You don’t just ski in New Mexico. You swap stories with the folks in the chairlift lines. You dig into authentic Southwestern food in all its tongue-tingling variations. The state’s multicultural heritage - a 300-year-old brew steeped in Spanish traditions, Native American lifestyles, and westward-bound adventurers - seeps into your bones. As the days tick by, it seems you’ll never find time to ski those snowy peaks. But you do.
We recently revisited four northern New Mexico ski areas in the Sangre de Cristo Range, curious to see whether the march of time and inevitable improvements - faster chairlifts, new lodges, updated ski schools for children - had changed the natural high that has kept us coming back to this wide-open state. They haven’t.
But four resorts in 10 days was too many. If you’re a newcomer, split your ski week between two of these four. Later on, do them all.
SKI SANTA FE, 16 miles outside the city, is a day ski area. There is no lodging at the base area, and that’s good news. It would be a shame to come to the country’s oldest and most historic capital city, founded in 1610 at the western end of the dusty Santa Fe Trail, and not stay in one of the half-dozen hotels that cluster near the heart of the central plaza.
Listen for the distant echo of the pack trains, mule skinners, fighters, mountain men, and soldiers that raised a ruckus on this very spot, now the location for western art galleries, Navajo and Pueblo arts and craft shops, historic Spanish Colonial buildings, and cafes and restaurants. It’s also the departure point for the ski area.
Ski Santa Fe, as it’s officially named, perches on the slopes of windy Tesuque Peak, elevation 11,995 feet on the official topographic map. It’s breathy up here at the top of the new New Millenium triple chairlift, which climbs from the resort base at 10,350 feet to the summit.
