Taos...in General - worth a 10+ hour drive?

[Cliff Huckable]

I searched but couldn't find anything on Taos generally.
I know it isn't a mag magnet, but beggars can't be choosers.
Is it worth 10+ hours in a car with a stereo that doesn't play MP3's.
Will it challenge a decent skier?
Will I have to wear a Cowboys Starter jacket to fit in?
No fixed date, yet.

[uglymoney]

Here is a little trip report I put together a couple three years back. I thought Taos was something special - drove 17 hours in my case. El Ninjo years make Taos a better bet for good snow.

Taos Entire Trip Report (Also includes Crested Butte, Silverton, Copper)

I departed the flat state of Iowa last Friday (Feb. 28) for
the journey across Nebraska, Colorado and into New Mexico.
My Subaru Outback, newly equipped with a Yakima Spacesaver
box, was packed. Full of food and fuel, my dog and I were
ready for exploration. Stopping to sleep a couple of times
in my car with the back seat folded flat, I finally arrived
at Taos around 3:00 pm Saturday.

I stayed at the Abomidable Snowmansion. The only Hostel
that I know of that takes dogs. I rented a cabin, really a
shack with lights that contains three individual rooms, and
an electric radiator for heat. The shacks are set behind
the main building in a grassy area. My dog Summit loved it.
Cats, other dogs, and even an unwelcomed skunk visited the
lawn for entertainment. I put a lawn chair in front of my
cabin, doubled up the cheap foam mattress's on the lower
bunk, and prepared myself for some serious skiing.

Saturday night I went to the Blinking Light Tavern just down
the road for a beer. They were showing the PPV HBO fight,
which was entertaining. Overhearing the locals, I was
pointed to a bar just down the street called La Vista or
something like that. Moody, dark and with a great
atmosphere I sat back and enjoyed some beer while listening
to some decent music, and watched the lively crowd dance and
enjoy the night. Ah, though a bit elusive at times, Taos
has night life.

Sunday brought me to the ski valley. Riding the #1 lift up
for the first time was memorable with the deep snow, steep
slope, tight bumps, and friendly riders offering a quick
introduction to what Taos is all about. It seems that lift
chatter is still embraced in Taos. Chair #2 brought me to
the top, and the ride up offered a great bluebird view of
West Basin Ridge. It was obvious immediately that Taos is
an area that hides it secrets well. I started out on
Stauffenberg which was well covered, and worked my way
around the immediate area that is accessible with a short
hike before St. Benard. Steep, well covered, and excellent.
After tiring, the rest of the day was spent exploring some
of the surprisingly good cruising that is offered at Taos.
I quickly learned to ignore the green signs, and to enjoy
them as solid intermediate terrain. Most all of them offer
plenty of pitch to allow for high speed, and FUN, although
somewhat short cruising. The boulevards are well cut, and
pleasantly wind and roll down the mountain.

Sunday night I had a beer and some food at the Alley
Cantina. The food was not great, the company not great.
Run of the mill, but I was filled with chicken, beans, and
Guinness for only a few dollars

Monday was more of the same. Early I grabbed as many runs
as I could off Highline Ridge. A local quickly let me in on
the snow conditions as he passed me on the way up. Twin
Trees, etc, with their sun exposure were a bit crapped up,
so Tresckow seems a good alternative. Around 10:30 I was
hit with a big, pleasant surprise as I topped out on the 7th
Heavon lift. Kachina - OPEN - yeahah! I started for the
top immediately. With granola in my pocket, and some water,
I was fine. After the grueling hike 45 minute hike, I was
at the top, took some pics, enjoyed the scenery while some
locals pointed to great skiable 'spring' lines and named
Wheeler and the other surrounding peaks. Wow! Some steep,
tall skiing available for April! My run down Kachina was
fantastic. One of the best pure powder runs I have had for
years. Probably the 20-30 person down the huge varied hill,
it was basically untracked, high speed, boulder dodging
euphoria. Landing at the Phoenix grill at the bottom of #4
Kachina, I was pleasantly informed, that Hot Chocolate was
available made with Soy Milk right on the mountain. A
lactose intolerant skiers dream come true. I tried to ski
as much of the front side as I could. Longhorn, Werner
Chute, all front side bump runs. One thing for sure. I
needed shorter, fatter skis for Taos.

Monday night three gals from W. Michigan on spring break
showed up at the hostel. They were social, and set up a
tent in the lawn for their accomodations. I noted there
arrival as I set off for the Guadalajara Grill for dinner.
This is a seemingly bland joint, with counter service that
has better than average, affordable and spicy food. I had
Shrimp Fajitas with beans and rice, and lots of Guacamole.
Arriving back at the Hostel, the girls were happily
recruiting folks for beers. Accepting the invitation, we
were off to Abe's Tavern, dragging along as many people as
were willing from the Arroyo Seco establishment. Abe (the
owner) is a nice guy who is up there in years, and shuffles
to and from the cooler fetching beers with an unchanging
skeptical expression towards our unknown faces. He pounds
O'Douls and watches over his well done pub as we settled
farther into an alcohol and altitude induced numbness.
Mostly your standard pub offerings, I sampled the various
Mexican beers, drank a shot of yager on the gals and shook
my head at my good fortune and returned the favor of a round
to my new friends. Later, when they closed the bar after
some of the regulars broke the front door of the hinges in
some sort of a fight that moved quickly out into the street
off into the Hispanic night, the gals produced a full case
of beer. Everybody seemed thirsty. Alcohol is not allowed
at the ASM in any form, but these were creative folks with a
case of the RSA favorite Coors Light Somehow, without
much help from me, it was emptied.

Tuesday ended up being a hangover day - my only day off for
the week. It was a welcomed, albeit unplanned day off. The
girls were going skinny dipping at a nearby hot spring, but
predictably I wasn't invited, so I headed into town for some
shopping etc after enjoying a huge breakfast burrito back at
Abes. Town square in Taos was lively with a Mardi Gras
style celebration. A hippy dread locked collection of
instrumentals marching in ragged hippy clothes, with dogs,
and assorted folks running around dancing. Perfect. I
stopped at Taos Mountain Outfitters. The shopkeeper gave me
a package of free Rainey UpHeels to bolt onto my k2's. Very
nice. Beer at Eskes followed. The beer I had (I'm at a
loss as to which one I selected) was extremely hoppy, with
that green uncooked taste, but decent to my untrained like
all beer pallet. For dinner it was off to the Trading Post
Cafe. I recommend this joint highly. With a bar to sit at
for single folks, a good view of the cooks, extremely good
food - I had the Creole Pepper Shrimp and the house Merlot.
Fantastic and a bargain at around $30 with desert.

Wednesdays was back to Taos. Fresh snow had fallen, and a
strong wind promised good blow in. I walked to the bottom
of lift #1at 8:55 and was on the fourth chair. Taos is
empty during the week. It was cold, and visibility was bad
till around 11:30. After it cleared I lapped Ninjos Heros
which was a blown in heaven, nobody skiing it but me. Later
I did lines farther down W Basin Ridge. Unfortunately,
without somebody to "show me the way" I did pass up some
stuff that I really wanted to ski. Hondo was the farthest
line available, and it was that pleasant windblown,
untouched pow, with small tress that are fun to dodge at
high speed as you plunge back into the empty groomers. A
ski partroller had a short talk with me about skiing back
this far alone. After a brief conversation that started out
adversarily as he threatened my pass and queried the
location of my non existant partner, he calmed down and
agreed how nice it was to be back on the ridge alone.
Needless to say, I am smart enough to stick to the
causeways, and out of tree wells when skiing alone. Me and
the patroller parted ways with smiles. Hondo was just soooo
nice!

Overall my impression of Taos was very positive. The ASM
was filled with interesting people - a bible beating lady
who was a hell of a skier, and a self proclaimed 'war
monger'. A woman with a handwritten note taped to her back
that read www impeachthepresident org. These two didn't get
along well Mostly though it was just solo skiers like
myself filling the rooms, cabins and bunks - a postal worker
on leave from California, a guy from Texas doing a series of
'Ski Better' weeks. The mountain kicked my ass for the first
couple of days until I regained my legs, and it is somewhere
I will return repeatedly on good snow years. Enough secrets
to keep you guessing for at least a season, and probably
more. I love secrets. The snow was deeeep, the coverage
good, the people even better. I saw the same folks over and
over again throughout the week. I was alone, but never
alone.

...continued

[paedde]

great resort!

My trip report 2005
Day 28 Skiing Taos 1st Day

This mountain offers something for everybody although 51% are designed for experts.

I definitely like the sign at the base: http://community.webshots.com/photo/...87359345hbFXzp

A great mountain with no lines all day. Nice partly cloudy weather in the morning changed to light snow by 2pm and by 3pm it snowed hard. By 5pm 5-7cm of light snow on our car – looks good for tomorrow.

If you like hiking this is the place to be. Without hiking you still get a lot of steep runs and some great tree skiing (rather tight trees). The real good stuff can be accessed by hiking 5 to 90min but don’t worry usually you are fine with up to 25min. The only problem is the altitude. On almost 4000m above see level the thin air makes every move much harder.

Target of the day once again: Powder. And yes we found some not a lot but still enough for some turns from time to time.

It’s now 6pm and it stopped snowing.

Day 29 Skiing Taos 2nd Day

7.5 outta 10, powder turns and a lot of hiking

What a nice day although we had only 10cm of new snow. It was not really enough snow to call it a powder day but nevertheless it made the skiing very soft and even more fun then yesterday.

After a few runs in the trees where we found 10cm (occasionally boot deep) light stuff we decided to go for the real challenge. Form chair #2 all the way along the ridge to the top of Kachina Peak about 4000m above see level. For fast hikers it will take just under one hour and for us 75 minutes. It’s moderate hiking with a few very short steep sections but really not too bad overall. Just the altitude makes it special. The view for the top is breathtaking and worth to stay there for a while. It was already after 1pm and most of the different ways down already tracked. As always Steve and I activated our powder radar and sure enough we found untracked powder almost all the way down.

It was so good that we almost did it again but first of all it’s a lot of hiking for what you get and second this part of the mountain closes already at lunch time.

A few more runs in the trees (tracked and untracked) and it was already time for a drink at the base. From there you have a nice few to the black und double black runs where people try to ski runs they should even think of. Every few minute a spectacular scene almost better then a movie.

I should definitely mention once again the endless lines at the chairs. It was so bad that once we had to wait for more then a minute!! For the rest of the day right to the chair.
It was the last day for Steve and that’s why we have to drive to Denver tomorrow. Not sure where Markus and I are going to ski on Sunday.

[Blurred]

Taos is worth driving halfway around the world if the snow is good. Let's hope this year is an epic one for them.
-edit-thanks for the TR uglymonkey, good read.

[MadMatt]

Taos is worth driving halfway around the world if the snow is good. Let's hope this year is an epic one for them.
-edit-thanks for the TR uglymonkey, good read.

Exactly.

They deserve a good year. They are way overdue.

[ANON-505]

I searched but couldn't find anything on Taos generally.
I know it isn't a mag magnet, but beggars can't be choosers.
Is it worth 10+ hours in a car with a stereo that doesn't play MP3's.
Will it challenge a decent skier?
Will I have to wear a Cowboys Starter jacket to fit in?
No fixed date, yet.

Yes, Taos is only filled with mexican rednecks wearing Starter jackets. You'd better have one on from the Dallas Cowboys, or you'll get laughed right off the mountain. We love Texan's at Taos.
You should ONLY go to mountains with a high maggot rating....so have a great time at A-basin and Kirkwood. If you go during the week the lift lines shouldn't be toooo long.
It's mostly flat, and if your a decent skier, you'll probably be better off going somwhere else. There is no terrain that will challege a decent skier like yourself.
Don't be a beggar, just go somewhere else.

[easyrdr]

Taos is awesome when the snows good, definitely worth 10 hours in a car! Terrain is similar to Alta and abosolutely no lift lines.

[Theodore]

I loved it when I went a few xmas' ago. Drove to Sante Fe with my mom and every morning I would drive up to Taos. Def. worth it, I had a blast.

[Cyber Cop]

Toas needs some good snow before the good terrain opens, true for most of NM. You won't get the goods early. My guess is if the temps stay high like they did 2 years ago during the last el nino cycle early season may not be so hot, but late season could be epic. For early season you might head up to Wolf Creek or Silverton for good conditions.

[Mudfoot]

Taos has some some of the best steep terrain in the Rockies. If you don't mind doing a 15-20 min. steep hike at 12,000 ft. a couple of times a day you can access lots of steep trees and chutes. If Kachina Peak is open the hiking can extend up to an hour. Caution, unless the base is over 60" it is a very rocky place. Last year half the expert runs never even opened for lack of snow, but that was highly unusual. They look to be off to a good start this season and the weather may really favor NM, just don't get over anxious and go before the coverage lets you ski everything. They don't allow snowboarders so the bumps are sweet.

[grskier]

Taos rocks with snow, as stated many times. If it's a year like last year, wait until March. If it's a year like 2 years ago, any time after January you find some nice stuff.

[Buster Highmen]

It's got great terrain and as everyone is saying, snow provided, it's one of the absolute best ski areas in the U.S. Given the terrain, the low key attitude and the ridge, it's just a totally underrated place.

[Meadow Skipper]

I remember one El Niño year in the mid-to-late 90s when they had Juarez on the ridge open on opening day, so anything can happen snow-wise. Or like last season when they never got anything on the Highline past Treskcow opened. God, last season sucked.

[maddog]

If you're not a local, the lifties throw dirt clods at you!

[ANON-505]

Last year, as terrible as it was, a fair amount of the ridge was open in March. Highline was open to Treskow, (and treskow and surrounding was skiing reallll good toward the end). West Basin was open all the way out to wonderbowl. They had Stauff/Blitz/Spitfire/Fabian/etc open on a 24" base! The skiing was good...but fuckin' scary!

Taos patrol did an awesome job last year, getting those runs open on 2' was ballsy, and dealing with Billy Sol, Corner, (and others?) ripping all the way to the facets, and still keeping the rest of the runs open was great. They could've just closed everything and told the 15 people hiking to ski groomers. but they didn't.

cliff hux...in case you couldn't sense my sarcasm in the last post: Taos is stupendous. I've lived in a handful of ski towns, including jackson) and TSV is my favorite resort. Taos with a good base=one of the best. great terrain, great (read: nonexistant) vibe, and (sorry) the lack of snowboarders is nice.

[PTracy P1]

I spent the last week they were open last year there. Excellent conditions for so late, but like Anon says - when the snow sucks there, it sucks.

I've been skiing taos since the 70's (although I have ,mostly lived in gomer-central, Indiana) and it's great. Its so totally cool there, unlike the normal mega-resort Vaily sorts of places; so even when it sucks conditions wise, there's always the ski village drinking to keep you happy. my experience has always been great at taos, one of my favorite places in the whole world.

So - I'd rec Taos to anyone, especially skiers.


for a good deal on big room lodging, try The Kandahar. the little pizza joint on the e edge of town is awesome too.

[f2f]

last year, as bad as it was, still had something to remind us of winter:





hope this one is much better! (*knock on wood* *pinch ear* *spit on ground*, et al)

[roll - gybe]

It's also a cool village. I felt like I went back in time. It's worth the trip to check it out.

[icanseeformiles(andmiles)]

they're still calling for a mild el nino this year; should be good snow this year. hopefully WC's indicative of the year tsv will have: opening Friday, reporting 57" base with 25" of new on top.