SantaFe.com

You know how it feels when your older brother is captain of the football team, dates all the pretty girls and you stay at home on Saturday nights? That's kind of how the Santa Fe Ski Area is treated in conversations about skiing in Northern New Mexico. When I was skiing in Chamonix a few years ago, non-English speakers would approach me in the middle of a glacier and say the one word they knew, 'Taos!'. Ok. So, Taos is great. I love Taos too. But skiing in Santa Fe is lots of fun and has plenty of advantages.

• It is so close to downtown Santa Fe that you can practically run up and ski...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

New Mexico ski areas have everything to lose from global warming, industry experts say.

If scientists' estimates are correct, average temperatures in the state could increase by 5 degrees Fahrenheit this century and decrease the winter sport's lifeline: snowpack.

“The more we learn about climate change the more we realize how it directly affects ski areas,” says Adriana Blake, marketing director for Taos Ski Valley, who added that ski seasons already seem to be starting later and ending earlier.

So, some of the state's ski areas are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprints— the amount...

Monday, December 24, 2007
by Eric Billingsley • Journal Santa Fe

LOS ALAMOS— It's fair to call Sig Hecker a veteran of the Pajarito Mountain Ski Area. “I've skied up here for a few years— since 1965,” said Hecker, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory director who was skiing with his 11-year-old grandson, Noah Kosty, on Saturday.

As they skied into the line for the Aspen chairlift, Hecker encouraged the boy: “I'm counting on you to be big time this year.”

And so began the opening weekend of Pajarito's 50th year, as old-timers on skis and youngsters on snowboards took to slopes covered in a thin layer of crunchy snow.

Sunday, December 23, 2007
by Raam Wong • Journal Santa Fe

“Light is overrated,” declared Geoff Goins, General Manager of Enchanted Forest Cross-Country Ski Area. I agreed with him, and asked another question, but my mind raced back in time to when I first discovered the joy of being outdoors after dark.

Back in 1986–spring semester, second year of college–several inches of snow had piled up during the holiday break. Returning students were greeted by a nostalgic scene fit for sleigh bells, new birds and Parson Brown.

It was almost midnight when I heard the knock. He stood in the doorway wearing his clunky Sorel boots and that old fitted wool hat...

Thursday, February 1, 2007
by Nicole Blouin • localflavor magazine