TR - New Mexico bc 5/11 & 5/12
May's a funny month for skiing in New Mexico, it's hard to tell what you're going to get from year to year. So if you live there, you keep various spots in mind and a list of people who don't mind spending time in the high country when everyone else is thinking bikes or golf, and when it looks good, start working your lists.
This season was just okay for snowpack in NM, but a late storm or two and some unusually cool and cloudy weather has made for surprisingly good late-season conditions.
On Friday mcs, GeoMatt and I decided to give Santa Fe Baldy a try. SF Baldy is the highest peak near Santa Fe, and requires about a four mile trek in (and out). Often by this time of year, the snow is so patchy that it just isn't worth it, but this year we were thinking that it might be good.
Not much to say about the long slog in, except that there was a little rock-hopping and mud skinning required here and there and the tele'ers seemed to have to wait a lot while the AT'er fiddled with his bindings...oh, and I fell in a creek while posing for a picture.
But we finally got to the top and scoped things out. We settled on a NE facing chute that GeoMatt and I had skied a couple years ago. The chute is the narrower one that runs down the middle of the picture and has the nice rock walls on the skiers' right:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb50701.jpg
mcs (ball cap) and GeoMatt (moto look) at the top, getting ready:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb50711.jpg
mcs went first...:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb50702.jpg
...and hung some steep turns in the great corn...:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb50703.jpg
...then cut loose:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb50704.jpg
GeoMatt dropped in next and ripped the corn:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb50705.jpg
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb50706.jpg
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb50707.jpg
GeoMatt showing some fine Bro Model tele steeze
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb50708.jpg
We boooted back out of the cirque and enjoyed some mellow turns on a south facing slope going back to the trail out to the cars. The trail out was kind of heinous, long and boring. But worth it, even though there were some nervous moments when thunderheads started piling up and booming, dropping graupel, sleet, and finally rain. Oh, and we had to wait on the AT'er, but it was his skins rather than the bindings. We got to the cars just as the rain got serious, nine and a half hours after we left.
Thinking that since the skiing was so good on Santa Fe Baldy, mcs and I made plans to ski a much more accessible shot on Saturday - the Nambé chutes. jrredho joined us and in the morning we skinned up over encouraging snow conditions through the Santa Fe ski area to Deception Peak. The weather was warm and clear, and we were a little too late for the nearby east-facing shots, so we headed right into the Nambé chutes to find...more great corn coverage.
It was so good that we took a couple of laps. mcs comes blasting out of the main chute:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/nambe50701.jpg
jrredho is next:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/nambe50703.jpg
Sweeping turns on silky corn:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/nambe50706.jpg
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/nambe50707.jpg
On the way back out through the ski area, we even managed 1800 vertical ft of top to bottom sweeping corn turns, not taking the skis off until we got to the parking lot. Not bad for mid-May in New Mexico.
