Still capture from my lesson group video. I'm on the far left.
A lot of folks around here have done - or at least heard of - a Taos Ski Week. I decided that I wanted to do one this season after hearing a lot of great things about it. For those who don't know, you spend the week at Taos, and have a 2 hour group lesson each morning for 6 straight days. It's a great way to improve, and push yourself, and is a great bargain to boot. This season the cost was $220 for the week (and they've been running a special for NM locals for 50% off).
This has been a terrible snow year for Taos, on pace to be the worst in several decades. But I planned the time off, had my trip booked, and for lessons at my level, groomers are fine. (That's probably actually true for any level - there's always something to get better at!) So last Saturday, I headed out to Taos.
The Resort/Village/Lodging
Getting to Taos is a little bit of an effort. It's about a 2 hour drive from Santa Fe, or a 3 hour drive from Albuquerque. I found the cheapest flights at a good time from the DC area to Albuquerque, so I did the 3 hour drive. With warmish weather and no snow, the drive was pretty easy, and I got in to Taos Ski Valley (as it's officially known) at about 5 o'clock.
The first snow seen on the drive up from Albuquerque
The village at Taos has been getting some upgrades the last few seasons (and will continue to I think), but it's still nothing like other, larger western resorts. It's still small and feels more local, and simpler - more like some eastern resorts I've been to - than something like Vail or Whistler. When I arrived, I checked into my room for the week at the Powderhorn, and took a walk around the village to get some dinner.
The Powderhorn is just up the hill from the main part of the village, and I thought was a great place to stay. It's a condo rental, and has a variety of different room types. I booked a simple bedroom - essentially a hotel room. It's easy walking distance to everything, so was very convenient too.
My room at The Powderhorn
The village is small, but has a handful of different restaurant choices. I walked around for a little while, took some pics, and wound up eating at Tim's Stray Dog Cantina - and had some excellent pork mole enchiladas. (Tim's was my favorite place and I actually had dinner there three nights.)
View of the village from outside the Powderhorn
The Blake - a major new hotel that is the centerpiece of the village
This is in the lower part of the village. Tim's is on the right.
Other restaurants I tried :
Tenderfoot Katie's - The cafeteria. Food was mediocre, and somewhat limited, and not cheap.
Rhoda's - Right next to the cafeteria. The food I had was pretty good, and it was nice to sit outside in the sun.
The Bavarian - This is on the backside base on the mountain, and serves German food. I had a good goulash and pretzel, and again sat out in the sun on a nice deck/bar.
192 at The Blake - I had the breakfast buffet here a couple of times. It was OK, but a bit pricey (~$15).
Pizza Shack - So-so pizza.
The St. Bernard - A very old hotel that's a mainstay at Taos. The lunch there is good food and reasonably priced. (I hear the burgers on the deck are a good deal too, but didn't get there.)
The Powderhorn also had a little locker/boot up area that I used each morning before walking to the lifts. So on Sunday morning I got booted up and headed out for my Ski Week.
Lockers at the Powderhorn
The Ski Week
Since Taos started allowing snowboarding about 10 years ago, technically it's now a "Snowsports Week". But a lot of folks still call it a Ski Week. It runs Sunday through Friday (or Monday through Friday). My first ski day was Sunday, so I headed out to get warmed up. The lifts start at 9:00, so I didn't even need to get up all that early.
Lift 1 - the main lift from the village. This is going to be a high speed next season apparently.
The infamous "Don't Panic" sign at the base. (Or as I think of it, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy sign.)
The St. Bernard hotel. One of the originals, built in the 1960's, and still a posh (though old fashioned) place to stay or eat.
View down one of the first runs. The groomers were generally in great shape all week.
The way the Ski Week works is that everyone shows up mid-mountain at 9:45, and there's a ski off to place people into appropriate groups. There were 50 or 60 folks that showed up (apparently much less than in a typical year), and I went first in the ski off and was placed with my instructor on the hill, and waited for everyone else.
As it turned out, I wound up in a level 9 group (out of 10). Given that I don't really know what I'm doing yet with powder, moguls, trees, or steeps, that seemed high to me. But given the lack of open terrain, the instructor said I should be OK. And she was right - I wound up having a fantastic week of lessons.
We started with about 10 people in my group, with 2 instructors, and skied a bit in the morning before splitting again into two groups of 5. I wound up with Christine Lowry as my instructor, and can say anyone who winds up with her should have a great week. A lot of folks return to do ski weeks again and again, and I was the only one in my group doing their first ever ski week. So the other folks I was with knew a lot of people around the mountain.
In fact, that's something that seemed interesting... As Taos isn't very big, a lot of people in general seemed to know each other; Especially those who have done a lot of ski weeks. And the folks in my group who didn't know each other, generally had met some of the same people. It's all very friendly and there's a lot of camaraderie. (And of course, everyone seemed to know @KingGrump
)
Riding up lift 2, patrol was side stepping a run to pack down the base. There was a lot of this going on, hopefully to have a good base for future snow this season.
Closer view of the side stepping
Getting some instruction early, before the last split into groups of 5
For the Ski Week, we worked on some different skills each day. And it left me with a lot of things I need to work on. On various days we worked on side slips, one footed side slips (both directions, each foot), pivot slips, short radius turns, one footed skiing, pole plants, easy moguls, skiing ice, trail edges, and a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting.
I wasn't able to do all of them (one footed is new to me - and tough) but it was all good practice and really showed me what to work on. And given the conditions, we also got some practice at rock avoidance! And on Thursday, someone took video, and we spent a little time watching it and getting some pointers based on it.
The obligatory PugSki sticker shot, on lift 7a
Pit stop at the Whistlestop cafe mid-mountain with classmates
Riding up lift 8, you can see some of the extreme terrain of the West Basin. Most of the runs or chutes top out at 50 degrees or more. None of it has opened this season.
On three of the days, we ended with a run down the only open black run, a short one called Zagava. It had three sections - the skier's right were some large irregular moguls, the center section was a sheet of ice, and the skier's left side was a narrow strip of trail edge crud. The goal was short turns down the left edge. I made it down a couple of times with some difficulty, and had a couple of good falls too when I didn't make a short enough turn and the ice got me. Fun, but a bit nerve wracking, and frustrating, and good short turns are still a challenge for me.
One of the days, we got to ski a bit of powder as patrol opened a run that hasn't been open all season for us. I don't have much experience in powder, and struggled as it was heavy and layered and pretty deep (maybe 2 feet in places). I realized my initial reaction to losing balance is to brace on my downhill ski, which lead to a couple of good falls. But it was good to try, and I made at least 1 good turn!
Moe's in the background - the powder (or at least ungroomed) run, after a few folks had gone through it
My lesson group that same day
While the weather was mostly sunny, we did have one day of snow on the third lesson day (Tuesday). It was nice to get some real snow and winter weather... everyone seemed happy about it. At least, everyone who stayed and skied it - the mountain did get emptier in the wind and snow. Some people!
Kachina Peak after some snow. It was almost completely brown prior to this.
The snow rolling in - about 15 minutes later it arrived.
Heavy but all-to-brief snow on the way up lift 8.
Another view of the snow!
It got a bit windier and foggier at the tale end of the snow, as the sun started coming out later in the afternoon. Still it was a very fun day. Officially they only got 1 inch, but it was more either from snowfall or windblown in places, and really freshened up the slopes.
Fog rolling through as the storm cleared.
Sun breaking through after the storm
On the last day of ski week, there is a tradition where you ski out to a tree and have martinis out of a pitcher. There's a goal to move the pitcher away as you pour it into your mouth, as far away as possible. I dislike martinis and olives, so passed, but a few of the folks did it.
We skied a couple more runs, and the ski week was over. I actually bailed before the last run, as the group was going late, and I had to check out of my room.
My Ski Week class (Susanna, Tom, Me, Tracy, Christine, and Connor)
Other skiing
One of the advantages of visiting Taos, and knowing @KingGrump , was skiing with the Grump family and crew in the afternoons. As semi-locals for years, they know a lot of the instructors and many of them (and any other regulars) come out to ski the afternoons. It was great to get to ski with them. No real lessons or tips - they're off the clock after all - but skiing with better skiers is still fun and beneficial I think. Of course, I also had the advantage that they were forced to ski terrain I could handle, which wouldn't normally be the case.
Left to right, @KingGrump, me, Mrs. Grump (QueenGrump maybe?
Deciding which run to take next
Mrs. Grump and one of the instructors
The whole group on Thursday afternoon. I couldn't begin to remember all the names.
Tickets
I bought the Mountain Collective Pass early in 2017, and got my bonus day at Taos. So I had three days included on my pass, and three days at 50% off. For the pass days, I was given a photo ID with a bar code. But the one drawback to Taos being a little old school is that their system can't handle putting the 50% off days on the barcode pass. So I had to go into the pass office each morning for the three 50% off days. (Quick tip - you can get your pass and tickets either in the Taos Sports store in the base of the Blake, or at the season pass office, in the bottom level of the cafeteria building.)
The 50% off days are $52 this season, so I paid an additional $156 for the days on top of my MCP days. I've also used 2 "free" days at Sugarbush, and will use 6 days "free" in Utah. So since the MCP was $399 for me, I will have spent $555 for 14 days of skiing, or just under $40/day. Not bad!
Altitude
I generally don't deal well with altitudes over 8000 feet, and this trip was no different. It helped that the room included a good humidifier. But the short walk (~200 yards) to and from the lifts was a bit of a bear - especially heading back which was uphill. Taos is actually the highest place I've stayed. My room was at about 9300 feet. And just as I was getting acclimated, it was time to leave.
Weather
The weather was a bit on the warm side, but cold enough to maintain the snow well. Temps in the village were in the mid-30's most days. But there was just a little slush in places some afternoons, and the mountain seems to preserve the snow very well.
Leaving Taos
Coming or going to Taos you drive along the Rio Grande, which eventually forms the border between Texas and Mexico. So I stopped to take a few pictures.
And on the way back to Albuquerque, I met some friends in Santa Fe (MarzNC and her crew, for those that know her) who were on their way up to Taos for their Ski Week. I'd never been to Santa Fe, and got to see a little of the town (the tourist area anyway) and even did the tourist thing and bought some pottery. (And somehow I managed to resist buying the $14,000 painting that I like.
) Santa Fe seemed like a nice town, and I could have spent some more time there.
Church near the main town square
Chile peppers are hung various places. And are used in cooking on everything - red chile, green chile, or Christmas (both).
Parts of the monument in the town square, which are interesting. It appears someone scratched "savage" off of one of the plaques.
All in all, I had a great trip! (I always seem to with ski trips!!!) I'm already thinking about heading back next year.
Lastly, one last pic I like, of the Wheeler Peak area - the highest peak in New Mexico (13.159'), and just outside the resort.
Last edited:
