Taos Ski Area, famous for its "Steeps"

Mention Taos Ski Area and the response are likely to be, "I've heard it's steep! Advanced only."  It's true that 51 % of the ski runs are advanced, but it's more than sheer steepness and black-diamond runs that makes Taos a unique ski area, perennially attracting the serious and hardcore; it's the "steeps."

Most of those steeps can only be accessed by hiking 45- to 60-minutes up to the ridges from the end of the three lift rides. But once there, more than a dozen 35-degree-plus trials beckon experts.

"Almost every where has steep terrain," says Taos Valley Ski School Director Jeff Mugleston, "but Taos has 1300 acres of it with nooks, crannies and ridges to explore. Others may have steep wide bowls and big run outs, but Taos has steep long and narrow runs, so you have to control your speed the whole way. Everything is turned up a notch. You have to earn it."

"Our skiers are willing to do more work to ski that terrain, and they travel just for that," explains Adriana Blake, Marketing Director for Taos Ski Valley and granddaughter of Ernie Blake, a ski-industry legend who founded the ski area in 1955. It remains largely family held and snowboard free.

Accessing Taos Ski Valley itself is not as easy as most U.S. ski resorts, so it takes effort just to get there. From the town of Taos, known more for its adobe buildings and hundreds of art galleries than for skiing, one must drive thirty minutes up a stunningly beautiful road, lined first with junipers and cottonwoods and then pines as you rise in elevation from 6,950 feet to 9,300 at the ski base.

Located in the high desert of northern New Mexico, a state not noted for snow, the season at Taos Ski Valley is short, opening mid-December and ending in March or the first week of April. The closest major airport is Albuquerque, approximately 2-1/2 hour's drive from the south, and there are limited flights on regional carrier Great Lakes Aviation from Denver to Santa Fe, a 1-1/2 hour's drive.

But all this effort pays off, says Blake, for skiers who value a "less-corporate experience" and the challenges of the mountain. Expert skiers return year after year to hike and run those steeps.

Mugleston, a teacher at the resort's acclaimed ski school for 23 years and director for the past eight, points out that the Ski School draws a devoted, adventuresome crowd that includes professional skiers, racers from the east coast and people of all levels who want "quality instruction, attention and challenge." To exemplify devotion, Mugleston cites that many of their students drive 17 hours from Houston, the oldest ski instructor is 83 and "we have ski schoolers who've been coming back every year for 40 years."

According to Mugleston, Taos Ski School is unique in North America for its "Ski Weeks," offering intensive Sunday through Friday instruction. "We treat ski schoolers like athletes and our goal is to generate return clients." Because ski school can be packaged with stay at the St. Bernard Hotel, including meals and lift tickets, Mugleston says there is "great camaraderie and the formation of lifelong friendships."

For those who have less than a week to spare, Taos Ski School offers 8-hour Weekend Ski Camps with two hours of instruction on Friday, four on Saturday and two on Sunday.

Back to the topic of steepness, Mugleson recounts this story: Ernie Blake was director of the Taos Ski School until the day he died in 1989. Every morning he'd gather the ski instructors at the base and once, as a small avalanche was being cleared from the bunny run he said dryly, "Taos Ski Valley is the only ski mountain I'm aware of where the beginner hill avalanches regularly."