For the past two weeks, we’ve been checking out the future.
We left the Snowsports Industry of America trade show in Denver a week ago (see our coverage), and headed back to Taos Ski Valley to start reviewing next year’s skis, boots, goggles, gloves, helmets, etc. We’ll begin rolling out those reviews tomorrow.
As we’ve said before, Taos is a pretty ideal place to find out what equipment can really do, identify its strengths and weaknesses.
So we’re back.
Taos picked up 14″ of new snow while we were in Denver (this made our being in Denver rather than Taos pretty excruciating), and the mountain has been skiing great.
Kachina Peak also opened this past week for hikers, and we’ve been taking advantage.
With the open lines and narrower chutes off Kachina, the tight tree skiing off of West Basin, the sunny backside groomers, and of course, a personal favorite, Reforma, we have already learned a lot, and have had a great time doing it under bluebird skies.
There are some wonderful places to ski around the world, it’s just that every year, Taos continues to maintain its place at the top of my list. You will never waste time standing around in lift lines. You will be blown away—every single day—by the staggering beauty of this place – whether it’s a cloud formation that you’ve never seen before, or the New Mexico light illuminating Castor as you ride up Chair 2, or the fact that you can still find plenty of untracked lines days after a 14″ storm.
There’s a reason why we keep coming back.
And these images from the past couple of days will explain all of this better than I can.
(All photos by David Spiegel. Click on images to expand.)
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Your reviews are outstanding. They’re so good that now I have a hard time buying any gear unless you have reviewed it. In fact, I’d say that a good Blister Review is pretty much a pre-requisite if I’m looking to buy something new. But I’d also love to see more quick photo pieces like this.
Thank you, Tom! Much appreciated.
And we’ll try to keep the photos coming..
Any chance you’ll be testing the new monster series? I’m very interested in the 88. Heard it’s very much like a kastle mx88 and in my mind, that’s a good thing.
Ditto. I always research my new ski purchases on-line. Usually I check out Epic forums but you guys are even better. Keep up the good work.
Looking forward to checking out Taos soon.