled in lift service lessons will be equipped with a lightweight armband locator for all lift-serviced lessons. Images are captured multiple times per second, allowing detailed analysis of location and turn shape and allow parents and students to review their progress at the end of the day.
Along with New Mexico’s only nighttime terrain park and lift-serviced tubing hill the resort has added a more traditional daytime sledding hill with sleds and discs for rent. Angel Fire will also continue to improve its cross-country ski terrain at The Nordic Center, now open for its third season. The groomed, looped trails wind skiers along rolling, scenic canyons of native spruce, pine and aspen trees, starting at 8,400 feet of elevation. The terrain is varying, offering as light or as challenging a workout as any cross-country skier could ask for. The Nordic trails offer both skate and classic-style cross-country skiing. For the non-skiing crowd, the Nordic Center is open to snowshoers as well.
Along with offering a wide variety of family entertainment on the mountain, Angel Fire has a large slate of non-skiing family activities including a Snowman Garden complete with snowman-making kits, snow art competitions, horse-drawn sleigh rides, indoor pools, hot tub and two fitness centers.
Angel Fire is scheduled to open its winter season on Dec. 13.