EMSC
Well-known member
My first time in Taos.
General impression of the area is: Unique place. Lots of potential for experts like myself, but not a ski area for everyone IMO. The blue & green that they do have generally involves a whole lot of zig-zagging, criss-crossing, and catwalks to get around.
Day 1 (day 4 of trip): Somewhat a similar story to our CB & WC days earlier in the week with chalky snow on north facing steeps. However the other slopes at Taos had much worse conditions than anything else I have skied yet this spring. All of the blue & greens had clearly been pure slush at some point and then refrozen. The upper frontside was as icy as the east usually is after a thaw/freeze cycle (10am start time). It was also a very windy day. So we headed to the backside where the lower lift had snow that was beginning to corn up. Taos also clearly had not had new snow in a while and had much thinner bases (at least on the lower parts) than either CB or WC (to the point of a few small bare spots beginning to show in windy places or the very, very bottom).
After a few blue runs with my wife and with a predicted snow for Sunday (that never happened), I chose to do the full Kachina hike. I figure I did the hike in ~55min – not great, but not too bad for a desk jockey either. Good chalky snow in main vein and in whatever the first chute to skiers right of that is - I’ll have to look at the skiing mag article again (the tighter chutes further skiers right were a weird sugar/chunky snow so I skipped them, being alone). The long hike killed any ambition of further hike runs for the day and I finished off with a few more spring ski runs with my wife before heading down the still mostly frozen frontside.
Taos is a very unique place to check out afterward. Though we ate at Ranchos Taos a couple miles further down the road and a whole lot less touristy. I found it interesting that Ranchos Taos is actually older. We did eventually wander around Taos square where nearly every shop had closed by 6pm! Definitely not Breck or Vail or PC, etc...! My wife & I also were surprised by the enormous piles and piles of junk/crap in many of the yards (as well as the huge abundance of single wide’s all over the place, especially right next to mansions)
Day 2 (day 5 of trip): Warmer from the start, though the frontside cut trails were still an icy mess even at 11am when we tried it again. It only softened up in afternoon finally. The backside cut trails started off creamy and by mid afternoon was slush galore. Fortunately I had hiked the ridge for my turns for much of the day. Hitting a number of frontside chutes with chalky snow and also Jaurez toward the backside. I forget the name of my favorite (I have a pic with the trail sign in it when I get to those), but at only 3-5 minutes or so per hike, I was able to get a number of good runs in. All in all a great spring ski day with us leaving by ~2:30 for the long trip home after a fun 5 day “SW sampler” road trip.
Pics to follow – maybe tonight or Tues.
General impression of the area is: Unique place. Lots of potential for experts like myself, but not a ski area for everyone IMO. The blue & green that they do have generally involves a whole lot of zig-zagging, criss-crossing, and catwalks to get around.
Day 1 (day 4 of trip): Somewhat a similar story to our CB & WC days earlier in the week with chalky snow on north facing steeps. However the other slopes at Taos had much worse conditions than anything else I have skied yet this spring. All of the blue & greens had clearly been pure slush at some point and then refrozen. The upper frontside was as icy as the east usually is after a thaw/freeze cycle (10am start time). It was also a very windy day. So we headed to the backside where the lower lift had snow that was beginning to corn up. Taos also clearly had not had new snow in a while and had much thinner bases (at least on the lower parts) than either CB or WC (to the point of a few small bare spots beginning to show in windy places or the very, very bottom).
After a few blue runs with my wife and with a predicted snow for Sunday (that never happened), I chose to do the full Kachina hike. I figure I did the hike in ~55min – not great, but not too bad for a desk jockey either. Good chalky snow in main vein and in whatever the first chute to skiers right of that is - I’ll have to look at the skiing mag article again (the tighter chutes further skiers right were a weird sugar/chunky snow so I skipped them, being alone). The long hike killed any ambition of further hike runs for the day and I finished off with a few more spring ski runs with my wife before heading down the still mostly frozen frontside.
Taos is a very unique place to check out afterward. Though we ate at Ranchos Taos a couple miles further down the road and a whole lot less touristy. I found it interesting that Ranchos Taos is actually older. We did eventually wander around Taos square where nearly every shop had closed by 6pm! Definitely not Breck or Vail or PC, etc...! My wife & I also were surprised by the enormous piles and piles of junk/crap in many of the yards (as well as the huge abundance of single wide’s all over the place, especially right next to mansions)
Day 2 (day 5 of trip): Warmer from the start, though the frontside cut trails were still an icy mess even at 11am when we tried it again. It only softened up in afternoon finally. The backside cut trails started off creamy and by mid afternoon was slush galore. Fortunately I had hiked the ridge for my turns for much of the day. Hitting a number of frontside chutes with chalky snow and also Jaurez toward the backside. I forget the name of my favorite (I have a pic with the trail sign in it when I get to those), but at only 3-5 minutes or so per hike, I was able to get a number of good runs in. All in all a great spring ski day with us leaving by ~2:30 for the long trip home after a fun 5 day “SW sampler” road trip.
Pics to follow – maybe tonight or Tues.
