Taos New Mexico had always been on our bucket list, and we managed to finally get there late in the season to discover what all the fuss was about. We drove from Copper Mountain along highway 150 and felt the landscape become more remote and unusual as awe approached. About half an hour out of Taos we noticed unusual mounds and structures and learnt that there was a 600-acre Earthship Biotecture settlement called the Greater World Earthship Community. The community includes more than 300 acres of shared land, and is fully off the grid, using solar and wind power exclusively.
This set the scene for what to expect at Taos which is also a bit of a wild frontier with some pretty extreme skiing but also a chill village vibe. Taos, a bit like Telluride and Crested Butte is a destination ski area where you are at the end of a valley and most people, like us, stay put for at least a week or more often than not, the whole season.
Taos is located high in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of northern New Mexico and is known as the holy grail of big mountain skiing. When we visited, they were holding Taos Freeride Competition on West Basin and Kachina Peak, this comp serves as a pathway to the Freeride World Tour.
It really is the wild west out here – people ski past closed avalanche danger signs, there’s warning explosives signs, you hike up ridges till you’re breathless and the wind whips coloured flags and almost blows the wool off the very woolly sheep at the top. The first sign that you’re in for some challenging skiing at Taos is when you load onto the access lift up the ridge that houses Al’s run. Literally. The sign across from The Blake’s ski valet reads, “Don’t Panic: You’re Looking at only 1/30th of Taos Ski Valley.” It reassures you that there’s plenty of beginners runs but let’s face it, no-one comes to Taos to ski greens. Sure there’s a couple of dozen green and intermediate trails but over half are expert/advanced and most people come to Taos for steep chutes and mogul runs like Al’s Run.
Our favourites were the glades off Lift 7 and also the Hunziker Bowl off. Lift 4. But if you’re after the views and like to drop in off a cornice then take Lift two to the top, buy a t-shirt from the Ski Patrol Headquarters, throw your skis on your shoulder and hike to Highline Ridge. To the right is West Basin runs and the bowl where they run the extreme ski championship but to the left is the open runs of Juarez and a little narrower, Nonos Heroes.
We had our sights set on Ninos Heroes which is a 659-foot, double black diamond ski run our friend had raved about. To reach this run we took Lift 2 or Lift 6 to the top and hiked along the Highline Ridge for about 10 minutes. We dropped in to the steep chute located on the West Basin Ridge, and ylelped with delight as we carved turns with our shoulders nearly touching the slope. We also explored often accessed alongside trails like Purgatory and Two Bucks
There’s also the Kachina Peak Express which opened in 2015 to much local chagrin. Taos regulars were worried that, in addition to the 12.500-foot expert terrain getting overrun, it would attract skiers who weren’t skilled enough to get down the zone’s steep pitches and technical entrances.
Taos ski village and town
Taos ski village is small, winding around the river Hondo and sits at 9,200 feet elevation . There’s plenty of cute bars and restaurants but we had a condo with a BBQ on the sun/snow deck and ate in a lot of the time. Nearby the town of Taos is also pretty cool with its adobe architecture, life size sculptures of moose , donkeys and bears and beautiful silver and turquoise jewellery shops.
