Arizona/New Mexico Pajarito, Sipapu, Santa Fe

[Jeff N]

Next week (March 17-20) @janeskis and I are taking "Nelly" for a Southern Road trip, hitting up Pajarito, Santa Fe, and Sipapu.

We are thinking that we will Hit up Pajarito on the 17th, Santa Fe on the 18th, and Sipapu on the 19th and possibly 20th.

Never skied any of these places- the only place in NM we have skied before is Taos- such a great mountain.

Really looking forward to this trip. Any suggestions? Anybody going to be around?

 

[crgildart]

I loved Pajarito. Great history and a real national treasure. I hope the lodge didn't lose any of those awesome mementos during the last round of fires out there.

Skied Santa Fe Ski Apache when it was called Sierra Blanca. There was a stone sunken patio just past the top of the highest lift with a plaque talking about the Manhattan Project tests nearby. There wasn't any signs or arrows pointing folks to it. We were just college kids looking to hike up a little higher and find a place for a safety meeting. That turned out to be the coolest safety meeting ever when we found that hidden feature. I have no idea if it is still there and never found any other online references to it beyond what I've posted in threads like this one.

 

[Jeff N]

I loved Pajarito. Great history and a real national treasure. I hope the lodge didn't lose any of those awesome mementos during the last round of fires out there.

Any suggestions of what to try and hit? notable terrain, experiences, etc? Both Sipapu and Pajarito look right up my alley of no frills, laid back, skiing oriented areas.

 

[crgildart]

Pajarito's a small, one face set up. We just skied it left to right, one run at a time and bounced around after we'd skied every single run before lunch. Apache/Blanca was back in the mid 1980s. It's pretty easy terrain but has a sweet moderate to easy bowl that is great with new snow... there are stashes in glades both left and right side boundaries. It's also a smaller place. Steeper stiff is center top and left looking up, skier's right. Most flatten out at the bottom so find mid stations and mid mountain lifts to keep moving.

 

[James]

Well you might get some real brainiacs out from Los Alamos labs to Pajarito. Could be interesting.
No Angelfire?

 

[Jeff N]

Pajarito's a small, one face set up. We just skied it left to right, one run at a time and bounced around after we'd skied every single run before lunch. Apache/Blanca was back in the mid 1980s. It's pretty easy terrain but has a sweet moderate to easy bowl that is great with new snow... there are stashes in glades both left and right side boundaries. It's also a smaller place. Steeper stiff is center top and left looking up, skier's right. Most flatten out at the bottom so find mid stations and mid mountain lifts to keep moving.

No Apache. Too far South for us and we are pushing the season on Pajarito and Sipapu as it is.

 

[Jeff N]

Well you might get some real brainiacs out from Los Alamos labs to Pajarito. Could be interesting.
No Angelfire?

Yeah, I didn't realize that Pajarito was like half a block from Las Alamos. I figured it was 10-15 miles away like Taos is from ski valley and Santa Fe ski area is from Santa Fe proper.

No real interest in Angelfire. I've never heard good things, it is more resort-focused than even Taos without compelling terrain, and I don't have access to discounted tickets, so... Pass. I'd probably give Red River a shot before Angel Fire, but no real interest there either based on terrain.

 

[SBrown]

Skiing in Taos last week, had a conversation on a lift with an extremely cool NM native that went a little like, "Yeah, well, in my family it's expected to get a PhD but ... well, yeah, my grandfather was a Nobel Laureate ... um yeah in physics ... yeah, well, they're coming around ... " Then I remembered where we were, of course Land of Enchantment indeed.

 

[Tico]

I'm teaching an L1 at ski Santa fe right now. It's pretty grim if you like snow, but if you like delightful weather, good beer and spicy food it's siiiick

 

[pais alto]

Pajarito's a small, one face set up. We just skied it left to right, one run at a time and bounced around after we'd skied every single run before lunch. Apache/Blanca was back in the mid 1980s. It's pretty easy terrain but has a sweet moderate to easy bowl that is great with new snow... there are stashes in glades both left and right side boundaries. It's also a smaller place. Steeper stiff is center top and left looking up, skier's right. Most flatten out at the bottom so find mid stations and mid mountain lifts to keep moving.

^That's a pretty good description of Pajarito.

It hasn't snowed hard here for a month, so it's mostly hardpack and bumps. Maybe a storm early next week, we'll see. I wouldn't call it grim though.

I'll be working at the ski area Sun-Thurs if you're there. Otherwise let's at least try to have a beer together.

 

[Jeff N]

^That's a pretty good description of Pajarito.

It hasn't snowed hard here for a month, so it's mostly hardpack and bumps. Maybe a storm early next week, we'll see. I wouldn't call it grim though.

I'll be working at the ski area Sun-Thurs if you're there. Otherwise let's at least try to have a beer together.

Hah. I didn't realize you found your way to this corner of the internet.

So... Of the three, which will be busiest on weekends? Would it make sense to minimize crowds by skiing Santa Fe or Thursday, or do the budget tickets at Pajarito and Sipapu bring more corwds there?

 

[pais alto]

I'm kind of OG here. Sipapu and Pajarito don't get 'crowded' but there will be more people there than midweek. Santa Fe will likely be crowded on the weekend.

 

[Jeff N]

New plan is Santa Fe Thursday, Pajarito Friday, Sipapu Sat and maybe Sunday.

 

[Dave Petersen]

Sounds like a fun trip.

 

[John Webb]

No real interest in Angelfire. I've never heard good things, it is more resort-focused than even Taos without compelling terrain, and I don't have access to discounted tickets, so... Pass. I'd probably give Red River a shot before Angel Fire, but no real interest there either based on terrain.

My impression, after visiting, is it's an excuse to sell real estate.

 

[Jeff N]

Angelfire or red river is an excuse to sell real estate?

 

[Jerez]

Sorry to miss you Jeff. But knee high on Mary Jane was too good to pass up. Hope you had fun and that it softened up enough to get into the amazing tree skiing SF has to offer and the endless bumps of Pajarito.

 

[Jeff N]

Sorry to miss you Jeff. But knee high on Mary Jane was too good to pass up. Hope you had fun and that it softened up enough to get into the amazing tree skiing SF has to offer and the endless bumps of Pajarito.

Not so much on either count. We scrubbed Pajarito altogether as we pushed the season too much. We did almost nothing in the trees because it was fairly chilly, or at least chilly enough that almost nothing ungroomed softened even at 4:30. I'm going through pictures to put up a full TR.

The takeaway from this trip is that we had a great, fun time skiing some new mountains and different experiences.

 

[Jeff N]

Trip report posted.

https://forum.pugski.com/threads/santa-fe-and-sipapu-3-17-16-3-20.1594/

 

[Core2]

I really liked Sipapu. I could see Hesperus following the same model. We need more small badass ski areas, not mega resorts.