Mountain Blog

James Coleman, Purgatory and Mountain Capital Partners managing partner, announced today that he will manage and operate Nordic Valley Ski Resort. The full release is enclosed below–here are a few things we’re really excited about:

Nordic Valley delivers the largest night skiing and snowboarding operation in Utah.

The snow–and skiing–in Utah is legendary. Located 25 miles from Ogden, Nordic Valley (and its 300 inches of snowfall every year) is right in the middle of it all.

Nordic Valley was immortalized as one of the best downhill training ski areas during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The ski area offers lift-served mountain biking and several miles of downhill trails.

There’s a 400-foot long slip-n-slide during ...

New! Open Every Weekend

In the summer, Pajarito Mountain is always open for hiking and cross-country biking, but lift-served hiking and biking will start every weekend from May 18th to October 28th plus:

Friday, May 18th 12pm-3pm for pre-riding the Rocky Mountain Race Series.   Monday, May 28, 9am-3pm for Memorial Day. Thursday, June 21, 4p-8 pm for Summer Solstice. Monday, September 3, 9am-3pm for Labor Day.

New! Mountain Bike Power Pass

The new Mountain Bike Power Pass comes with unlimited access to Pajarito Bike Park and Purgatory Bike Park. Looking to explore some new terrain? Mountain Bike Power Pass owners can also enjoy three FREE days at ...

Pajarito’s 18/19 season passes are on sale now and include more discounts and benefits than ever! Use this guide to help select the pass that’s right for you! If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at ski@pajarito.ski.

Worry-Free Payment Option: Pajarito is proud to offer no price increase over last year on select passes for the third year in a row! All Sipapu passes now include the payment plan option, regardless of which pass you purchase! With no interest and easy, automatic payments, it’s just one less thing you have to keep track of. Simply pay off your ...

Saturday, March 17 marks the 70th Skiesta Festival at Pajarito Mountain Ski Area, and we hope to see you on the mountain for the all day celebration. For all the details on spring’s most-anticipated (and FREE!) event, I’m turning this blog over to Susan Brockway, President of the Los Alamos Ski Club!

Skiesta is a long-standing tradition at Pajarito Mountain. The very first Skiesta was held in 1948 and featured music, costumes and a 50 cent hot dog lunch. Since it’s very humble beginnings, Skiesta has been a wacky spring event that celebrates the unique mountain culture of Los Alamos and the ...

Pajarito Mountain picked up 8″ of fresh snow overnight for a storm total of 10″ this week! Here are some photos from grooming this morning.

The Ski Patrol got out early to check out the conditions. The following photos were taken by our Ski Patroller, Eric Schaller this morning.

We are working on opening new terrain. Beginners’ West and Beginners’ East have been track packed.

 

More snow is in the forecast. Lifts start turning at 9 a.m. Wednesday–Sunday, and lift tickets are $24 for everyone. 

Grooming is an essential part of the mountain operations at Pajarito. It takes daily upkeep to keep the runs smooth and to preserve new snow. Grooming is very similar to mowing the lawn, a very steep lawn. It can take one cat two to three hours for a single run with 10-12 passes. Pajarito has three regular cats and one winch cat.  The regular cats can only groom blue and green trails while the winch cat is used to groom the steepest slopes.

Why is grooming important? Grooming the snow helps breaks up pockets of air trapped in the snow, and keeps ...

January is Learn to Ski and Snowboard month. Now, I may be a little biased, but I think and Pajarito Mountain is the best place in New Mexico to learn to ski and snowboard. Our mountain is unique for beginners because of the big increase in skill from the beginner area to the rest of the mountain. When beginners start skiing beyond the beginner area through the rest of the terrain, they can pretty much ski anywhere.

Brand New Magic Carpet Guests at Pajarito are really enjoying the brand new Magic Carpet surface lift. This fall, we said goodbye to our old ...

This week, temperatures and conditions have been ideal for snowmaking at Pajarito Mountain. And this morning, we got some extra encouragement from Mother Nature in the form of three inches of freshly fallen snow. This first snow of the winter season has us super motivated to continue working round-the-clock ensure the mountain is ready for our scheduled opening date, Saturday, December 16.

Our snowmaking crew is focusing on this terrain:

Top of Spruce Lift down Lone Spruce to Mushroom Run Out Zero Road East down to the Spruce Lift loading area Top of beginners’ chair over to Mushroom Run Out, including Mushroom Run Out Mushroom ...

Our brand new Magic Carpet conveyor lift is on the mountain!  We have completed all the prep work for the installation of the new surface lift, and are anxious to begin the actual construction of the lift.  Dirt work, electrical work and the reshaping of our Beginners’ Area are all complete, and the whole project is coming together.

Part of the pre-installation prep work has included expanding the loading area and constructing a retaining wall near the SnowSport School, doubling the size of the area that first-time skiers have get on the snow.

Completed Magic Carpet drive terminal pitSnowSports School expansion/retaining wall

Our state-of-the-art ...

We hope you had a chance or two to soak in the spectacular fall colors up at Pajarito Mountain. Autumn truly is a magical season in the Jemez Mountains. As for me and my winter mountain crew, we’ve been a bit spellbound by something else: Pajarito’s brand new Magic Carpet conveyor lift.

This winter, beginners will let go of the Mighty Mite handle tow and hop on a brand new Magic Carpet conveyor lift. In fact, Mighty Mite and the old lift house have been completely removed and we’ve started slope grading, foundation and electrical work in preparation for installation. The ...

Bike Park Director, Hogan Koesis, talks trail updates just in time for this weekend’s final lift-served biking and hiking of the season.

Fall is in the air and you should be too. Last day for catching a chair is Saturday, October 21st!  We’d love to see anybody and everyone there as this is the first time a trail building machine has been at the mountain for close to a month.  Dante and Jackie have been hard at it tuning and tweaking your favorite trails to be even better!  With landings being extended and broadened, turns getting widened and more supportive and ...

When guests at Pajarito Mountain feel this chill in the air, they indulge in all the richness of the changing season, from green chile on the side of everything to too-many pictures of oak, aspen and cottonwood leaves. But when our winter mountain crew feels this chill in the air, they visualize all lifts turning and first tracks down the Fab Four. Since last spring, we’ve been busy with snowmaking system infrastructure work, hazard tree removal, and chairlift, snowcat and lodge maintenance.

Photo by Peter Dickson

Snowmaking System

Last spring, the pond had been cleaned out and the liner completely repaired. We ...

Bike Park Director, Hogan Koesis, gives a fall mountain bike update:

For the first time ever, a machine will be at Pajarito from yesterday, through October 20. Dante and Jackie owner’s of Harmony Wolrd Wide LLC have been contracted to perform trail maintenance and enhancement for the following: Enhance Aspen for Trouble all the way down to the Chupacabra trail.  Enhancements will include trail widening, jump enhancement and corridor cleaning (cutting back deadfall). Enhance Aspenola trail for a more beginner friendly and smoother experience.  They will be focusing on water erosion and enhancing turns and merges on this trail.  Ultimately this trail is ...

Pajarito’s winter mountain crew pauses from ski-season preparations. But just for a moment.

Every visitor to Pajarito Mountain has a camera around their neck or their finger hovering over the camera icon on their phone at this time of year. And it’s no wonder. The changing season is spectacular up here in the Jemez Mountains. The oak, aspens and cottonwood trees show off their yellow, orange and red leaves to everyone’s delight. Although photos never seem to do the changing season justice, here are a few of our recent favorites.

We hope you’ll take a moment to soak in the fall colors and ...

Pajarito’s most popular fall festival, Ullrfest, happens Saturday, September 23. And this year, we’re excited to offer FREE mountain biking lessons as part of the festivities. Ullrfest features New Mexico Brewersfest with nearly one dozen local craft beers, live music, lift served hiking and biking, mountain bike lessons and races, disc golf tournament, costume contest and more.

Photo by Andy Thein

We’re expanding the options at Ullrfest this year with FREE mountain bike lessons plus on-mountain rentals. Your 2-hour lesson is FREE with a mountain bike uplift day pass—just $25. Find out more about lessons and rentals on our Ullrfest event page. Here’s the full festival schedule:

Saturday, September ...