Taos Ski Valley

Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico is nirvana for powder hounds who love their powder light and dry, and those who adore steep white-knuckle terrain.

The appeal of the Taos ski resort is multi-factorial. Sure there’s the steep and deep, but Taos also scores highly in the unique stakes. The resort village has a strong European influence, whilst in the town of Taos amongst the New Mexico desert there are fabulous cultural experiences. With the combination of Hispanic and Pueblo Indian cultures, the bohemian town of Taos New Mexico has lots of adobe architecture, interesting people, and novel shops. BTW, Taos is pronounced “Touse” and rhymes with house.

Pros and Cons of Taos Ski Resort

Pros

• Taos Ski Resort has lots of steep challenging terrain (so long as you don’t mind hiking to it).
• The ski resort has long steep fall line groomers.
• Taos Ski Valley is not highly trafficked and any lift lines are usually minimal.
• Half the appeal of a Taos skiing experience is the town and the surrounding area. The multiple cultural and historic influences definitely add to the attraction of Taos New Mexico and shoppers and art-lovers will enjoy the diversity of goods on offer.
• There are plenty of ski-in ski-out accommodations on-mountain.
• The Taos ski school is incredibly reputable.

Cons

• Whilst TSV is OK for complete novices, the ski area isn’t that well suited to other beginners and lower end intermediates.
• The ski resort requires a significant base before many of the tree runs and challenging areas are opened.
• Most of the lifts are of the slow variety.

Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective

• The amount of snowfall per season at Taos Ski Valley swings remarkably. On the plus side, when it snows it’s usually light dry powder.
• Lots of the steep gnarly terrain requires a hike.
• Taos Ski Valley is a high elevation resort which is good for the snow quality, but sea-level dwellers may require some acclimatisation.
• Taos is on the Mountain Collective Pass and Ikon Pass so it’s starting to see greater visitor numbers.

Taos Ski and Snowboard Terrain

Whilst Taos Ski Valley is big for a New Mexico ski resort, it’s not that large when compared to the major Colorado ski resorts, with only 1,294 acres of skiable terrain. Taos is a high altitude ski resort between 9,200 feet (2,805m) and 12,481 feet (3,804m) with a vertical drop of 3,281 feet (997 metres).

The Taos ski terrain is mostly suited to strong intermediates and experts, although it’s mostly renowned for the latter. Over half of the marked trails are black or double black and there are also lots of great chutes and terrifying off-piste runs. The only potential downside is that some of the runs require a hike to get to the goods. Hidalgo is only a 15 minute hike, or much longer if you normally live at sea level considering the high altitude. The upside of the long hikes is the fresh powder reward.

Taos lives up to its challenging reputation, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t terrain for beginners and intermediates. The only problem is that much of the green and blue terrain is also challenging. Beginners and intermediates need to be very enthusiastic and athletic, and be prepared to learn fast. Thankfully Taos Ski Valley has an award winning ski school. Subsequently, a huge proportion of guests participate in lessons and ski and snowboard improvement weeks.

Taos Snow

Relative to other New Mexico ski resorts, Taos receives lots of snowfall. The average annual snowfall is 300 inches (7.6 metres) but the snowfall volumes are not consistent between seasons. To ensure reasonable coverage, 100% of the beginner and intermediate terrain has snowmaking. The snow that does fall is super dry thanks to the surrounding desert and the high elevation. The other plus is that the resort is relatively uncrowded, so powder hounds don’t have to share the fresh tracks with too many other punters.

Where is Taos Ski Resort?

Taos Ski Resort is located in northern New Mexico within the southern end of the Rocky Mountains. The town of Taos is 20 miles (32km) away from Taos Ski Valley.

The major gateway airport for Taos is in Albuquerque, 2:15 hours southwest of Taos. There are shuttles from the airport to the ski area, but unless you stay on-mountain and have no intention to travel to the town of Taos, you’ll probably want to rent a car.

Taos Hotels and Taos Ski Valley Lodging

Taos Ski Valley lodging options are within the charming European village. Most of the hotels and condos are ski-in ski-out. The village is compact and not highly commercialised, and there is not much of a party scene.

The other option for lodging is to stay in the town of Taos. Taos has a larger range of accommodations and these are generally more affordable than those on-mountain. Lodgings include historic hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts, many of which feature the adobe architecture typical of the area.

See the Taos lodging page for more information.

Taos Ski Valley Accommodation Listings

Downtown Taos Hotel Listings

Other Info

Until March 2008 Taos Ski Valley was a sanctuary for skiers only. Now Taos ski resort warmly welcomes snowboarders, leaving only Alta ski resort, Deer Valley ski resort and Mad River Glen as the last bastions of ski-only resorts. Despite plenty of time passing, there still remains a strong ski culture at Taos Ski Valley.

The vibe at Taos Ski Valley is very chilled, in part because there are so many visitors from Texas. Everything is laid back and plenty of fun and you’ll need to practise your Texan lingo so that y’all will fit in.