Ski better in Taos, New Mexico

Set high in the rugged southern Rocky Mountains, Taos, New Mexico, is one of the few resorts left in North America that offers a Ski Better Week every week of the winter season. Taos Ski Valley thrives on their legendary ski week culture. At some times most of the skiers on the daunting mountain are part of the ski week program.

For centuries, the Native Americans of the Southwest considered this area and its soaring mountains a kind of Holy Land to be respected and awed. And today, skiers from around the planet come spend a week beneath these craggy peaks in search of the Holy Grail of ski schools replete with Old World tradition and convivial camaraderie taught on some of the most harrowing ski trails in North America.

Skiers across the country continually search for ways to improve. Those from the East seek to learn to ski confidently through deep powder. Those from the West face their challenges on hard snow. Improving technique on the snow makes the biggest difference in how much anyone can enjoy the sport.

When it comes to ski schools, especially to ski weeks, Taos is mythic. It challenges skiers to improve and to move out of their zone of comfort. The celebrated mountain provides the unforgiving terrain that contributes to quantum improvements. And the ski school manages to teach basic lessons about skiing through nature that can be applied to getting more from everyday life.

Few ski mountains appear as intimidating as Taos. Al’s Run drops relentlessly directly down the lift line into the small resort cluster of restaurants, hotels and lodges. The mountain peaks tower above with no view of any additional trails other than a clutch of very narrow, very black runs, barely visible, curling through the trees just to the right of Al’s.

For years, I have heard about the Taos Ski Weeks. I came to Taos to try to attain that elusive shift from advanced skier to expert. I was striving to make a breakthrough.

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Taos Ski Week starts with the ski-off from the top of the High Five lift. Instructors watch skiers make about a half-dozen turns and then place them into ability groups. These few turns to the practiced eye are more than enough to form groups of similar abilities. However, if a skier ends up over their heads or with a group far too slow, they are shifted to a more appropriate group.

Day one focused on short turns and moguls. Day two shifted to carving wide turns on clean edges. Day three dealt with balance and edge control with exercises that proved the seemingly simple can be incredibly difficult. On day four, in deep snow, the focus was on weight changes and the importance of abdominal strength in deep powder. Day five was a cruising day that combined much of what we learned earlier in the week.

By the end of five days with my group I was a different skier. I could carve a clean turn across hard packed snow, leaving a line as clear as if I traced it with a knife. I could sideslip straight down the mountain to my right or left maintaining control for 50 yards or so. I could finally cruise through deep powder and crud comfortably.

But the techniques, drills and specifics of the ski week weren’t the most important factors. The instructors knew that methods are not the most important element and we students, by the end of the week-long experience, realized that these lessons were more than technical drills.

The Taos Ski Week is a education in life. But most of all, it is a good time.

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