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.
“It's an old hill, man” explained Willy Apgar, 21, a Los Alamos snowboarder. “It's been around a while.”
Since Nov. 12, 1957, to be exact. That was the day when the Los Alamos Ski Club opened the resort located on the eastern edge of the Jemez Mountains, just west of Los Alamos.
The ski club's members had been drawn to Pajarito's 10,000-foot peak after several frustrating seasons spent at nearby Sawyer's Hill, with its rocks, tree stumps and shortage of snow.
But the snow was more plentiful, and the terrain steeper, at Pajarito, where the club installed a 2,300-foot-long rope tow that delivered only the hardiest skiers with the strongest hands to the top of the mountain.
The going is much easier nowadays, with five chairlifts, two rope tows and 280 skiable acres on the 850-acre property. But the ski club still owns the area, and there was the sense Saturday that Pajarito remains a locals' hill.
Los Alamos resident Tracy Thompson said she skis Pajarito because she and her children regularly bump into people they know.
“I like that whenever we come here my kids find friends to ski with,” Thompson said.
Opening day this week came earlier than in recent years, when Pajarito has sometimes seen little or no snow.
But the winter storm that dumped on Santa Fe on Friday night added only an inch or so on Pajarito's 28-inch base, leaving grass still visible in many spots.
That's why, come next season, Pajarito hopes to install snowmaking equipment for the first time. The move should ensure more consistent snow and allow the resort to open more days per week, said general manager Tom Long.
But the snow was just fine Saturday afternoon for Sig Hecker and his grandson as they prepared to ski down a steep catwalk.
“Just gun it!” Hecker cried as he crouched into a racing position, threw his poles beneath his arms and started down the run. Grandson Noah followed close behind.
