Conditions Report
Report from Saturday 26th February 2022
If Thursday was deepest winter at Ski Santa Fe, NM, today was prime spring. The sun was shining, the temperatures were perfect, and the live music was pumping at mid-mountain Totemoff’s.
- Thursday’s Report: Ski Santa Fe, NM, Report: Real Mountains, Fresh Powder, and Unlimited Glades
Living in a Colorado ski resort on one of the major passes, I avoid weekends like the plague. So I was intrigued to see how crowded a 660-acre ski area can get on a Saturday when it’s perfect skiing conditions. Answer? Not very…
There was a short line at 9 am at the resort’s main lift up the mountain. Ten minutes max. And once we were on the mountain, we waited no more than two minutes for a chair all day. This I could get used to!
Our guide for the morning was Tommy, the Mountain Ops Manager, and Stephen, the Marketing Manager, in the afternoon. If anyone knew where the best snow conditions were and the least crowded runs, these were our guys.
Our first few runs were mogul runs. The 5″ of fresh snow we had a couple of days ago had stuck around, helped by yesterday’s cooler temperatures, and the bumps were surprisingly forgiving and fun.
Gayway, Wizard, North Burn, Cornice, Roadrunner, Richard’s Run, and Fall Line were all super fun. The wind had scoured some of the areas, unveiling the bare conditions below, but nothing too sketchy, and all adding to the fun (thankfully, I was on demo skis 😉.)
The advantage of being shown around by locals who know the mountain inside out was that we could cut from section to section, making the most of crisscrossing groomers to mix and match bumps and tree runs right across the mountain. This made it possible to seek out the still untracked snow from the last storm and stretch out the runs for as long as possible. When we hit the groomers, which were freshly groomed and sweet corduroy, the slopes were not crowded, which surprised me, having seen the cars in the parking lot and the line at 9 am.
When we stopped at Totemoff’s for live music, wings, and beer, I realized where all the people were; having a great time at this awesome little mid-mountain bar and grill. 48-hours ago, we had been here purely to warm up from the -15ºF temperatures outside. And while spring isn’t officially here, it felt like it was today. A crowd of people sitting out in the glorious sunshine drinking and eating, people standing around chatting and dancing, a DJ on the deck setting the atmosphere with EDM. An old tram car was set up as a bar to help alleviate the line of thirsty skiers trying to get to the bar inside the shack. This was New Mexico’s answer to The Beach at A-Basin.
Santa Fe isn’t a ski town per se; the resort plays second fiddle to the centuries of history, architecture, art, and the city’s thriving restaurant and bar scene. But the locals don’t know what they’re missing.
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