Hi, I went to Ski Apache, NM. It is less than 3 hours from my house and they got about 16" of snow on the 48hrs prior to me getting there. The road up were 12 miles of steep grades and tight hairpins alongside some very steep drop-offs. The road was snowpacked and icy the whole 12 miles. Do not try to climb without chains or 4WD/AWD with good tires. Saw quite a few people stuck and having issues. (see my tire/road report HERE )
I got to the ski area at 9am and quickly got my lift ticket and proceeded to go to the lift. There was no line at all. All day I skied onto basically every lift. The snow conditions were VERY wind affected but it was fun. It was somewhat hard to ski so most people stuck to the groomers which meant most of the advanced terrain was empty. I mostly skied the north facing black diamond runs which on one side had good snow. They were fun but unfortunately a catwalk cuts them a few times on the way down. I skied the south face late morning and it was awesome, much softer and nice but still the snow was heavily wind affected but much smoother. Overall I only skied about 3 hours but got some good turns and no waiting on lift lines. The lifts are normal (low) lifts but seem pretty new and well maintained. Unfortunately the Gondola (and the Apache Bowl lift) was closed due to the wind but the entire mountain (from what I saw) was open. The wind was FIERCE at times on some of the exposed areas. Coverage was good pretty much everywhere except treed areas that had a lot of deadfall. Overall a fun day. Here is a Video I made.
I got to the ski area at 9am and quickly got my lift ticket and proceeded to go to the lift. There was no line at all. All day I skied onto basically every lift. The snow conditions were VERY wind affected but it was fun. It was somewhat hard to ski so most people stuck to the groomers which meant most of the advanced terrain was empty. I mostly skied the north facing black diamond runs which on one side had good snow. They were fun but unfortunately a catwalk cuts them a few times on the way down. I skied the south face late morning and it was awesome, much softer and nice but still the snow was heavily wind affected but much smoother. Overall I only skied about 3 hours but got some good turns and no waiting on lift lines. The lifts are normal (low) lifts but seem pretty new and well maintained. Unfortunately the Gondola (and the Apache Bowl lift) was closed due to the wind but the entire mountain (from what I saw) was open. The wind was FIERCE at times on some of the exposed areas. Coverage was good pretty much everywhere except treed areas that had a lot of deadfall. Overall a fun day. Here is a Video I made.
