Thanks! I was looking at the Santa Fe trail map and it looks great but I think it seems just a tad advanced skier oriented for her. How’s the pitch compared to wolf’s abundance of intermediate terrain?
There's plenty for a day of whatever you're after. There's rolling fun featured tree stuff, perfectly thinned glades, beautiful groomers and there's even some short steep stuff. It's a super playful mountain. There's plenty of groomed and ungroomed blue stuff off every lift and some of the most beautifully cut intermediate gladed areas you could ever imagine. The views while skiing down the blue square rated and nightly groomed Gayway are jaw dropping. I think it's my favorite ski area in that size category. Totemoffs goes hard in the afternoon. If you can get a local to show you around it helps a lot.
Sorry to add to the detour away from Plattekill but there's plenty of green and blue terrain at Santa Fe. Here are some pix from many moons ago (Dec 2002 and Feb 2009) to give you an idea and the trail map hasn't changed a bit since then. Similar to what RA said, many people mention SF as their favorite in its weight class.
I've only skied a morning at Santa Fe and it's been a while but for an intermediate the advantages over WCSA are 1) the views, and perhaps 2) the runs are short. The town has a bit more to offer than Pagosa Springs . . . but no hot springs. Wolf Creek has very fun blues that are longer. Views are not bad either. Pretty sure WCSA has more high speed lift options.
Nah it's cool, I have the logistics already already planned out so I don't need much more insight. Thanks @MarzNC for confiming that WC is indeed a great intermediate mountain! My wife has literally only skied Platty, Pico, and Titus so I'm sure any choice won't really matter to her as long as there are some nice cruisers. Platty days should have her feeling confident at either place.
My BIL (from Chicago) is a retired advanced intermediate. Dabbled in skiing at destination resorts when working but sticks to blues out west. He enjoyed WCSA in Dec 2022. Did help a bit that he was willing to take a private lesson on the second day. There are a few really experienced instructors (25+ years as Level 3) at WCSA. The one I've been working with taught at Crested Butte for a dozen years before going to Vail for a decade. He and his wife moved to South Fork because of family nearby . . . and the snow without crowds.
