On Friday I left for
Taos.
Mapopolis said it should only take about 3 hours to get to Taos from Albuquerque. Friends tell me I could get there in 2. It actually took me a little over 4 hours. I should have got up at 5am, which would allowed me to leave at 6. Instead I got up at 6 (darn snooze button) and left a little after 7. This meant I was stuck in Albuquerque traffic and there didn’t see t be a single road that lead to the freeway that didn’t have a accident on it.
Between
Santa Fe and
Espanola there’s construction building a nice new road. Unfortunately it’s not done and there was only 1 lane. I finally arrived in Taos sometime after 11. The good news is lift tickets were only 20 bucks, and rentals were only 11. Cheap! I skied for about 3 1/2 hours. To be honest I was getting sore so it’s probably a good thing I didn’t get there when they opened. Plus my right boot wasn’t fitting right, it was pretty uncomfortable and was cutting off circulation to my right foot at times. The track file (read at the bottom on how it was made) shows I reached about 38mph at points. Not bad. You can also see they have some very long runs. Once they get some more snow the skiing should be awesome, it wasn’t bad but wasn’t the best.
I left after 3:30 and began the trip home, which didn’t take quite as long as it did to get there. Next time I go I will probably plan on staying there overnight. It doesn’t seem worth it for the length of the trip.
On Saturday I went up to
Santa Fe with some friends from work. Santa Fe will the primary location of skiing this winter since I purchased the
Millennium pass. This pass is one step down from the
Season Pass, yet is more than $500 cheaper. It gets you $10 off lift tickets, except in January where lift tickets are free. Guess where I will be in January? By the way, I picked up my pass which is a ID card with my picture, It’s the worse possible picture they could have taken.
RIght now lift tickets are $34, so it cost me $24. They also got new rental equipment, which cost $18 to rent for the day. I was very happy with the boots, they fit perfectly and are probably the most comfortable boots I have ever worn. I think I will be doing enough skiing this year that I really need to invest in my own gear.
One of the best part about skiing at Santa Fe is stopping at the little restaurant/bar located just up slope. A nice (and expensive) lunch just hits the spot about 11. Then come back every hour or two for a break and have a delicious Hot Buttered Rum. It’s not enough to get you drunk, but enough to get a buzz and warm you up.
I have to admit that I was still kind of sore from the previous day when we started and the pain continued though out the day. It wasn’t enough to keep me from skiing but was enough to keep me from really hitting the bumpy parts. Thats when you really put your leg muscles to work. The pain in my thighs did start to go away as the day went on. But even today I’m still feeling it. A few more times on the slopes and it won’t bother me anymore.
The right back was less comfortable since my legs were sore and I sat in the back of my friends
Honda Pilot. It’s a nice enough SUV, just pretty cramped in the back seats for a long trip like that.
Santa Fe had 80% of the mountain open and I could tell they needed some more snow in parts. Hopefully the weather will cooperate because, well, you know where I will be every weekend.
If you’re interested in how I generated the speed tracking maps, click here.
Here’s some video I captured while Skiing in Santa Fe. Turns out, it’s not so easy to ski and film. Most of the video was too shaky to use. In any case I will keep trying. Let me know what you think. 9.9MB Quicktime Video, 5:26 minutes, 240×128 (in widescreen).
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