Mom and Pop Style Mountains

[MarzNC]

I’m sorry, but does that sign say Gay Way?

Yep, but one word I think as in "Gayway" looking at the Santa Fe trail map.

The glades in that area were good fun. I'd only been skiing trees for a few seasons at that point.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I’m sorry, but does that sign say Gay Way?

One of my Top 10 blue-square groomers in the country:

Santa Fe, NM: 12/08/02

One of the hard and fast rules of destination travel is "never book a ski trip to New Mexico before the New Year." Good thing that back in late 2002, the beginning of my third season downhill skiing, I hadn't acquired a big storehouse of conventional wisdom. That year, the NM tourism board was...

nyskiblog.com

 

[Cornhead]

One of my Top 10 blue-square groomers in the country:

Santa Fe, NM: 12/08/02

One of the hard and fast rules of destination travel is "never book a ski trip to New Mexico before the New Year." Good thing that back in late 2002, the beginning of my third season downhill skiing, I hadn't acquired a big storehouse of conventional wisdom. That year, the NM tourism board was...

nyskiblog.com

The snow was up to the tubes on top of that sign last time I skied Santa Fe.

 

[Andy_ROC]

Since you were chasing powder turns, you probably didn't take the long green from the top of Dreamcatcher. It's great fun with good visibility. Best if the cautious skier is following someone who's done it before. There are a few places where it's important to keep up speed as the trail goes down and then up. If too cautious then won't have enough speed to get to the top of the hump.

There are groomed blues off Dreamcatcher and Sacagawea that are fun. Ended up on them last Dec since there wasn't enough coverage off-piste yet. At one point we were looking into some trees when a group of local tweens stopped before heading in. The oldest boy pretty said it probably wasn't a good idea because there wasn't enough snow. But that he knew where all the downed trees were so the kids would be okay. We took our time stopping and looking on the way down the groomer. The kids were taking a shortcut but came out after we did.

I was planning on hitting GT on the way to Big Sky this season because it's the last season for the cat skiing. Changed my plan a few months ago mostly because I had friends interested in a different ski safari in a completely different region.

Given a history of ACL injury, I'll repeat the recommendation of lessons. The reason I started taking lessons fairly regularly at my home hill and at destination resorts is that I popped off an ACL in 2012 (not a skiing injury). My knee injury and personality led me to opt to work towards being a "coper" instead of having ACL reconstruction surgery. I put the money I could've spent on a custom brace towards lessons, mostly semi-private with L3 instructors recommended by name. If your wife is interested, she can read my story here.

Thanks again! That's very helpful. I don't think I did that long green run off Dreamcatcher but it looks nice. So now you've got me thinking about combining a GT and Big Sky trip since they are a drivable distance. Though Pow Mow is still my first choice, but because we're probably going at the end of Jan the snow coverage concerns me that early at PM.

Really good stuff on the ACL so thank you. Yeah she tried to cope for about 7 years, skied a few times post injury, then tweaked it pretty bad in crud and gave up completely for years. It just became a PITA to live with. She would hurt it occasionally just simply slipping... like playing pool volleyball or when stepping out of the car in slush/ice etc. It got to be no fun. Surgery in Nov 19, the recovery from that surgery is really tough especially the first month+ and just a very long PITA overall with braces, restrictions and PT for like a year. Anyway last season she got out ~7 times and each time out was exponentially more confident than the previous day. On her 5th time skiing (post surgery) we skied for almost 6 straight hours at Holiday Valley greens and blues and she did great... she likes to explore like I do. She even finished the season doing 1 black (slowly) at Bristol. Now she feels her repaired knee is even stronger than her "good knee." A lesson might do her well.

Thanks again for the good tips!

 

[jamesdeluxe]

The snow was up to the tubes on top of that sign last time I skied Santa Fe.

Yes, snowfall in New Mexico (and in Arizona as RA can testfy) is, as they say, "volatile." If it's an El Niño year, they can get a decent amount; if not, it can be meager. Before I went there the first time in 2002, I wasn't aware how high Santa Fe ski area is. As you can see in the map, the summit is 12,000 feet and change -- almost as high as Breckenridge.

 

[raisingarizona]

Bob (meadow skipper on TGR) was a ski patroller at Ski Santa Fe for a long time. He also did fire and forestry during the rest of the year and is really good with a saw. He designed and cleared a lot of the glades there. He toured Cody and I around showing us his handiwork. By the end of the day I could see the areas he had worked. He has a really good eye and spaces the trees perfectly. His lines are beautiful. It was very fun skiing with him and getting a lot of history on the area.

James, it’s looking like a serious drought year right now. Sometimes the lanina pattern dips low enough to give us a steady flow of table scraps but that’s not the case right now. We got nuthin, the forecast is continued drought with a high chance of more drought. Las Vegas and Phoenix are going to start having mandatory water rationing. Shit is getting real out here.

 

[raisingarizona]

I’m sorry, but does that sign say Gay Way?
View attachment 10977

It’s only gay if we kiss ? ?

 

[Andy_ROC]

It’s only gay if we kiss ? ?

 

[Ripitz]

It’s only gay if we kiss ? ?

on monoskis

 

[raisingarizona]

on monoskis