Taos

[NMSKI]

Spent a couple of days in Albuquerque getting acclimated to the altitude, catching up with some friends and letting my mom spend some time with my kids. Did some nice hikes in the nearby Sandia mountains, and saw my NM Lobos beat Boise State for a share of the Mountain West regular season title. Took a couple pics of the hike.

 

 

 

When we rolled into the town of Taos it was warm enough that there were people jogging shirtless, so I was fully expecting spring conditions at Taos Ski Valley. It hadn’t snowed in about 10 days or so when we arrived. My general plan was to ski the backside and lower front side in the morning and kind of work my way around the mountain as the day went on to sort of “follow the aspect” so that I could be skiing somewhat soft snow all day.

 

I demoed some skis at Alpine Extreme lift-side and they set me up with the Atomic Coax 191cm. I fully expected to swap in and out of a bunch of different skis, but these actually really did the trick for me and I stayed on them the whole trip. Took me 2 or three runs to get used to them on groomers, but they were awesome on the ungroomed steeps.

 

As far as the skiing goes, North American and Longhorn were 2 of the trails on the front side that were really good in the morning. The first 10 or so turns on Longhorn were some of the steepest stuff I’ve ever skied although not bumped up I’m guessing due to the steepness. The rest of it was big, soft bumps. If bumps are your thing, the front side is where it’s at. In addition to the famous Al’s run there are a bunch of others beside it that are just about as steep and equally bumpy. I steered clear of this area, as I’ve already checked Al’s off my bucket list a while back, and didn’t want to waste all my energy over there.

 

On the backside of the mountain, my favorite by far has to be Hunziker Bowl. I spent the majority of one full day lapping this area as the snow was so good and there are literally acres and acres to explore. Hunziker is accessed by an uphill herringbone track through a gate, so most people are too lazy to go in there but it’s their loss. Once you make it up there you can traverse clear around a bowl with options ranging from wide open bowl skiing to somewhat tighter chutes. Also, the way the wind blows right up the bowl, combined with its difficulty to get to means the snow is fresh windblown all day long. Even when it hasn’t snowed in 10 days. There are some nice long groomed runs on the backside that I really enjoyed getting some speed on.

 

I only skied 1 or 2 of the ungroomed runs on the upper front-side. These would be more fun on a powder day. Castor and Pollux are right under lift 2 and are very steep and have trees interspersed throughout – not somewhere you’d want to fall and lose control. Took me long enough, and was enough work to make it down that I only did it once. Also on the upper front side accessed from lift 2 is the West Basin Ridge, where they had the Salomon Freeride Championships the weekend before I got there. I hiked up to there to check it out, but it was looking pretty beat up so I opted to go left to Highline Ridge.

 

On Highline Ridge, I skied Juarez a couple of times and really liked that. It’s very steep but also very wide open. It’s also visible to other parts of the mountain, so I felt all right skiing it without a partner (my buddy only skied with me one day). Another time up Highline Ridge, I met a guy from Chicago and a girl from Chile and we made a go at Kachina Peak. Took us about an hour and 15 but it was totally worth it. At one point I was so out of breath, I would take 30 steps, rest, take 30 steps, rest, etc. I will invest in a ski pack before doing this again, as it was a monumental pain in the ass to carry my skis all the way up there on my shoulder. I did that hike on Wednesday and my shoulder is still sore as I write this. The descent from Kachina was amazing. The snow was chalky windblown and nice, and it was just endless steep turns.

 

Overall, Kachina was the highlight of the trip. Wish I had gotten more pictures in general, but it’s such a pain in the ass to stop every 50 feet and pull out a camera. Also, most of what I didn’t capture on camera are either groomers or steep mogul runs, which I’m sure you can picture in your imagination pretty accurately.

 

Here’s some pics:

 

Upper backside

 

Hunziker Bowl

 

 

 

Looking good to go

 

Looking across Highline to Juarez

[NMSKI]

Warming hut on the way to Kachina

 

Not almost there

 

Still not almost there

 

My goofy ass on top of Kachina

 

Looking back up Kachina

 

[Timeless]

Nice TR, looks pretty special.

[Johnny Law]

Nice dude, looks sick. Kachina as always looks ill.

[NMSKI]

It's been snowing, and I'm getting ready to go back in a couple weeks. Stoke is building!

 

[NMSKI]

17 inches in the last day or so, still snowing! This will be me in a little more than a week. Hope it keeps dumping.

 

[NMSKI]

Skied some steeps today and got a goggle tan. I'll post some pics when my buddy sends me the good ones he took. Poked around in some areas that aren't on the map that were off the hook.

[Johnny Law]

Nice dude, killing it, super jealous.

[NMSKI]

Got up to Taos on Saturday just in time to get some skiing in and see the final day of the Salomon Extreme Freeride Championships. I think this is a pretty decent qualifier for the FWT, and there were some sick skiers/boarders in the comp. Day 1 had been in West Basin which has some huge cliffs and nasty lines, but is somewhat short. Day 2 was on Kachina, which isn’t quite as nasty in general, but there are lots of choices and its nice and long. Saw one skier go into (and fall backwards down) the Dahl Bredines, which is one of the craziest lines on the mountain. He picked his way through tight rocks and fell down 2 large cliffs one right after the other. He lived, but it looked like he had broken a femur or a hip or something because he didn’t move for a long time. I actually didn’t wait around until patrol helped him because it took forever considering there is no way to get a sled in there. As awesome as it was watching this, I wanted to get my own turns in too.

 

I always like warming up with, and mixing in throughout the day, some long groomers. After a winter at PA ski areas thus far, they seem endless and are really steep in comparison. You can absolutely fly. My favorite groomed run is from the top of lift 2 to the bottom of the backside. It’s a combination of greens and blues, and it goes on forever.

 

The snow was better this year than last, so I was interested in exploring some new areas that only ski well with a lot of snow. I hiked up to West Basin and took a look at my choices. Unfortunately, at least for my skill level, there needed to be a little more coverage for me to take my chances in there. The entrances to the chutes that I looked at were very tricky, and with the headwalls at 50 degrees or better you can’t make a mistake. Figured I’d skip it and keep all my limbs and head intact.

 

 

Looking up Stauffenberg from bottom – this is one of the ones I briefly considered:

 

 

I hiked the rest of the way up to Highline Ridge instead, and did Juarez. This is a great wide open very steep run. The snow was nice and soft and it’s a cornice drop ranging from about 5 feet to maybe 15 feet depending on what you like. I go for the 5 footer, and drop at an angle so I can arrest my speed easily. I did this hike a few times throughout the trip and enjoyed Juarez, Ninos Heroes and Hidalgo. I didn’t make it up to Kachina peak this year as it was closed 2 of the days, and the other 2 I didn’t want to spend the time and energy it takes to get up there.

 

One of my favorite spots on the mountain is the Hunziker Bowl area because no one wants to herringbone uphill for 5 minutes to get in there but I don’t mind. There was more snow this year than last, and I was able to traverse all the way across past an area that is sometimes too rocky to pass through called Totally Wiard (not sure what that name is all about). If you’re looking at a map, it’s all the way toward the left (skiers right) up to the boundary. This area isn’t listed on any map, but it’s enormous and wide open with the exception of boulders sticking out and some small drops here and there. I went over there a couple of times and just enjoy how weaving through a boulder field in a wide open bowl when not a single other soul is around (other than my buddy) makes you feel so small.

 

Pics of Hunziker/Totally Wiard:

 

 

I skied some bumps, but not a ton. When I did, I made sure it was in the afternoon, and they were really soft. If you are into steep bump runs you could spend a week at Taos and not get bored. Same goes for the tree runs, and this is more my thing. Walkyries Glade was one of my favorites. Even though its listed on a trail map, I had actually never been able to figure out how to get in there. It’s a little tricky, but me and my buddy finally found the gate below lift 7 on skiers left side of one of the bump runs. Snow definitely was not untouched in here, but still nice. Trees were perfectly spaced, and was steep enough to be challenging but not extreme. Did this run a couple times throughout the few days.

 

Looking up inside Walkyries:

 

More coming later, need to get some work done.

[NMSKI]

Another area of the mountain that I had sort of overlooked in the past is accessed off of Lift 2 also. Instead of either going skiers right immediately down the groomer to the backside, or going skiers left right away down the upper frontside steeps (Castor, Pollux, Blitz, Reforma), you go straight down a blue run called Bambi. After about 100 yards you see gates for Walkyries Chute, Sir Arnold Lunn and Lorelei/Lorelei Trees. These are very steep, and with the exception of part of Lorelei they are pretty thick trees. Lorelei and Lorelei trees are now probably my favorite runs at Taos. Nice and steep, trees here and there and where there aren’t trees there are playful terrain features.

 

Me coming out of Lorelei go ahead and make fun of my form:

 

 

 

 

 

Sir Arnold Lunn:

Edited March 7, 2013 by NMSKI

[NMSKI]

I was feeling pretty good about my skiing after 3 days and on day 4 decided to drop a cliff in between Sir Arnold and Walkyries Chute. Looks higher in the picture than it really was, and the snow was soft so I said what the hell after thinking about it for a minute. Would like to say I landed it but my ass and right hip are sore now.

 

Some of my favorite things about Taos are as follows and in no particular order: Steeps, trees, chutes, mexican food, german food at the Bavarian, tap list at the Martini Tree, white girls with dreads, mexican dudes that rip, views of Kachina Peak, Wheeler Peak, Lake Fork Peak, driving from the desert to high alpine in 20 minutes, crazy texans that can't ski risking it on the steep stuff, and much more. Especially love how even 4 days at a place like this can reinforce how much I love this sport and make me want more.

 

I can think of so much more that I would like to ramble on about, but I'll save the rest of the stories for when I see you all on the slopes.

 

Here are some more random pics:

 

Wheeler Peak in the Distance:

 

Kachina Peak from top of Lift 2:

 

Lake Fork Peak:

 

Chutes:

 

Steeps:

 

 

Bumps:

 

Views:

 

 

 

Apres:

 

[Johnny Law]

Two thumbs way up !

 

Loving the Taos stoke.

 

Remember hands forward, knees up, smooth take off, controlled body, drop the landing gear and ride away. Whatever you do don't drop your legs straight down if you overshoot the LZ or its a guaranteed blow up or worse BIAD. If your going to beef it go with it and roll, I like the shoulder roll but its rider's choice really.

[RidgeRacer]

Nice NM... looks awesome.

[NMSKI]

Glad you guys like it, sorry about breaking the TR into 3 separate posts, believe it or not I'm still figuring out how shit works on here.

[sibhusky]

Really digging that Bavarian place.

[NMSKI]

Really digging that Bavarian place.

Its great. They dress in authentic German clothes and have all German food and beer. One day I had Spatzl, and another I had a big old bratwurst with all the fixins. 32 oz Spaten Optimators and Franziskaner Hefeweizens to wash it all down.

[indiggio]

Its great. They dress in authentic German clothes and have all German food and beer. One day I had Spatzl, and another I had a big old bratwurst with all the fixins. 32 oz Spaten Optimators and Franziskaner Hefeweizens to wash it all down.

 

So jealous!

[NMSKI]

Heading back this week, snow in the forecast, getting so fucking fired up!

[tarponhead]

 

white girls with dreads, mexican dudes that rip

 

That is just so cool. Have a great trip!

[Justo8484]

Mexicans skiing, huh?

 

[NMSKI]

Mexicans skiing? I can safely say I've never seen that before. My mind is blown

Ski with me to have your mind half blown haha!

Have fun NMSki..what day are you going?

Thanks man. Going on Tuesday, will be at Blue tomorrow.

[NMSKI]

Mexicans skiing, huh?

 

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1393633711.985615.jpg

I'll file this in "gaper day costume ideas"

[guitar73]

sweet mang, enjoy the pow!

[NMSKI]

Today was unreal. I hiked up to Kachina first thing this morning which was sick as always. When I came out from lunch at the St Bernard it was dumping hard. Went over to the backside and had a once in a lifetime run down Walkyries Chute. Hunziker bowl kept getting filled in and was sick. I accidentally dropped a 10 footer under the lift when I zigged where I should have zagged. Landed in the soft though. I'm fucking beat now. Time for La Cumbres and hot tub.

 

I'll do a proper TR with pics when I get home.

[toast21602]

hell yes! excited/pumped/jealous for you man!