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| So it's come to this: New Mexico courting frustrated Colorado skiers | |||
| Wednesday, January 04, 2012 09:30 |
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(Taos on Dec. 19. From the ski area's Facebook page.) By R. Scott Rappold, The Gazette So it’s come to this. Colorado considers itself to be the capitol of ski country USA, but as the industry struggles through the driest winter in 30 years, other states are trying to draw frustrated Colorado skiers. In New Mexico, which Coloradans dismiss as home to tiny ski areas with slushy southern snow, Taos Ski Valley is offering discounts for skiers with passes to Colorado resorts. The reason is snow. They have it. We don’t. “We actually saw lots of guests over the holidays who normally go to Vail or somewhere in Colorado,” said Taos marketing manager Adriana Blake. The area has received 103 inches of snow this season, with a 40-inch base and 90 percent of its terrain open. That’s twice as much as most Colorado resorts, which are subsisting on machine-made snow. Taos is offering $60 lift tickets, a $15 discount, for anyone who brings their Colorado ski area season pass. They began marketing the deal on Facebook and Front Range radio stations this week. “Southern Colorado is already kind of a market for us, but generally, Colorado skiers are like, ‘Oh, it’s too far away’,” Blake said. It’s about a four-hour drive from Colorado Springs, depending on how many rural highways you speed down. Many snowstorms have split before they hit the central Colorado Rockies this season, sending the snow to New Mexico or San Juan Mountain ski areas like Wolf Creek, which has gotten 200 inches of snow this year. The northern Rockies have also benefited. Montana’s Big Sky Resort has offered free skiing to holders of Vail Resorts’ popular EpicPass when they book lodging through the resort. So what does the future hold for Colorado skiers? Unfortunately, not much. The National Weather Service predicts warm dry weather to prevail through Saturday in the high country, when an upper-level system could bring a couple inches of snow. Boulder meteorologist Joel Gratz, who runs the ski-forecast website opensnow.com, said the approaching storm is splitting like the others, meaning only light snow for most of California, Utah and Colorado. It’s a weather “rut” that has put skiers in ruts too. “The pattern just hasn’t changed, which is a little disconcerting,” said Gratz. So what does a weatherman skier do? He went to northern Wyoming over the New Year’s holiday, and, he said, “I’m now starting to set my sights on British Columbia if I have to.”
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