A trip to the land of enchantment

Last week I took Cody on a trip to New Mexico to ski a few spots that have always been on the list and visit a very close and dear old friend and his family. New Mexico is unlike any other ski destinations, it’s hard to describe the uniqueness but it’s something every serious skier should strive to visit and experience themselves. New Mexico.....it’s far out man.



Our first stop was Santa Fe. I’ve always been intrigued by this mid sized ski mountain and the state capital city. The town is quaint with its adobe buildings, cafes, art galleries and New Mexican restaurants and the ski area was surprisingly awesome with so much fun, playful terrain and incredible tree skiing. On our first night there we visited Meow Wolf, a visual art experience that Cody and I really enjoyed. Here’s some photos.
 


Codes in the trees.


Meow Wolf.








Cody tries on a 1k$ ski coat.




More Meow Wolf.




Cody discovers her inner billy goat.




Did I mention the tree skiing yet? Santa Fe just delivers. It seemed like there were hidden little nuggets like this one in between every run there.




The Totemoff likes to party.


New Mexico is like an alternate ski destination dimensional universe where “normal” tends to melt away.



Looking up at the upper mountain from the quad chair.


Codes blasts out of Big Rocks #7.


Cody threading the needle in some cool boulders.

More to come.......

After two nights and a day of skiing in Santa Fe we headed north to Taos to visit my old friend Eli and his family and to of course, ski the legendary steeps at the Ski Valley.

Taos. Wow. What a mountain. It’s crushingly relentless. It just doesn’t quit. All I can say is that You. Must. Go. It’s a world class ski area with a ski town that has a healthy level of grit (this is subjective of course) and seems to attract outliers and outlaws. Forget that fancy ski town fluff you find in Breckinridge, telluride or Jackson. This place isn’t trying to impress you. It’s funky, it’s weird, strange and a little odd and I absolutely loved that about it. And then there’s  the food.....it’s fucking insane if you dig on the Chile. I know I sure do.

This mountain brings the spice!


Eli and us on Kachina Peak.


Orlando’s New Mexican Kitchen.


Taos is a four letter word for steep.


Texas was there. Some had on their fruity boots and shiny suits.


Kachina Peaks true summit. We could see a pack of bighorn sheep just a few hundred feet away from here.


The Bavarian. A German styled on slope ski eatery. The Ski Valley is unique in that the majority of on mountain dining options are actually independently owned. It’s euro like and separates itself from the normal American ski experience. If you ever find yourself here make sure to try the pretzel with beer caso.



Cody dropping into this little pinner.


Hunziker Chute on the right. We skied this one three times. The snow was really good in here.



The view of Kachina Peak from the summit of lift 2.


West Basin Ridge. Typical terrain at Taos. It’s not advised to fall here. This place does not F around.



Lift 7a is this old, funky Stadeli.


https://liftblog.com/lift-7a-taos-nm/

Kachina Peak from the top of lift seven. We lapped the Kachina chair quite a bit. A lot of locals aren’t a fan of the Kachina Peak chair but as a visitor it really makes sense. If you’re paying for day tickets you wouldn’t want to blow your day hiking and this terrain is an absolute highlight.

After two days skiing at Taos Ski Valley I found myself a little stressed out watching Cody ski no fall zones so we headed over to Sipapu to ski for a couple of hours before driving back home.

This place is about as mom and pop as it gets.


But it has a ton of tree ski runs even if their double blacks are more like Taos blues.


Aspen glades.


Me wishing I brought out my carving skis.




We skied Sipapu for maybe two hours and then headed home. The snow was junk but it would have gotten good in a few hours as it softened up in the warm sunshine. We had a long drive ahead of us still though so we unfortunately left a little early for that.

This trip was awesome and New Mexico skiing is legit, especially at Taos. That mountain is a classic and should be on every serious skiers hit list. Now go, get there, before it’s the next Colorado like, fluffy ski town. Actually that is probably never going to happen. New Mexico is unique, definitely authentic and worthy as a bucket list ski destination for those that love spicy food and steep terrain.

Looks great but don’t let Cody buy that coat. That’s a stop-n-go waiting to happen right there

What a great trip!!!
Thanks for sharing

Wow!  Awesome trip.  Taos looks intense.

Great Report..
I have only have one day at Taos and most of the terrain is above my pay grade..That said, the place is fantastic!!!

Great report.  Would love to get to Taos someday.

I dig the time you spend skiing with your daughter.  I finally brought my two oldest on one of my trips, to Crystal earlier this year.  Best trip I’ve had so far, and it wasn’t because of the epic snowfall that weekend.  To be able to share a passion and that kind of experience with your kids is truly special.  I feel you on the progeny skiing the no fall zones.  My kids aren’t quite into that, but as I take them more places, and into riskier environments, I’ve hesitated and given extra thought a couple times.

Great report and that's a bucket list trip for sure!

Nice, I'll add this to my list of places to escape to while stuck in Scottsdale.  

Nice work Tao's is the real deal.  I stayed up in the Canyon 30 yards from lift one.  My condo room was 125 steps from a bar with good food and locals.  I skied for 5 days.  three sunny two storms days.

This TR needs more details about the food you ate. Great Mexican food is pretty common down there in AZ & NM, but it's hard to find the good stuff here in Upstate NY (although we're getting *slightly* better).

dig the multi level stoke; food, kids and skiing! definately want to get there one day

Cody is getting to be quite the young lady, I recall earlier pictures and she has sure grown. Better get a shot gun, your gonna need it...

Never made it to Taos, wanted to. Santa Fe was a town I considered retiring to but my family is all up here so my wife put the kabash on it.

Thanks everybody. I took a bunch of photos and was really siked to get this tr on here.

It seems like the pics are turning themselves to proper positions. Maybe Harv is doctoring it up, if so, thanks man.

Peetex, I think Santa Fe would be a killer town to live in. It’s got great weather, food and skiing.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

This TR needs more details about the food you ate. Great Mexican food is pretty common down there in AZ & NM, but it's hard to find the good stuff here in Upstate NY (although we're getting *slightly* better).

It’s all about the chille in New Mexico. Anywhere you go there’s going to be dishes covered in a green or red chille sauce.

I like to order dishes “Christmas style” which means you get half in red and half in green. That way you can sample both of their chille.

The chille rellenos are done a little differently than here in Arizona. Here they are dipped in an egg batter then fried, in NM they had a crunchy deep fried batter more like hot wings. I liked their version a little better.

Orlando’s in Taos was probably the best food we had on the trip.

There’s a bunch of places that make gourmet miniature donuts in Taos. Its definitely a thing there and the ones we had were freaking delicious.

We ate at this burger joint in Santa Fe called the Shake Foundation. It’s a damn good burger. A lot of places in New Mexico offer smaller patties (3 oz. ish sized) and most folks get a double. I think they do this to get more of that crunchy grilled texture and flavor or that’s what made the most sense to me.

I'm chasing some pao and I was meeting up with these guys and I got to the meta point like 20 minutes early so I did 4 of them, a try to do the rest... its great man thanks for it!

Harvey wrote

I'm chasing some pao and I was meeting up with these guys and I got to the meta point like 20 minutes early so I did 4 of them a try to do the rest... its great man thanks for it!

Thanks Harv! I really appreciate that.

Enjoy that pow!

Incredible pics, thanks for posting. I've been twice. Santa Fe, Taos, and Pajarito. Check that, thrice, drove down from CO to ski Taos my last time out West. The only reason I first went was an invitation from my sister, a nonskier. She's an artist living in NYC. She went to an art camp in Santa Fe probably 30 yrs ago and fell in love with the place. She goes there several times a year. Used to rent a studio there. She asked me to go about 15 yrs ago. It was March, I brought my boots and rented skis. Santa Fe is pretty sweet for a local's hill. Not alot of vert, but the base is pretty high. As you mentioned, sweet tree skiing.

JTG4eva! wrote

Great report.  Would love to get to Taos someday.

I dig the time you spend skiing with your daughter.  I finally brought my two oldest on one of my trips, to Crystal earlier this year.  Best trip I’ve had so far, and it wasn’t because of the epic snowfall that weekend.  To be able to share a passion and that kind of experience with your kids is truly special.  I feel you on the progeny skiing the no fall zones.  My kids aren’t quite into that, but as I take them more places, and into riskier environments, I’ve hesitated and given extra thought a couple times.

Thanks jtg.

At this point all of my ski trips are about us spending time with each other. I’ve had plenty of time skiing for myself luckily and feel extremely content on that.