Cross-Country Skiing in the â€œGreat White Southwestâ€

I got the idea to write this story when I recently spoke to the Miller family, who own and operate the Enchanted Forest XC Ski Area in Red River, NM (http://www.redriver.org/). They are running a special on season’s ski passes in which you can ski at four of the [desert] Southwest’s best-known Nordic ski areas that, in addition to Enchanted Forest, include: Flagstaff Nordic in Flagstaff, AZ, and the Rim Nordic and Green Valley Nordic areas in the San Bernadino Mountains of Southern California. I got to thinking more than usual about how interesting it is that we have such great areas for xc skiing in this part of the world. We’re about the same latitude as the Greek Isles, Northern Iraq, Oklahoma City and Nashville, Tennessee.

It seems kind-of strange, but I’ll bet we have better snow conditions on average here in New Mexico than much of the Midwest. Last year, we even had better snow than British Columbia, Canada. Of course, New Mexico is a state where the average elevation is somewhere above the limits for holding any Olympic or world-cup competitions. Even Albuquerque sits at a mile above sea level. You can’t xc ski in Albuquerque itself, but a quick 18-minute tram ride to the top of Sandia Peak (10,300 feet) puts you right smack-dab on top of a lot of snow. It’s pretty cool to be able to xc ski along the Sandia Crest trail and look down on the Rio Grande Valley’s desert landscape. In the middle of the winter, a cross-country skier can go up to Sandia Peak and ski on perfect Swix blue conditions in the morning, then go for a fairly comfortable bike ride in the valley in the early afternoon. The Southwest can also be prone to long, warm, dry spells, so that is always a fear we live with. In particular, high pressure can set up in the Great Basin or the Four Corners region, and put a major kibosh on our â€œnormalâ€ Pacific low-pressure systems that march in off of either the Southern Baja Coast (our best precip producers), or the much colder Northern Pacific Coastal storms (better for cold weather and cold snow).

Yep, New Mexico is a great place for xc skiing…most of the time. Recent winters have been very sporadic, probably like other places. Last winter, we got tons of snow early in November and were able to ski on great snow until the second week of April. It was never the least bit bad. However, two years prior to that, we were on rock skis the entire winter and spent just as much time scooping snow onto the big rocks as much as we skied. Other challenges we face are trail restrictions, lack of user understanding and cooperation, do-it-yourself grooming and trail maintenance efforts, lack of interest and lack of help (also a function of our more sparse population), and general lack of policy and apathy by the U.S. Forest Service. Most of the established xc skiing trails are quite successful, though. A New Mexico xc skier must also get accustomed to conditions that can sometimes vary dramatically from perfectly frozen snow in the shade to transforming or slushy snow in the sunny, south-slope areas.

http://www.enchantedforestxc.com/), and Angel Fire (~25 km of groomed and very wide trails at the top of the Chili lift at the downhill ski area: http://www.angelfireresort.com/). Both are high-altitude areas that receive lots of snow and stay pretty chilly even on warm days. They both had pretty decent snow during those very lean years and that kept us going. They are situated in the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) mountain range, which always seems to receive at least a good dose of snow every year (anywhere from 100â€ to 500â€+ annually). Both areas do a great job of grooming, most of the time, and offer xc skiing experiences much like those found in Colorado, but also somehow uniquely New Mexican. Temperatures are cold in the morning, often sub-zero, and warm up nicely by afternoon, sometimes above freezing. Snow at this altitude does not transform very quickly due to the dry air. So, waxing is usually pretty simple and does not require a lot of fluoro content. Of course, we go with the fluoros when we’re racing, but that’s just because we THINK we need it to beat our best buddies, etc.

Here in Los Alamos, we have the oldest and most active xc ski club in the state, and one of, if not the oldest xc trail systems. We consolidated with another â€œoldâ€ organization that had members from Santa Fe and Albuquerque as well. We (the Nordic club) maintain a very nice 10km (plus some if we push it) trail system in the Jemez Mountains near Los Alamos, which is a bizarre volcanic mountain range west of the Rio Grande Valley and across from the higher and better-known Sangre de Cristo mountains. The elevation of the trail system lies at between 8,900′ and 10,000′, so snow is fairly consistent.