This was perhaps the most “jamesdeluxe” day of skiing I have ever had.
1) Under the radar ski area most people have never heard of? Check.
2) Mostly intermediate terrain but enough pitch to ski powder? Check.
3) 5 inches new snow, adequate in view of #2 above. Check.
4) Old slow lifts and not too many people tracking out the powder? Check.
Driving in the faster road to the south bypasses the town of Los Alamos but does goes through the federal research lab, where you stop at a checkpoint and show ID. The security guard said no pictures but we couldn’t resist this road sign.
We got up there just after 9AM and the small upper parking area of maybe 50 cars was almost full. Lift tickets during “Super Spring Season” were $39 adult and $29 senior, a good deal even by Euro standards.
I found this sign on the lodge deck quite interesting.
The 1941 patented tow rope gripper sure looks like the infamous New Zealand nutcracker, but perhaps it was invented here first.
Pajarito stretches quite a distance along a north facing ridge with about 25 parallel trails served by four top to bottom lifts, all in the 1,100 vertical range. Only the Aspen lift (plus a beginner chair) near the day lodge and the Mother lift serving the looker’s right side of the mountain were running. The Spruce lift runs were accessible from Aspen.
Weather was, as a local New Mexican told us later, dynamic. It was mostly cloudy, but a few sunny breaks were enough in late March at this latitude to make the new snow heavy around noon. But that was before a short burst of graupel, then intense snowfall from 1-2 PM.
We first skied the obvious run under the Aspen chair.
Next was the area under the Mother chair, broad enough for two powder laps.
Then we pushed to the far skier’s left blue runs Why Not and One More Time. On the way there we pass four runs marked double black but they are only moderately steep on about the top third of vertical. We skied the least tracked one Sidewinder.
Note the deadfall tree blocking nearly the entire width of the run. I can’t recall seeing as many inbounds deadfall trees before. When I bought my ticket I asked about the fire that damaged one of the closed lifts, and the answer was, “Which fire?” The Townsight lift was damaged in a 2011 fire and repaired by 2016, but an even bigger fire in 2000 destroyed 235 homes and some lab facilities in Los Alamos.
Deadfall trees are visible on a couple of our other powder runs.
We worked our way back to the Aspen lift, cutting diagonally through spaced trees between the more heavily skied cut runs between the two lifts. Then we traversed past the Spruce lift, hoping that the blue runs beyond might be overlooked. The last one Sundance still had plenty of room to make your own tracks past noon.
We got a bit of a sunny view here.
This snow was getting heavier so Liz went into the lodge for a break after a run in the more sheltered Porcupine Park trees.
I took two more runs on the Mother chair, mostly in the trees past the blue One More Time run to the far west.
I came into the lodge and we shared a Frito pie for lunch. Liz was willing to cooperate for my grand finale of the day. When I left the day lodge it was puking snow.
The catwalk from the top of Aspen past Spruce was already soft from the new snow, but of course it was not groomed any farther to the east. Fortunately I could see the top of the closed Townsight lift so I knew it was only a 2-3 minute slog to get over there.
As I skied the upper pitch the snow squall ended and the sun emerged again.
View down from there
:
Looking back up from the bottom:
Mine is one of only two tracks. I stayed skier’s right, which would have been more shaded from morning sun.
The bottom of the lift was maybe 50 feet from the road at 9,000 feet where Liz picked me up.
I skied 17,600 vertical, about 12K of powder, a jamesdeluxe day indeed.
1) Under the radar ski area most people have never heard of? Check.
2) Mostly intermediate terrain but enough pitch to ski powder? Check.
3) 5 inches new snow, adequate in view of #2 above. Check.
4) Old slow lifts and not too many people tracking out the powder? Check.
Driving in the faster road to the south bypasses the town of Los Alamos but does goes through the federal research lab, where you stop at a checkpoint and show ID. The security guard said no pictures but we couldn’t resist this road sign.
We got up there just after 9AM and the small upper parking area of maybe 50 cars was almost full. Lift tickets during “Super Spring Season” were $39 adult and $29 senior, a good deal even by Euro standards.
I found this sign on the lodge deck quite interesting.
The 1941 patented tow rope gripper sure looks like the infamous New Zealand nutcracker, but perhaps it was invented here first.
Pajarito stretches quite a distance along a north facing ridge with about 25 parallel trails served by four top to bottom lifts, all in the 1,100 vertical range. Only the Aspen lift (plus a beginner chair) near the day lodge and the Mother lift serving the looker’s right side of the mountain were running. The Spruce lift runs were accessible from Aspen.
Weather was, as a local New Mexican told us later, dynamic. It was mostly cloudy, but a few sunny breaks were enough in late March at this latitude to make the new snow heavy around noon. But that was before a short burst of graupel, then intense snowfall from 1-2 PM.
We first skied the obvious run under the Aspen chair.
Next was the area under the Mother chair, broad enough for two powder laps.
Then we pushed to the far skier’s left blue runs Why Not and One More Time. On the way there we pass four runs marked double black but they are only moderately steep on about the top third of vertical. We skied the least tracked one Sidewinder.
Note the deadfall tree blocking nearly the entire width of the run. I can’t recall seeing as many inbounds deadfall trees before. When I bought my ticket I asked about the fire that damaged one of the closed lifts, and the answer was, “Which fire?” The Townsight lift was damaged in a 2011 fire and repaired by 2016, but an even bigger fire in 2000 destroyed 235 homes and some lab facilities in Los Alamos.
Deadfall trees are visible on a couple of our other powder runs.
We worked our way back to the Aspen lift, cutting diagonally through spaced trees between the more heavily skied cut runs between the two lifts. Then we traversed past the Spruce lift, hoping that the blue runs beyond might be overlooked. The last one Sundance still had plenty of room to make your own tracks past noon.
We got a bit of a sunny view here.
This snow was getting heavier so Liz went into the lodge for a break after a run in the more sheltered Porcupine Park trees.
I took two more runs on the Mother chair, mostly in the trees past the blue One More Time run to the far west.
I came into the lodge and we shared a Frito pie for lunch. Liz was willing to cooperate for my grand finale of the day. When I left the day lodge it was puking snow.
The catwalk from the top of Aspen past Spruce was already soft from the new snow, but of course it was not groomed any farther to the east. Fortunately I could see the top of the closed Townsight lift so I knew it was only a 2-3 minute slog to get over there.
As I skied the upper pitch the snow squall ended and the sun emerged again.
View down from there
:Looking back up from the bottom:
Mine is one of only two tracks. I stayed skier’s right, which would have been more shaded from morning sun.
The bottom of the lift was maybe 50 feet from the road at 9,000 feet where Liz picked me up.
I skied 17,600 vertical, about 12K of powder, a jamesdeluxe day indeed.
