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Sipapu Ski & Summer Resort

2.7 (82 reviews)
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2021-22 Winter Trail Map for Sipapu in Carson National Forest
Shannon B.

This review is strictly of the alpine ski experience at Sipapu. We've never used the lodging at this resort, although I've read that they offer some killer deals for those seeking a bargain in lodging and don't mind a basic hostel-ish place to sleep. I'm also offering some grace when it comes to things Sipapu and every other seasonal business cannot control at the moment: a global pandemic, the great resignation, and the warmest year on record in the last 125 years. Now that the disclaimers are out of the way.... As a once-every-2-years kind of skier from Texas, I've tried just about every ski resort available in New Mexico, and almost always during the most crowded times of the year (Thanksgiving Break, Winter Break, and Spring Break) when the students in our family are out of school and able to travel. We want a variety of green slopes, fewer people, less obnoxious tourist behavior, and no dare-devils racing down the slopes. For our money, Sipapu offers all of this and at prices that are much less than the other Enchanted Circle resorts (Angel Fire, Red River, and Taos). No one comes to Sipapu to show off, they come to have a family-friendly, "no frills" ski or snowboarding experience. In the 2021-22 season, kids 5th grade and younger ride the lifts for free. FREE. Our kid has aged out of that deal, but we were able to ski over Christmas this year for 2 full days with full equipment rental (including helmets, unlimited lift rides, and rental insurance) for $86/day per person. That is unheard of for non-locals over major holidays in our 20+ years of skiing experience. Be sure to reserve and purchase online https://store.sipapu.ski/ in advance for the best prices. The distance from Taos is not too bad, about 24 scenic miles out on Highway 518. It can be a bit hairy during heavy snow and ice, so plan for the right vehicle and cautious driving. We prefer staying in Taos in a comfy VRBO or AirBnB walkable to the Plaza, then doing the drive out to Sipapu for our ski days. We choose Sipapu over Taos Ski Valley for the more relaxed, beginner-level atmosphere. I'd classify our family as "experienced beginners" in that we know how to use our equipment, get on and off a lift, recover from a fall, and abide by the safety rules of the trail. We've been skiing for decades, but we don't get a chance to do it very often. So, we usually spend our first day of a ski trip just getting used to how everything works, acclimating to altitude, and gaining confidence on our skis. The second day is for tons of fun skiing greens until we are too tired to go again. If we can afford a 3rd day, some of our more fearless family members may start taking blue runs. By day 4, it's usually time to get on the road to go home. The 41 runs over 215 skiable acres at Sipapu are perfect for us, with plenty of green and blue slopes to keep us entertained and a decent separation of the few black diamond trails so that the speed demons are less likely to run us over. The season at Sipapu is said to be the longest in New Mexico, from November to April on a "normal" year. Unfortunately, increasing annual average temperatures and drought conditions mean that we can't count on that stretch any more. In the last 2 weeks of December 2021, only 2 of the 6 lifts were running and most snow was man-made on the 3 green runs available. Thanks, global warming! We still had a great time, but it would have been amazing with natural snow and more terrain to cover. Next time, we'll plan for a February or March trip to be on the safe side. Other good to knows: Arrive early if you are renting equipment; the shop opens 1 hour before the lifts. Go to the kiosk nearest parking to activate your party's lift passes and then proceed to the equipment pickup line. You'll have 3 stops: boots and helmet fitting, ski pickup, and poles pickup (if you're using those). Ask for your poles in the first stop and you won't have to go back. It gets kind of chaotic in there, so stay focused but be kind to the harried staff for the best experience. Lockers for your belongings are outside the exit of the ski fitting area. Bring quarters for those. We managed to fit 3 sets of adult snow boots in one 50¢ locker but YMMV. Of course, you can always put your stuff back into your car, as parking isn't far away. Food and drinks (typical fast food) must be ordered online https://food.sipapu.ski/ during COVID. Someone will have to go upstairs to pickup the order, and stairs in ski boots with full hands is... an adventure, lol. Save some dough by packing a picnic cooler in your car, but don't skip the hot cocoa - it's so good on a cold day. I don't recommend bringing a brand new 1st time skier here to learn. Lessons and service levels are likely better at one of the larger resorts during the holiday season crowds. Come back to Sipapu when your group is ready for some independent skiing on more challenging greens.

We LOVE Sipapu Ski. We have season passes and our own gear, so that helps speed up the process. However anytime I have had to rent or communicate with ticketing, they were efficient and always very kind! Also, guys, this mountain is way too affordable. We don't deserve to be able to ski a fun homey mountain for such great prices. I am extremely thankful for this little mountain! Just be kind and understanding of the folks working there, treat them with respect and they will absolutely return the love. On the subject of lodging - I have not ever stayed there. We stay in Santa Fe and drive up the mountain. Santa Fe has fantastic food and shopping and the drive up has always been very doable. Love you Sipapu!

Outside the lodge
Dillon L.

A good ski/snowboard resort for beginners! It's cheaper than other resorts (know you get what you pay for in that it's much smaller and if you're more advanced you will go through all the runs quickly). FYI purchase online for cheaper lift tickets. As others have said, set expectations that this resort is on the smaller side. They did run out of the boot size we needed the first day and lunch lines were very long. But if you can overlook these for the lower price then it is worth the trip for sure. I think it's the perfect spot for first timers since you probably won't be going down the more advanced runs at a bigger resort. Pro tip: going up the longer lift and going down the green route (Sassafras?) is the best practice route imo. It's long enough to get some practice without having to go up the lift again and you can do short blues to shortcut the green if you wanna push yourself. In short: it's cheap with no frills. Worth a first visit and then you can decide if you wanna come back.

Sadly altitude sickness got the best of me but Megan was the best! Great experience on the mountain with sickness aside.
Ryan W.

I accompanied my pals who've been coming here since the 70's. Unfortunately the water pipes froze in the first 2 casitas they booked us in but they sorted us out within minutes! Greg the handyman was exceptional and Megan in the customer service cabin was a real gem. I was laid up in bed Mon-Wed of our 5day stay. Life happens. C'est la vie!!!

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It's the cheapest in the area. Laid back workers and enough challenges to help you grow your ability quickly

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1 year ago

DIRTY NOT safe NOT handicapped friendly Rotten wooden s broken stairs poor heat misleading description of the accommodation

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Review Highlights - Sipapu Ski & Summer Resort

Santa Fe has fantastic food and shopping and the drive up has always been very doable.

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Angel Fire Resort - View from summit

Angel Fire Resort

2.7(125 reviews)
22.2 mi

They should take resort out of the name. Having traveled plenty abroad and domestically this place…read morefelt like a motel 6 at high prices. I paid around $300/night for a room that was in need of a lot of TLC (see pics). Motel 6 might be nicer???? I mean it's been a while since I frequented one of those for a high school party?!?!? The heat was horrible. Our room was so hot! We had the 1970's unit turned off but the room stayed tundra hot. We had maintence come one day 2. After all of one minute he said IDK and left??? We had a box fan on high the entire time as well as windows open when it felt okay (the car exhaust from the parking lot prohibited that at times. There was zero security. None of the rooms on the left side (when facing the place) on the "resort" were locked. I take that back. One was locked but only because it was broken and wouldn't open at all (door 2). This place will nickel and dime you to death! Food and drink is ridiculous. $4-5/soda, $18-$20 for chicken nuggets or burger with fries (my kids told me their school food was better?!?!?). And lose the keycard...that's $35 for each lost key. My kids held on to those with their lives!!! And the keycards barely worked. I stopped counting the number of times we had to the keycards rekeyed. Ugh. The pool and hot tub are surrounded by slippery tile. Super smart?!?!? And my youngest kid got a rash from the hot tub. Thank goodness Ed's I had hydrocortisone cream. When the bubbles aren't going the hot tub is cloudy. Ick! And if you want to talk to management. Good luck! You'll have to EMAIL to talk to them. The boots I rented sliced my shins all to hell after one hour ski school. The rental place tried to blame it on my attire (having more than my socks in the boot). Nope, I watched the Angel Fire video on what to wear. I never got a sorry. Here's a free $5 soda on us. NOTHING. And the final item that secured us take time out of my day to write this review. I was waiting on someone to back out of a parking sport at El Jefe to eat. A surfer looking dude told me to move cause I was holding up traffic. I pointed the the car pulling out. He said he didn't care. As I'm old and give zero eeffs...I sat there and waited. After looking at the menu we didn't eat there. So I could have saved myself the heartache. But man...the staff. So the staff...a good portion are drifters from hotel to hotel during the season. A lot sound like CHEECH. Most don't give any thought to your experience or satisfaction, with the exception of the ski instructors. I will said Daniel was the bees knees!!! And after hours the staff like to hang at the overpriced diners onsite and talk about their hippie beliefs such as queerness and Trump. As if my kids need to hear any of that? As if I care??? And maybe I'd like a seat at the bar, but there weren't any due to the staff. David- your bias is showing. I didn't say anything about anyone's ethnicity or politics. I said keep the staff's political views away from my KIDS. The staff talked about THEIR political beliefs in guest spaces. I could not care less what the staff think politically. I do care if my 11 & 13 yo have to hear it at dinner in the only restaurant open for dinner inside the lodge. I also didn't say anything about ethnicity. But since you bring it up...the folks I interacted with were all white. I was pointing out they all seem like stoners. The part about roaming from resort to resort was a topic I asked the 6 staffers sitting at the bar while waiting on my family to arrive so I could move to a table. I specifically asked how they started working at Angel Fire. Those are their words. I went ahead and changed my stats to a 1 based on your response. After reading your Google reviews too this place is hit or miss. For the prices there should only be hits.

My review is solely on the tubing experience. They didn't have a lot of snow so the slides were…read moreterrible. Several of us would only make it 1/3 or barely half way down the hill and had to walk the rest of it each time. Worst tubing experience ever! They had to spray our tubes with oil but that didn't even work.

Photos
Angel Fire Resort - Our balcony view

Our balcony view

Angel Fire Resort - Back of the hotel-ski area

Back of the hotel-ski area

Angel Fire Resort

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Taos Ski Valley - Lift 1

Taos Ski Valley

4.2(112 reviews)
31.0 mi

Taos Ski Valley deserves an enthusiastic 5-star review, at least from the focus of this review on…read moretheir incredible Youth Ski School. Our 9-year-old son's first skiing experience was nothing short of amazing, thanks to the exceptional staff who provided not only quality instruction but also positive reinforcement throughout. Really nice twenty-something kids who could probably ski in their sleep did an outstanding job supporting every kid... including kids like ours who were strapping on skis for the first time in their lives. What truly set this ski school apart was the unwavering positivity - no negative words were uttered to any child in the classes. Even in a year with minimal natural snow, the instructional facilities at Taos Ski Valley were top-notch, well groomed and maintained. The progressive teaching approach ensured that our son, along with his fellow students, developed their skills steadily. By the end of the day, they were confidently riding up the Gondolina, pointing their skis to stop quickly, making strong turns, and enjoying a thrilling ski run down the hill. The natural beauty of Taos Ski Valley--despite the 9 degree temperature when we arrived in the morning!-- served as a breathtaking backdrop to our son's introduction to skiing, enhancing the overall experience. After just one lesson, our son is now completely hooked on the sport. We highly recommend Taos Ski Valley's Youth Ski School for its exceptional instructors, positive environment, world class facilities, and the perfect blend of instruction and enjoyment that turned our son into a skiing enthusiast after just one day. It was truly an amazing experience.

Review from folks who are used to Colorado skiing: Taos ski valley is way less crowded, commercial,…read moreor trendy. Good ole fashioned skiing. Some of the hotels/lodging on the mountain are lovely but we didn't stay there due to higher cost. We stayed in El Prado, about a 30 minute drive, however, it's a beautiful drive. Of course, we wish there had been more snow but that's the case everywhere out west in December-January 2025-2026 or so it seems. Either way, the consensus from our party was that we would return here to ski again.

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Taos Ski Valley - Kid had an amazing time!

Kid had an amazing time!

Taos Ski Valley - Ski school for the youngest!  First time and he's doing well.

Ski school for the youngest! First time and he's doing well.

Taos Ski Valley - Snowboarding lessons with Larsen!

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Snowboarding lessons with Larsen!

Red River Ski  & Summer Area - Saturday fireworks.

Red River Ski & Summer Area

3.7(56 reviews)
38.9 mi

Had the absolute best time despite the terrible spring break snow conditions. The free kids…read moretorchlight night ski was so fun for my 7 year old. Even provided free hot dogs and chips for the family. Super friendly staff! The 7 year old ski school experience was much more impressive than the Buckaroo half day for my 4 year old. Wouldn't recommend that one. 7-12 ski school was amazing. I would recommend skiing here and I'm happy they made it work for the spring breakers despite bad snow conditions.

The mountain itself is great, but the website is hands‑down one of the worst I've ever used. We've…read morespent HOURS just trying to reserve tubing spots, and the entire process is a mess from start to finish. Creating accounts is painfully slow, and you're forced to assign a separate email to every single person. After jumping through all those hoops, the site still refuses to move anything to the cart. The worst part is that it doesn't even tell you what's wrong -- it just silently fails. When we finally called, we were told there are only a limited number of tubing spots available. That's fine... but the website doesn't show availability, doesn't warn you, and apparently just deletes your account attempts if the spots are gone. How is that acceptable in 2026? We've wasted hours fighting a system that should take five minutes. The mountain is fun, but the website is embarrassingly outdated and absolutely needs a complete overhaul. Please fix your website. It's ruining what should be an easy, enjoyable experience

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Red River Ski  & Summer Area
Red River Ski  & Summer Area
Red River Ski  & Summer Area

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Pajarito Mountain

Pajarito Mountain

3.3(18 reviews)
50.4 mi

The Los Alamos Ski Club no longer owns Pajarito Mountain. While the club originally founded and…read morebuilt 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.

First time skiing, total success! I signed up for a lesson, rentals and a full day lift pass…read more 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!

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Pajarito Mountain - Me chillin on da lift

Me chillin on da lift

Pajarito Mountain
Pajarito Mountain - Beginner lift, plenty high and steep enough for me!

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Beginner lift, plenty high and steep enough for me!

Sandia Peak Tramway

Sandia Peak Tramway

4.1(595 reviews)
84.6 miEastside

This was an awesome experience to ride the 2nd longest tram in the world up to the top!…read more First of all, the day we rode was the 60th annual celebration of the tram. Thus, our tickets were all 50% off. We found out we'd be riding the third generation. It's been so long since I last visited the tram that I probably rode the second generation. It's roomy! Even with the 60th celebration, our wait wasn't extremely long. I believe there are about 30 people on each ride, but I didn't count. I was hoping I didn't feel crammed and it wasn't too bad. Once you're up there, it's amazing to be so far above the ground. On the way up, our 'captain' gave us a bit of trivia about the area, the tram, and our trip up. At some point, you'll pass the other tram coming down, which gives you an idea of how fast you're really going! Wow. Once at the top, it's about 10 degrees cooler. Bring a light jacket or sweatshirt. You can choose to hike a trail that begins on the back side of the restaurant. You'll see the ski lifts and options for different hikes. OR, you can grab a drink from the Ten 3 restaurant and check out the views. We put our name on the list to eat and sipped on cocktails during the wait. It was nice and relaxing up there at the top! We ate at Ten 3 (our wait was 30 minutes) then made our way down. Our guide on the way down didn't say a word, but I suppose it's the same as the way up. There's only one bench on the tram so if you have trouble standing make sure you let it be known. My mom sat going and coming. When you're back at the bottom there's another restaurant if you'd like to eat there instead. They also have a gift shop with some Sandia Tramway, and Albuquerque memorabilia. It's a cute shop. I bought a few items. It's a nice trip. I've ridden before, but it's been so long I don't even remember. Check it out.

The Sandia peak tramway takes you ~10k feet up the mountain from where you can view the Albuquerque…read morecity limits and surrounding mountain ranges. You can purchase tickets online for a two hour window to ride the tramway up. After that you can spend as much time as you like at the peak before heading back down. We bought our tickets for the 3-5 PM window which is a popular slot as many people like to watch the sunset from the top. It is a gorgeous sight to watch the sunset from the peak and even more so as the lights turn on throughout the city below. It was also very cold in December so make sure you bundle up before taking the tram. One drawback is that the tram only runs every 15 minutes and there's a huge live to go back down after the sunset. It was almost an hour's wait to take the trip back.

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Sandia Peak Tramway
Sandia Peak Tramway - Nice looking couple

Nice looking couple

Sandia Peak Tramway

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Sipapu Ski & Summer Resort - skiresorts - Updated July 2026

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