What a strange winter. The 2025/26 season is shaping up to be a record bad year for snow in Colorado.
From everything I’ve read, the midwest and eastern U.S. are experiencing a deep freeze but here in the west, January and February have felt more like early spring than winter. And that’s a problem. Western lakes and rivers and subsequently, agriculture and cities depend on melting winter snow pack for their summer water supply. No snow, no water. No water, no anything. Not to mention the increased fire danger. It’s something you become acutely aware of living in the west.
I found this chart on the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services website that sums things up rather grimly. The black line in the chart below shows that through February 18, the state’s “snow water equivalent” for the 2025/26 season is below the lowest that has been measured since 2003.
As for recreation, this has meant only a handful of ski days for us. Monarch is open but the snow is thin and hard-packed. We haven’t been into the backcountry even once.
So, when some old friends from Houston who are now living in Tennessee called to say they were coming out to Taos we jumped at the chance to try something different. We knew the snow wasn’t much better there. With all the information available on the internet these days, there are no surprises when it comes to snow conditions. But it was a chance to check out some new scenery (first pic above) and to see some old friends for a few days. Taos is only a three-hour drive from Salida so we went on a search to find some New Mexico snow.
The Taos base. The ski area sits up against the north face of a steep-sided canyon and it’s known for its extreme inbounds terrain. There is plenty of other terrain to choose from but looking up from the base all you can see are a couple of black runs. From the look of this sign they were getting tired of answering the question, “Is that all there is?”.
Thin snow cover on Al’s run. Some black runs like this one were open but you were risking life, limb and equipment going down them. Given the conditions, we focused our activity on leisurely blue and green cruising.
The Hunzinker Bowl with the Kachina Peak lift and the closed double diamond terrain. Going to have to come back when all those rocks are covered.
Taos was founded in the 1950s by Swiss ski pioneer Ernie Blake. It was easy to find his influence to this day, particularly when it comes to dining. We stopped at the Bavarian for a hearty lunch of beer, bratwurst, goulash and apple strudel.
It was great to see our friends and experience some new terrain. I honestly can’t believe I grew up so close to Taos and had never skied there! Yeah, conditions weren’t the greatest but sometimes it’s just nice to get out in the mountain air. For us it was especially fun to experience the longer runs of a larger resort.
A week or so after returning home, a series of storms, the first in over a month, finally rolled through Colorado, dumping a foot of fresh powder in the high country over the course of three days. The snow finally found us!
The first sunny day after the storm was a Saturday, so I knew Monarch would be jam-packed with people. Instead, I headed to up to our local low-angle backcountry area, Snow Stake, for my first taste of fresh powder this season. It was glorious!
Dropping in from the top of Peak 11,701 with highway 50 far below.
We’re still way behind on snow for the season but here’s to hoping that March and April continue a precipitation trend that gets us closer to normal. Sometimes you just have to be patient and wait for the snow to find you!