The Los Alamos Ski Club no longer owns Pajarito Mountain. While the club originally founded and built the ski area in the 1950s, it transferred management to a resort group in 2014 and sold almost all the land and infrastructure to Mountain Capital Partners in 2018. Despite selling the resort, the Los Alamos Ski Club maintains strong ties to the mountain and club members actively volunteer for trail clearing and forest maintenance. Despite the long and winding trip up the Mountain, Gayle and I enjoyed the scenery as we drove up the parking lot to take a look. It no longer looks like the family-run operation of years past, but it remains formable and maybe worth a special winter trip to check it out again. read more

Pajarito Mountain - Ski Resorts Near Me - Los Alamos, New Mexico

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First time skiing, total success! I signed up for a lesson, rentals and a full day lift pass. Paid $172 for everything. Started at the rentals, they already had my skis and poles out and labelled, went up and got my boots, made a quick exchange for a size up- ski boots are hard to put on! Then rented a locker for our shoes (which when we came back proved to be unnecessary since everyone just leaves their shoes on the ground) Walked over to the lesson area and got placed in a group of beginners based on our zero skill level. They had a few other groups for those with more experience. We went through a ton of drills- one foot in, then the other, then will both. Worked on pizza/French fry positioning, wedge turns and horizontal climbs. Then headed to the magic carpet- would have been nice to be told what to expect when exiting - just stay loose and upright and walk out when off the belt. With 30 mins left of the lesson, I asked if we were going to go up the beginners lift, the instructor was psyched to take the three of us older kids The instructor slowed the lift for getting on and off to make it easier. Then taught us how to use the wedge turns to navigate down the mountain. Had a great time and feeling super accomplished! Couple notes- I bought ski pants/bib thing, went with a few layers on top with a rain jacket over, good gloves and regular sunglasses. Felt very comfortable and warm and happy I didn't spend any more on gear. For the food, you'll be better off bringing your own cooler. You can eat outside food in the lodge and they don't have alcohol, so if you're looking for a midday beer, you should bring some with you. I should have just got the beginner lift tickets, I wasn't ready after one lesson for anything else Overall great day and would totally come back! read more

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This an old school mountain. The reason I came is this is the mountain that the scientists at Los Alamos built to ski. The Los Alamos ski club has expanded it over the last 75 years. They have plenty of terrain for every ski level. Some challenging bump runs. Warm weather and reduced snow pack in places limited what was open but I enjoyed myself and everyone was very friendly. A good value for your buck especially during the week. read more

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Our family skied here today and plan to go back tomorrow again. We're visiting with our power pass from Arizona Snowbowl and figured we try the other "approved" mountains as we work our way to Taos. We didn't expect much, but got much more than we anticipated! I love the long green runs to chase my kids on. They're so much better than the standard straight downs that most resorts offer. You can manage on greens only from every lift. One lift was closed, but we tried the rest and kept coming back to those greens that curve around the mountain. The lifts could be faster or at least offer a bit more padding, but being a smaller mountain, we didn't expect much. The lodge is great! I love the picnic tables to squeeze in and not have to deal with chairs getting moved all around. There's a water fountain in there as well to fill your bottles. The food offerings are pretty reasonable and super yummy. I had the large bowl chili verde and kept it vegetarian. It came with a huge tortilla for about $7.75. My kids split a burger and my husband had a burrito. Total cost was about $24. They even have kid hot dogs and kid meals for $3.50. Of course you can always bring your own food, which we will do tomorrow. There's a little shop to buy helmet stickers for the kids. Great little mountain. I'd be stoked if this were our home mountain! read more

No waiting in line, challenging terrain, and friendly staff--what more could you want? If you are in the market for a no frills ski experience at 1/2 the price of other hills, this is your place. I took 16 turns in 4 hrs today!! If I skied faster, it would have been more! Ski hill is definitely 5 stars. Lodge and lunch gets 3. Average is 4!! read more

"6 groomed runs!" sounds great until you figure out they must have been groomed days ago because it was so icy. They are not open Mon-Wed. I went on a Thursday and only one chair was open to access anything other than the beginner hill. They advertise on their website how they are much better now. They must have been truly terrible before. To it's credit, there was hardly anyone here, of course why go when only one chair other than the beginner chair is open. They manage it small time, it will stay small time. read more

This is a very good hill for beginning skiers to learn on. I am saving soooo much $$$ on this mountain when compared to Santa Fe that I can pay for the private lessons for my boy. Next year I'll spend the money on myself. Food in the lodge is excellent, but they seem to routinely run out of offerings. You're welcome to bring your own, but there is no microwave. Complaints about single ticket window are true, expect to spend an hour from the parking lot to the lift if you need to purchase your ticket on the morning of. Try to get your lift ticket online. This hill would easily rate a fourth star if the corporate operations would splurge for more staff and knock off the half-priced season passes to help pay for it. Oh, that's another thing, the operator may sell half-price season tickets in the fall if you have the patience. read more

Great little ski mountain that I am proud to call my home mountain. It is a no frills place. The lifts are old and uncomfortable. The mountain was essentially all-volunteer until a few years ago, and it is often a bit understaffed. It is really a local ski hill, and most people in town have a pass and their own gear. So when the holidays arrive and a ton of people come in from out of town to go skiing, the ticket office and rental shop can get a bit overwhelmed. This happens at a lot of mountains, but Pajarito in particular can get really slow. Solution: Get there early, well before the lifts open. I do this anyhow as I like to eat a burrito and drink a coffee on the deck before I start skiing. The advice to get up there well ahead of lift opening is good advice for any mountain if you need tickets/gear. When the snow is good, the skiing is terrific. Not crowded, lots of decent intermediate runs, and there are a few steep bump runs that can compete with almost any steep bump run in New Mexico. The views from the top are fantastic. I've been up there on powder days where I never waited once in a lift line. It can get a little bit busy over the holidays, but it is still completely empty compared to most places on holiday weekends. 4 stars only because of the perilously outdated lifts, and the lack of tree skiing. Aspen Lift is okay, and Townsight is great (but almost never open), but Lone Spruce and Mother are relics. Tree skiing used to be better, but a couple of fires and a drought have cost this place a lot of trees. The glades are riddled with deadfall that makes venturing off-piste a dicey proposition. Every year it gets a little bit better but it's going to be a long time before it fully recovers. read more

Cute little place. Can be slow to get rentals and tickets since not many people work there. Our first instructor was pretty bad but second one was great. Slopes are challenging for us beginners. I have met people that came after skied in Santa Fe for more challenging slops. Price can't be beat. I saved so much $$$ on lessons, rentals and lift tickets. Always check online to see if they have any special rates. We will be back for more next season! read more

For beginner snowboarders, the bunny hills are a little steep (compared to Santa Fe/Sandia). The beginner lift is extremely low, so getting off the lift is a little challenging. The good thing is it isn't crowded (which means no long lines for lifts!). Smaller mountain overall, compared to Santa Fe. read more

I'll start with some cons: *It's not extremely advanced *Cafe food is a bit overpriced Other than that, I LOVE THIS PLACE!! My entire family learned to ski here. The way they are rated it difficulty is sort of weird, because Greens on this mountain feel like they would be Blues on most other mountains (except for the beginner hill and jeep trails and stuff like that) and Double Blacks here feel more like a Black (the higher end of difficulty on a Black, but still). Every run feels like it has it's own "personality" and no runs on this mountain feel the same. For biking, I have no experience. I am not a biker, though I have heard decent things about biking here. Whether you live in Los Alamos or out, I highly recommend this wonderful, beautiful, unique, little gem of a ski area. read more

Pajarito... was excited to come and snowboard with my friends family. Got up bright and early to hit the slopes. As we traveled up the mountain we saw the ski area and couldn't wait to get out and have a wonderful day. Parking was wonderful. As we approached the ticket counter it was full... anddd there was only ONE ticket counter open, just one! It's New Year's Day and I would assume that since it's ALSO winter break there would be more ticket windows open... but no. We all 30 or sum people waited outside in the cold and crowd. Of course as you know or maybe not, you're hungry after hitting the slopes for about 3 hours. We head over to the cafe and find that they don't have anything. No French fries, large frito pie, and a variety of their sodas are unavailable. It also has been at least 35 minutes sitting waiting for our food. Very upset with the service. OH! and... The trashcans are overflowing and disgusting. Thx Pajarito read more

SO fun. We went two weeks in a row on Wednesdays. Awesome! Employees are nice. Conveyor belt was running the second visit. Parking is easy and super close. Beginner ski area is right next to lodge as you pull up. So is ticket counter. Further into lot is close to Aspen ski lift. First time we went brought our own skis rented in Santa Fe. Saw how little people were around and decided to rent directly from Pajarito the next week. Super easy and quick. In and out in 10 min! We rolled in about 11am. Great day of skiing! Spent most of the time on beginner lift, but also did Aspen lift a couple times. Aspen lift took us to top of mountain. Gorgeous! Then took the long road to the LEFT. If you're beginner like us, follow green signs that say Easiest. Zero East Road goes way left, then back to right and sends you to beginner lift again. Great ski resort! read more

I would rate it a zero, but one is the lowest. They like to only open one window for tickets, lessons, and rentals. Prepare to spend over an hour in line if you don't have a season pass. It may be cheap, but it's not worth it. read more

This ski area clearly does not care about its customers. In addition to ricketly chair lifts that don't feel safe, on the busiest day of the year, they have 1 ticket window open. I waited for an hour before giving up and there were lots of folks who had 2 hour wait. Why the ski area didn't plan of this and have at least one other window open shows a total lack of consideration for their valuable customers. We have lots of other ski areas in No New Mexico. We, and namely, me, does not have to put up with this poor and lacking managment. read more

This is a review of the bike park. Like a different reviewer said recently, a lot of the trails are somewhat overgrown and rutted, and you should go to Angelfire if you want high speed flow. Pajarito, on the other hand, has about six of the steepest and nastiest fall-line downhill trails I've seen. It's a great change of pace from parks where everything is meant to be approachable by most riders. I thought $25 for a day pushing my limits was just about perfect. read more

Worst bike park I have ever visited. Save yer coin and go to Angel Fire. Trails overgrown. Told this to one of the Bike Patrol guys and his response was come and volunteer... Wait I just paid money to ride here?!?!? I understand they just received $500k to make trails. Hopefully they put it to good use. read more

Get out of town for lunch. 10 minutes to the Pajarito Ski Hill for lunch on the beautiful deck surrounded by Aspen & Pine. Food is simple but view of Los Alamos is fabulous. Of course this is New Mexico... the view stretches on forever... read more