"Open by Thanksgiving" at Taos will never mean "worth skiing by Thanksgiving" for anyone living beyond easy daytrip distance.
Jamesdeluxe":12xdoeo3 said:
"Taos Ski Valley has also committed to preserving a majority of the hiking terrain that is currently available."
You can make semantic caveats here, but not really. 3 major "above the lift zones" before the new lift:
1) West Basin, basically unchanged. The traverse into these runs used to be just above lift 2; sometime in the last 10-15 years the traverses were moved up a bit so you now have to hike up about 5 minutes. Sort of like getting to Catherine's or Devil's Castle at Alta.
2) Kachina Peak itself. Now direct lift access, formerly a very tough for flatlanders hike of 45+ minutes at 12,000 feet, at least as hard as Highlands Bowl at Aspen Highlands.
3) Highline Ridge was formerly about 15 minutes on the same hike as to the West Basin traverse. Now most people will ski down to Highline Ridge from Kachina Peak.
For 95+% of advanced/expert visitors this is a big attraction, getting LCC-type high alpine terrain into the picture on a more than once-a-trip basis. The powder purists will not be pleased, as these areas will get packed down and not ski as powder on the typical 6-inch fluffy snowfalls of CO/NM as they did before and still do at Highlands Bowl.
The compromise position would have been to put a lift up to Highline Ridge, while leaving Kachina as a Highlands Bowl type trek. But Taos business is likely down from too many crummy snow years since 1999, and I can understand why the new ownership wants to make a big splash to get on more people's radar.
Unofficially I've heard that Taos is likely to host the NASJA annual meeting in 2-3 years, so I look forward to checking it out.