Ski Santa Fe — Attraction in Santa Fe

NEVER BE THE SAME!! - It’s been a rough year for us all. Economic uncertainty, loss/heartache, and war. But my friends husband has probably had it the worst, I will explain later. So his wife came up with idea to take him skiing for New Years. His father used to take him to Keystone as a kid but it look hella busy so she decided to try Breckinridge. But it also looked hella busy so she finally settled on ski Santa Fe. Forecast said it was dumping fresh pow pow. Fun right? Wrong! There was something the forecast could have never predicted. He woke up bright eyed this morning with a light in his eyes that we haven’t seen in years. He was on top of the world and soon to be on top of the mountain shredding gnar gnar in memory of his dad who passed away this summer from a fart attack. The doc said diabetes but I’m not listening to that quack. RIP Frank! The service was beautiful. And the salmon sliders were 🤌 But to our surprise we were ushered off the mountain because of a GAS LEAK! Are you kidding me? Is this some sort of cruel cosmic joke. Did his ex-wife Sheryl know we were coming and sabotaged us like she did Spring ‘07 Lake Havasu? SHEEEEERYYYLLLL!! But no I checked the gps tracking device I left in Sheryl’s jacket pocket at the twins 31st birthday. Theme? You guessed it: Brotherly Love. Anyway so I know Sheryl was nowhere near the mountain this morning. She was at Kroger. Probably pickup up her hip medication for her cat Henry. As soon as the fire alarm went off it was utter pandemonium. Confusion soon struck the face of every employee which quickly turned into fear. My friends husband was using the restroom at the time and was ripped away from the stall by an unruly employee abusing their power which caused him to leave a trail of “yellow” and staining the new shirt Donna got him for Christmas using the JCrew gift certificate her secret Santa got her last year at the company Christmas party. And guess who was next to him at the stall when all this happened? You got it. Ryan McDoyl. His middle school bully who used to call him little Jacky Piss His Pants. While being escorted out of the lodge Ryan McDoyl yet again led a chorus of other fellow skiers in a little Jacky Piss His Pants acapella medley with Bohemian Rhapsody and Ghost by Justin Bieber that at times was quite beautiful and at other subverted what you thought was possible with the human voice. After being ushered off the mountain by an angry little Sheriff with an angry little mustache my friends husband ran home and has been hiding and crying in the walk-in closet of our Air BnB’s spare room. Alan got the main room cause of his recent injury suffered in what he thought was a manhunt but ended up just being a process server trying to serve him his divorce papers. That’s why I’m leaving this 4 star review. My friends husband will never be the same! My ski boots were a little...

Problems with Ski Santa Fe: They do a haphazard job of grooming the uphill road in the mornings to the ski resort, so almost every morning cars inevitably lose traction and slip on ice/snow while going up the mountain. Those cars often turn sideways and accidentally stop traffic on both narrow lanes, sometimes for hours, until they are rescued. This happens almost every morning during high season (Dec & Jan). The afternoons are fine, but the morning crew is rushed and leaves large patches of dangerous ice on a windy mountain with a narrow road. Ski Santa Fe is designed for small crowds and are experiencing severe growing pains right now. There are separate lines for each stop that average around 30 minutes for each line in high season. There are approximately 4 different lines in which to wait (obtain the forms, pay for rental equipment, pay for lift tickets in a completely separate location, and get the equipment (with separate lines for the boots, skis, boards, poles and/or helmets)), so the time from arrival to Ski Santa Fe until the time on the mountain can be more than 2 hours, (This is after waiting in line on the mountain for rescue crews to help the stuck cars on the road). The room to change into boots, skis, boards...etc. is tiny and people are so packed that they end up poking each other with poles/skis. There is never a place to sit down to change into the equipment. The ski instructors for kids have way too many kids in classes and many of them are not attentive. Instructors can have up to 12 kids in a session, and seem to lose kids too often. They take complete beginners on the lifts and then do not wait to make sure all the kids make it on the lift. Instead they ski down with the more advanced kids in their class while the beginners are left halfway up the mountain terrified and in tears with no-one around to help them. The instructors seem more interested in skiing and enjoying themselves rather than teaching, and unfortunately there are way too many kids that end up injured and hate skiing. Instead of helping kids that have fallen on the mountain, the instructors will either yell, "get out of the way", or else just ski past them. As a result, there are far too many beginner injuries on this mountain. The cafeteria lines average an hour during lunchtime and there is not enough room to sit inside, so most skiers/boarders have to take their lunch outside and eat somewhere. 6.Too many of the staff seem overworked and unhappy, so are not always friendly, particularly to new skiers.

On the plus side, in months other than December or January, the slopes are not too crowded and the mountain...

New review: 13-18 Feb 2025

what used to be a lovely, peaceful place with few people has now turned into a total disaster. Thanks to classic American capitalism, it's overcrowded, and today, parking was a joke. With 500,000 cars, we had to park way out in the middle of nowhere, even though it’s technically on the resort's lot.

Queues were endless at the gates, and all for 125US$ daily ski ticket. In 2025, it's clear that:

1. Americans have more money than sense
2. This this place is now competing with the most pretentiously expensive places in Denver.

For the same price, you could ski for three days in Europe, and have a far better experience.

Totally disgusted and disappointed. Santa Fe Ski Resort, you’re fired

This review refers to 26 Feb - 4 March 2021

The resort mentions there are 20% beginners, 40% intermediate and 40% expert

Unfortunately the definition of Expert should be read: abandoned areas where rocks, woods and plants are coming out”. Those areas should be closed for safety reasons: with all those rocks and hard bumps everywhere, there is a serious danger of damaging the skiis and even worse breaking your neck ( see photos of areas)

Whenever you see the sign “unmarked obstacles” you should read :”this piste should have been closed but we decided not to”.

I doubt that areas are even patrolled at all and wonder who will come rescue you if in need, given nobody is seen on those

So the Diamond pistes which should be for experts do not translate with the European black piste. It translates in: ”abandoned area”.

Absolute to avoid: Molly Hogan, Burro Alley, Wizard and lower Wizard, pope snow ( no piste here but free fall among trees and rocks) Central Park ( disappeared), Raven, upper Thunderbird, ...

Now we need to mention that the snow is very little. All in all the price of 88$ seems just too high: as it stands today you can ski on 35% of the slopes - when you remove the beginner and neck breaking abandoned slopes. Price seems too expensive for the remainder of 20 decent pistes.

Apart from this, the site enjoys fewer people than many other places (i.e. overrated Colorado) beautiful skies and very friendly and...