Denis,

This has been definitely the year to ski Taos! Any updates on day two (or three?) Do any hiking to the ridges once the visibility cleared? Utah was epic last week, nearly seven feet of snow in a week; so I'm sure a lot of the same systems dumped pow on New Mexico on their way east.

I've only skied Taos during a relatively poor snow year (two years ago.) Castor, Pollox, Walkyries have some nice terrain, but they were skied out during my stay. They would have been amazing with some fresh. Loreli had some nice snow, but had some pretty poor coverage in spots. I don't think the whole Longhorn section was open at all.

After reading your post, I need to keep Taos in mind for any storm chasing trips. Keep Taos free!

John,

Sorry to be slow with a reply. I returned from ABQ on Sun. evening and had to fly to FL on Mon. @ 7 AM for some meetings at Kennedy Space Center. I flew back from Orlando @ 7 AM today. In my 2 days at Taos, Kachina peak never opened. We did ski some on that side on Sat. but you couldn't hike up to the peak. Some of it looked gorgeous but there was also evidence of a massive slide, probably on Fri. night, and several smaller ones. On Fri. we hiked the west ridge for the chutes and John did it again in late PM on Sat. after my tired old legs had sent me to the bar. He stayed and skied for a 3rd day. The crowds came out on Sat. and everything easily accessible got cut up. I'd have to be awfully spoiled to say tracked out. In some spots in the sun cooked a bit as well. The best skiing on Sat. was as deep in the trees as you could get where it was still untracked and almost as good as Fri., just not as much of it. I love that mtn. It's about as good as it gets - anywhere. I took only 3 pics, one each of John and I and one of the area from the parking lot late on Sat. when the visibility returned.