pajarito

Nathan and I decided to go ski at Pajarito Ski area on Sunday after we realized I left my Santa Fe pass in the Audi, which is at the shop in Santa Fe. Pajarito is Los Alamos' ski area, and is kind of small and very low-key. It also was nice and quiet, and we had most of the runs to ourselves. it was really warm and sunny yesterday - I noticed at lunch that it was almost 50°F in the shade. The snow was softening up a lot, but the base is very deep so there is no worrying about obstacles like rocks yet.

Definitely starting to be spring skiing though - whenever we would be in areas that would be intermittently shaded, we would almost fall every time we slid across some sunny snow again - it just grabbed the bottom of the skis and slowed you down a lot. I learned to put my weight back each time I went through a sunny area. I think maybe I need to wax my skis a bit.

This was the second time ever I have paid to ski Pajarito. The other time I went was the last day of the season last year. The snow was horrific and fortunately they only charged me 10 bucks for the pleasure. It was mostly ice and rocks as I recall, plus I am a much better skiier this year. This year is much different - the area is staying open through the 10th, and i think last year it had closed by now. Mild El Nino winters rock! Usually we hike up there at lunch time for a run down the mountain. It was fun to actually ski all around the mountain for once and discover some different runs.

There is a fun run - a combo of Porcupine, Bob's Bowl, and Three Fingers (why is it three different runs i wonder) that we enjoyed a lot. It was a black diamond run that started off with a lot of trees at the top, then turns into bumps. We also enjoyed the groomed runs - they were a lot easier to ski in the morning than the ungroomed runs. The ungroomed runs had a real mix of snow - some felt like skiing through mashed potatoes, and Nathan said some of it felt like skiing through lumpy half-smashed potatoes. You had to really keep your weight on that back foot to keep from falling, and be kind of be aggressive about it.

This morning I felt really tired when the alarm went off - I need many more hours of sleep after a day of skiing. Also i can feel it in my legs. I need a hot tub.