Santa Fe Snow (or lack of it)...
Category: Kitchen Sink...
Posted Friday, December 27, 2002 at 04:40 AM [GMT-6]

I see that Santa Fe once again managed to avoid the big "snow event." While the northeast managed to pile up snowfall records (pun intended), the Santa Fe ski area got less than six inches and now has a base of around 40". Bummer.

The reason I'm a little disappointed in this situation is that immediately after Christmas I start looking forward to the next Big Event on our annual calendar, and that's our February ski trip to Santa Fe with our good friends Tommy and Toni. We've made this trek enough times that it's an established and treasured tradition. And while we like to obsess over the snow reports, in point of fact...we don't go just for the snow.

Oh, we do like to spend time doing things that are greatly enhanced by snow. The guys downhill (will this be the year that we finally take snowboarding lessons?) and the girls either cross country (gasp) or snow shoe (double gasp) through the north 40. But it is all done as an excuse to eat great food, drink designer coffee and play endless games of chickenfoot in front of a crackling fireplace in the lobby of the Hotel St. Francis while laughing hysterically and scaring the citizens. So, we really just need enough snow to be able to get down the mountain a few times (or up it, depending on the sport), which is all our aging legs will accommodate anyway.

And to be honest, bad snow has been the rule rather than the exception at Santa Fe for many years now. I guess two or three years ago the snow was really good, but most of the time, a 40" base would be considered luxurious. I suspect that the only occupation worse than being a farmer in Midland County is being a ski resort owner in New Mexico.

If you've never skied (whoa...that looks funny; are you sure it's not "skiied"? well, not according to American Heritage) Santa Fe, don't bother; you wouldn't like it. Oh, OK...I'm lying; I just don't want it overrun with out-of-control Texans (like, umm...well, me). It's a very nice little area, especially for beginning to intermediate skiers. It's not a place I'd recommend for a solid week of downhill as it's too small and would get boring, especially for a really advanced skier. But for a long weekend and for once-a-year skiers like us, it's ideal. Especially when you have a city like Santa Fe waiting in the wings to soothe your aching muscles and fill your empty stomachs! What Tommy and I really like about the skiing is the ability to get into the trees and blaze our own trails (although "blaze" may evoke a misleading cavalier image; it's more proper to envision "rush" hour on Dallas' Central Expressway, with the stop-and-go action punctuated by loud and entirely sincere screams). This predilection to stray off the beaten path has been the source of many cackling sessions in the aforesaid hotel lobby, and has also caused us to at least consider the acquisition of helmets.

So, we'll manage to make-do with whatever the snow imps decide to grace us. But it would still be nice if, just once, our ski area would have the same base as, say, downtown Buffalo, NY!