Arizona/New Mexico 20-21 Four Corners Weather, Conditions, Stoke

[Core2]

Been a rough season for me, only 3 days so far. About to get a little better as I'm headed up to Purgatory Saturday and will get three more days in. Open Snow report looks promising for some new snow this week.

As I will be passing by Hesperus on my way up, should I stop for a couple of laps just to say I did, or not worth it?

I think Hesperus closed for the season. It is a fun place to ski for a few hours (wouldn't dedicate a day), the terrain is suprisingly fun. The draw there really is the night skiing. It is so cool to do a day at Purg then a few hours at Hesperus after dinner.

 

[Core2]

Snowbowl new snow looks pretty wet and sloppy. I wonder how it is skiing?

 

[teejaywhy]

Driving by answered that question for me.

Heh... Not exactly a destination is it?

 

[Dryheat]

Since we're well into sloppy season for the southwest, here's top lift served elevations:

Taos Kachina - 12,481
Ski Santa Fe - 12,075
AZSB - 11,500
Ski Apache - 11,500
Taos Lift 2 - 11,040
Brianhead - 10,970
Sunrise - 11,100 10,932
Pajarito - 10,440
Purgatory - 10,822
Sipapu - 9,255
Mt Lemmon:9,157
Hesperus:8,888

(disclaimer: compiled manually, subject to fat fingres, and marketing lies...see below)

 

[raisingarizona]

Been a rough season for me, only 3 days so far. About to get a little better as I'm headed up to Purgatory Saturday and will get three more days in. Open Snow report looks promising for some new snow this week.

As I will be passing by Hesperus on my way up, should I stop for a couple of laps just to say I did, or not worth it?

The terrain is actually really fun and playful. Skiing under the lights is pretty cool too.

 

[RobSN]

Snowbowl new snow looks pretty wet and sloppy. I wonder how it is skiing?

Chopped up a bit, but quite a lot of it: unfortunately, coming down Volcano on my second run today I fell and heard a sort of "geech" sound from my right knee (my ski didn't release) and although I managed to get back to the car, I wonder whether I'll be able to ski again this season ... pretty darned painful now and my wife is off to Walmart to get a walking cane ... eek.

 

[teejaywhy]

Chopped up a bit, but quite a lot of it: unfortunately, coming down Volcano on my second run today I fell and heard a sort of "geech" sound from my right knee (my ski didn't release) and although I managed to get back to the car, I wonder whether I'll be able to ski again this season ... pretty darned painful now and my wife is off to Walmart to get a walking cane ... eek.

Aw shoot, hope it's just a strain.

 

[RobSN]

Oh and I should have said, many thanks to @kimberlin who stopped and helped me release the ski (so I could test the leg and knee a bit to see if I needed the sled), and then skied behind me as I did very slow turns (complete with sound effects on the left turns) to make sure I got down ok. Funnily enough, it was actually more painful walking to the car than skiing ...

 

[New2]

Taos Kachina - 12,481
Ski Santa Fe - 12,075
AZSB - 11,500
Ski Apache - 11,500
Sunrise - 11,100
Taos Lift 2 - 11,040
Brianhead - 10,970...

Sunrise drops a couple spots if you use real numbers, instead of their marketing claims. The USGS measured Apache Peak at 10,932'.

 

[dbostedo]

The USGS measured Apache Peak at 10,932'.

The top of the lifts at Ski Apache, per the Caltopo.com topographic maps, are at about 11,433 feet, and 11,375 feet. I'm not sure what Apache Peak is, but Lookout Mountain, with a peack in between the main lifts and the bowl lift, comes in at 11,542 feet.

 

[Dryheat]

Sunrise drops a couple spots if you use real numbers, instead of their marketing claims. The USGS measured Apache Peak at 10,932'.

The top of the lifts at Ski Apache, per the Caltopo.com topographic maps, are at about 11,433 feet, and 11,375 feet. I'm not sure what Apache Peak is, but Lookout Mountain, with a peack in between the main lifts and the bowl lift, comes in at 11,542 feet.

Too many Apache's here including trying to verify this discrepancy, @New2 is refering to the one at Sunrise Ski Park. This proved to very difficult to verify as even wikipedia repeats the marketing claims. I'm going to go with Google on this one. Google's scale is 5 rings per 200ft which is right at where @New2 shared.

Another reason to dislike Sunrise as if we needed another...

 

[Core2]

Chopped up a bit, but quite a lot of it: unfortunately, coming down Volcano on my second run today I fell and heard a sort of "geech" sound from my right knee (my ski didn't release) and although I managed to get back to the car, I wonder whether I'll be able to ski again this season ... pretty darned painful now and my wife is off to Walmart to get a walking cane ... eek.

That sucks about your knee, good luck. When I tore my MCL it sounded like a chip bag popping. At least yours happened at the end of the season!

 

[Chillonthehill]

Season Passes - Arizona Snowbowl

2023/2024 Arizona Snowbowl season passes on sale now! The Power Pass is the most powerful pass in the Southwest, with access to 9 mountains.

www.snowbowl.ski

I don't like some of the changes forcasted here...

I’m curious what you don’t like. I’m sure I’m missing something, but it looks like the “perks” are about the same as last season except they got rid of the free buddy passes and changed the percent off other buddy passes to 25%.

For me the big ones are power pass price remaining the same and the free kids pass going up to 12 instead of 10. It means another free year for my oldest.

 

[Dryheat]

I’m curious what you don’t like. I’m sure I’m missing something, but it looks like the “perks” are about the same as last season except they got rid of the free buddy passes and changed the percent off other buddy passes to 25%.

For me the big ones are power pass price remaining the same and the free kids pass going up to 12 instead of 10. It means another free year for my oldest.

There's no longer an unlimited skiing with blackout pass. The blackout pass is now limited to twelve days at AZSB & Purg combined. While that's not far off from how much I normally ski, I hate to accept that as a limitation. I'm in essence pre-paying for 12 days, blackout restricted, at $50 a day which is a bit meh in my book. I tend to ski a decent amount later season. When considering a pass purchase, I'm not a big fan of the worlds greatest spring break because it devalues the season pass when I'm picking up such inexpensive March/April days.



The partner resort list (which admittedly is usually limited this time of year) has only Monarch on it. The Copper/Loveland days that are usually on it is where I find a lot of value.

 

[New2]

The top of the lifts at Ski Apache, per the Caltopo.com topographic maps, are at about 11,433 feet, and 11,375 feet. I'm not sure what Apache Peak is, but Lookout Mountain, with a peack in between the main lifts and the bowl lift, comes in at 11,542 feet.

Too many Apache's here including trying to verify this discrepancy, @New2 is refering to the one at Sunrise Ski Park. This proved to very difficult to verify as even wikipedia repeats the marketing claims. I'm going to go with Google on this one. Google's scale is 5 rings per 200ft which is right at where @New2 shared.
Another reason to dislike Sunrise as if we needed another...

Yeah, I meant Apache Peak, the highest point at Sunrise Park. Caltopo has a nice feature that shows the actual USGS topo maps if you want... in the Map Layers options, the "Base Layer" dropdown, pick "Scanned Topos." The benchmark atop Lookout Mountain at Ski Apache shows as 11,580 there, and it looks to me like the Apache Bowl lift actually goes up above the 11,520' contour, which would imply that Ski Apache's underreporting, if accurate.

 

[Chillonthehill]

There's no longer an unlimited skiing with blackout pass. The blackout pass is now limited to twelve days at AZSB & Purg combined. While that's not far off from how much I normally ski, I hate to accept that as a limitation. I'm in essence pre-paying for 12 days, blackout restricted, at $50 a day which is a bit meh in my book. I tend to ski a decent amount later season. When considering a pass purchase, I'm not a big fan of the worlds greatest spring break because it devalues the season pass when I'm picking up such inexpensive March/April days.

The partner resort list (which admittedly is usually limited this time of year) has only Monarch on it. The Copper/Loveland days that are usually on it is where I find a lot of value.

That makes total sense. I was bummed when they eliminated the blackout Saturday, big weekends and Christmas week pass. It was the perfect pass for me as I don’t want to ski those times anyway. We haven’t taken advantage of the partner pass resorts. I’d be disappointed if Copper wasn’t added back though as it is a place I’d like to meet up with Colorado friends and we weren’t able to this year.

I don’t even want to try to figure out if I got “value” out of my pass this year as I skied way less than expected. Oh well.

 

[Lvovsky /Pasha/Pavel]

Santa Fe was lovely today after 15” in 24hr

 

[pais alto]

Santa Fe was lovely today after 15” in 24hr

How were the crowds?

 

[Jerez]

@Pasha How sweet!

 

[Core2]

Snowbowl was good as well. Snowed on and off all day.