Snowboards at Taos

By Peter Kray

One of skiing’s last alpine shrines has opened its pews to the pagans. On December 14, the same day Taos Ski Valley opened for its 2007 season with a magnificent 70-inch base, a spokesman announced that beginning March 19, 2008 snowboarders are welcome.

“While there are many reasons why we have chosen this season to make such a significant change to our company’s policy, the foremost factor is we feel simply that it is time,” Mickey, Adriana and Alejandro Blake, the son and grandkids of ski area founders Ernie and Rhode Blake said in a statement.

Others said, “It’s about time.”

One of the last no-snowboard holdouts – along with Alta and Deer Valley in Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont – Taos was always said to be too steep, narrow and full of traverses to ever be compatible with sideways sliding; all while skiers and snowboarders from Alaska to New Zealand were carving the same terrain. Rumors were rife that Ernie asked his offspring to take an oath to stay ski-only, and New Mexico riders mounted a ‘Free Taos’ bumper sticker campaign. Their sense of disenfranchisement remains. Upon hearing the news that the white powdered gates to Kachina Peak were at last swinging open, one Santa Fe-based rider said, “After all this, I’m not paying them.”

Whether you think of Taos as a storied two-plank parish finally sharing its peaks, or a small-minded mountain making a move 10 years too late, at the end it’s just an independent Rocky Mountain business making an independent business decision. Despite its worldwide fame, Taos is very much a mom-and-pop, or father, daughter and son operation. The family Blake is just as likely to be found in the marketing department, on the hill or hosting events as they are running the lift on a cold New Mexico night for under-the-lights inner-tubing. They have a unique product, and they marketed its authenticity by focusing on skiing. But in comparison to other areas that still say “no,” Taos is not surrounded by other areas that do allow snowboarding. Secluded in the steeps of northern New Mexico, its no-snowboard policy made it an increasingly unrealistic snow family destination.

In wake of the news, expect a lot of skiers to hit Taos for one last spotlight dance this season. And beginning in March, expect a lot of homegrown Taos snowboarders to finally start ripping up their local mountain. Also expect those riders that said they’d stay away. They won’t be able to resist after all their buddies keep coming home saying, “Dude, it’s awesome.”