16-February-2024. Taos Ski Valley

Today was a ski day!

Left Santa Fe at 7 AM to head north to Taos Ski Valley. It's a ski area set in a deep valley - another beautiful drive!! Taos is a smaller resort with a vertical of only about 2500 feet but it's high up – base is more than 9000 feet elevation. Conditions were great and almost the entire mountain was groomed packed powder with some loose granular on top. Some of the lifts were super old – I was freaked out the first time I had to ride a chairlift without a bar! There was another lift that is the oldest lift on the mountain and the chair was divided and a sign indicated that the heavier skier had to sit on the left. Must be awkward if you pair up with someone and have to ask them who weighs more! 😂 and each side of the chair was rather narrow – I'm sure they have to turn away overweight skiers – might be awkward if you don't fit into the lift .

I rode up lifts with some locals who recommended I go to the Bavarian lodge for lunch (which I did) - reminded me of when I was a kid and skied in Austria with my parents, aunt and uncle. Enjoyed a typical Germain ski meal of goulash and gluhwein ... sitting outside of course! In the afternoon the clouds came in and the wind picked up and the light got flat so I stopped skiing around 3:15 PM.

They have a great shuttle system that picks you up in the various parking lots and takes you to and from the base lodge. I was disappointed that I parked in the coyote lot – saw that the lot next to mine was the gel monster lot and it would've been so much more fun to have to ask the shuttle driver to take me over to the Gila monster! Ha ha.

I headed a half hour south to the town of Taos. It was basically a much smaller, older Santa Fe .... underwhelming but at least I was able to check it out, get my daily mile in and grab a cup of coffee for the 90 minute ride back to Santa Fe.

I've determined that I'm much happier with an active outdoor day than a going around checking out churches, galleries and museums kind of day.

WILD idea - I learned that Taos has a real German theme throughout with all its architecture and names. Wonder if it was founded by German/Austrian skiers? Need to look into that.