Skiing in New Mexico

[Shredmonkey254]

Does anyone have any recommendations of any other ski areas other than Taos? Planning a trip early January and see several smaller, but interesting looking ski ares out there that I haven’t heard of. Thinking it maybe more fun hitting these places and spending less time at Taos Ski Valley. Any thoughts?

 

[slatham]

Ski Santa Fe is the next significant area after Taos. My brother has a pass there. Angel Fire as well, and it’s reasonably close to Ski Santa Fe. There are at least 3 more areas in this general area.

That said, Taos is sweet….

 

[chuckstah]

I did a 10 day NM trip a number of years ago. Skied mostly Taos, but did get a day at Angel Fire, and a day at Sandia Peak. AF was worth the day, much smaller but plenty of diverse terrain. I remember the snow being good which is not always the case. Sandia was fun. It's really easy terrain, but worked well on departure day being close to the airport. I'm not sure how often it's actually open, relying on natural snow pretty far south. I wish I got to a couple of the others. Next trip I guess.

 

[2planks2coasts]

NM is chock full of fun mountains. Santa Fe is the best proper "big" mountain after Taos. Angel Fire and Red River are both worth a couple of days. Smaller areas like Sipapu and Pajarito offer some amazing history. Pajarito was run by Los Alamos National Laboratory for years. Sandia is super close to Albuquerque but didn't open last year due to lack of snow.

 

[snoseek]

I was kind of impressed with pajarito. Lots of bumps and fairly steep trails for a smallish area. It doesn't really feel anything like a western ski area but still fun.

 

[Tonyr]

As mentioned earlier, Ski Santa Fe and Angel Fire are your two best options outside of Taos. Sandia Mountain hasn't been opened the last 2 seasons. We hiked Ski Santa Fe during the summer months, the tree skiing there looks solid.

 

[raisingarizona]

Taos is insane. Ski Santa Fe is rad and is a super fun mid sized mountain. Red River looks fun to me simply because you can walk from the slopes straight to a bar in town but the mountain doesn’t look very exciting. I checked out Sipapu but we had crappy snow. If the snow were good I could have plenty of fun there for a few hours. The bar was fun to hang out in too but I’m not going to go out of my way to go back there.

I’d focus on Santa Fe and Taos. Angel Fire doesn’t look appealing to me.

 

[4aprice]

Taos is insane. Ski Santa Fe is rad and is a super fun mid sized mountain. Red River looks fun to me simply because you can walk from the slopes straight to a bar in town but the mountain doesn’t look very exciting. I checked out Sipapu but we had crappy snow. If the snow were good I could have plenty of fun there for a few hours. The bar was fun to hang out in too but I’m not going to go out of my way to go back there.

I’d focus on Santa Fe and Taos. Angel Fire doesn’t look appealing to me.

I'm with you RA on Red River. Ski area just hangs there, above the town. Pictures I saw looked like it could be entertaining for 1 or 2 days. I read the bars have a distinctly Texas vibe. Santa Fe looks cool too.

Got my eye on the southern tier between Brain Head/AZ Snow Bowl and New Mexico for a safari 1 season when I get out there (preferably an El Nino year but not this year)

 

[Tonyr]

The AZ Snowbowl is a place I'd love to hit one day.

 

[So Inclined]

Taos is insane. Ski Santa Fe is rad and is a super fun mid sized mountain. Red River looks fun to me simply because you can walk from the slopes straight to a bar in town but the mountain doesn’t look very exciting. I checked out Sipapu but we had crappy snow. If the snow were good I could have plenty of fun there for a few hours. The bar was fun to hang out in too but I’m not going to go out of my way to go back there.

I’d focus on Santa Fe and Taos. Angel Fire doesn’t look appealing to me.

I've only driven past Sipapu, but it looked like a fun, out of the way place for an afternoon given decent conditions.

 

[Shredmonkey254]

I'm with you RA on Red River. Ski area just hangs there, above the town. Pictures I saw looked like it could be entertaining for 1 or 2 days. I read the bars have a distinctly Texas vibe. Santa Fe looks cool too.

Got my eye on the southern tier between Brain Head/AZ Snow Bowl and New Mexico for a safari 1 season when I get out there (preferably an El Nino year but not this year)

El Nino has us heading to New Mexico this year (that and our Sunday River friends!) as it should make for good conditions. So many areas and so little time, half the fun of a trip is exploring, may be tough to hit Taos only one day or two but that will probably happen. Red River on top of a miners town is a must, it just looks cool as hell. Ski Apache also looks like it could be worth visiting, haven't heard anyone give that one a shout out. I had no idea there was so much skiing that far south!

 

[raisingarizona]

El Nino has us heading to New Mexico this year (that and our Sunday River friends!) as it should make for good conditions. So many areas and so little time, half the fun of a trip is exploring, may be tough to hit Taos only one day or two but that will probably happen. Red River on top of a miners town is a must, it just looks cool as hell. Ski Apache also looks like it could be worth visiting, haven't heard anyone give that one a shout out. I had no idea there was so much skiing that far south!

Apache is a loooong drive from Taos. If you are going to do that you might as well visit flagstaff and/or the San Juan ski areas.

 

[raisingarizona]

I’m out and about but I’ll post up an old article I’m quoted in from Backcountry magazine many years ago that was on the four corners region once I get home and can snap a picture of it.

 

[Shredmonkey254]

Apache is a loooong drive from Taos. If you are going to do that you might as well visit flagstaff and/or the San Juan ski areas.

We had bad conditions in Jackson one year, so we drove to Alta from there... another trip to Jackson and more bad snow, drove to Big Sky... love road trips!

 

[LonghornSkier]

Apache is a loooong drive from Taos. If you are going to do that you might as well visit flagstaff and/or the San Juan ski areas.

I wouldn't drive that far south just to Ski Apache. Might be worthwhile if you add in some non-skiing sightseeing like White Sands and/or Carlsbad Caverns.

 

[raisingarizona]

 

[jaytrem]

I wouldn't drive that far south just to Ski Apache. Might be worthwhile if you add in some non-skiing sightseeing like White Sands and/or Carlsbad Caverns.

I did, was a pretty cool mountain. Got to ride the original gondola, so it was almost worth the tri just for that. But yeah, probably not really worth the drive.

I’d focus on Santa Fe and Taos. Angel Fire doesn’t look appealing to me.

I really enjoy my days at Angel Fire. That back side is a lot of fun. If there is powder day, once the trails get tracked, a short hike gets you to the expansion area. As afr as I can tell, not many people trek out there.

Quick NM breakdown...

Taos - AWESOME, one of the best in the US/Canada.
Sipapu - Small but a lot of fun, some good trees, worlds slowest chair up top (unless they sped it up).
Pajarito - Bumps!!! Very cool place!
Angel Fire -LONG quad on the front, back side has much better terrain though.
Santa Fe - Only skied there one day, snow was nice, but it was quote windy.
Sandia - First time there was no snow down the bottom, so could only ski from the tram and half way down. Second time they had an abundance of snow. VERY long lifts, not much steeps.
Apache - Seems to have a little bit of everything, but it's a drive and a half.
Red River - Fun little mountain, especially on a powder day. Worst customer service ever though.

This is what you need to get your hands on...

Ski New Mexico True Pass

skinewmexico.com

These guys also used to see something similar, but not sure of their current status....

LANDING | NMX Sports

www.nmxsports.org

 

[Shredmonkey254]

I did, was a pretty cool mountain. Got to ride the original gondola, so it was almost worth the tri just for that. But yeah, probably not really worth the drive.



I really enjoy my days at Angel Fire. That back side is a lot of fun. If there is powder day, once the trails get tracked, a short hike gets you to the expansion area. As afr as I can tell, not many people trek out there.

Quick NM breakdown...

Taos - AWESOME, one of the best in the US/Canada.
Sipapu - Small but a lot of fun, some good trees, worlds slowest chair up top (unless they sped it up).
Pajarito - Bumps!!! Very cool place!
Angel Fire -LONG quad on the front, back side has much better terrain though.
Santa Fe - Only skied there one day, snow was nice, but it was quote windy.
Sandia - First time there was no snow down the bottom, so could only ski from the tram and half way down. Second time they had an abundance of snow. VERY long lifts, not much steeps.
Apache - Seems to have a little bit of everything, but it's a drive and a half.
Red River - Fun little mountain, especially on a powder day. Worst customer service ever though.

This is what you need to get your hands on...

Ski New Mexico True Pass

skinewmexico.com

These guys also used to see something similar, but not sure of their current status....

LANDING | NMX Sports

www.nmxsports.org

Thanks for this. The pass is sold out, do you know if they open up more sales as the season approaches?

 

[Shredmonkey254]

View attachment 59221

so this is why people retire out that way!

 

[jimk]

In NM I've skied 1)Taos, 2)Ski Santa Fe, and 3)Red River. They are listed by my preference. I skied Red River one day with my son and then we followed that with two days at Taos. His comment later in the trip was, "Dad, why didn't we just ski three days at Taos?"

I was solo the day I skied Santa Fe. It would be a badass mountain if set in the East. It was a beautiful day in the early 1990s. Late in the afternoon the Sangre de Cristo mountains lived up to their name and lit up with red alpenglow. Real easy to spend an off-day sightseeing in Santa Fe, which I found to be a more interesting than the town of Taos.