A Red River Failure - The Ski Trip That Wasn't
In mid-January 2011, my friend Kevin and I were trying to take advantage of the 3 free days we got at a handful of other ski resorts thanks to our Monarch passes. We had recently used some of those tickets for a deep pow day at Powderhorn, and both of us had wanted to go to Red River Ski Area, in northern New Mexico (and also offering free tickets for us) for a long time. My parents, whom had already been to Red River, were interested in going again, so we set down some plans for a weekend trip to the Land of Enchantment. Although the snow cover was lacking big time and conditions were poor across northern NM and southern CO before we went, we took a gamble and set down dates a few weeks out in hopes of getting another storm or two before we went.
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Red River lies in the southern end of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range, so we had to drive south through the San Luis Valley, through Saguache, Monte Vista, and Alamosa before crossing into New Mexico and dropping down through Querida and up into the mountains. Since we had left in the afternoon it was fairly dark for most of the journey so no pictures. Our lodge was convenient enough; two rooms split on either side of a living room. Cheap, clean, and simple.
I was up fairly early to try and get some sunrise pictures, which did not disappoint. Sadly, we had received no new snowfall since our plans had been made, and we facing a grim snowfall picture for the day's skiing. After everyone else had woken up, we went to go get some breakfast and see about getting lift tickets. That night was going to be a big Denver Broncos game as well, so we made some reservations for dinner that night as well.
After breakfast Kevin and I headed up to the hill. Sure enough, it was pretty brutal. Icy runs, artificial snow, and low coverage meant was pretty brutal. We spent half a day launching cat tracks and rollers, seeing how fast we could go switch backwards down the icy runs, and skiing over rocks, logs and stumps in the woods, but ultimately we had enough and had to call it a day at about 1 pm.
We met up with my folks, and told them we were going to go for a cruise down the mountains and out to see the Rio Grande River gorge and try to salvage the day. They elected to stay behind so we rallied out to go see the big hole in the ground. |
We got back just in time to watch the game and watch the Broncos lost. The next day we had to pack up and head back to Colorado, so all total we drove 11 hours, over 500 miles, two states, and ended up skiing for a grand total of about 4 hours. Needless to say we are still motivated to go ski it properly one day, so this was just a taste to get us excited for the next time we go.
All photos copyright Kit Davidson unless otherwise noted.