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Taos Ski Week, a 6-morning lesson program, 2022-23 notes

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
"Carpet riding" -- the mark of a beginning 'boarder. Truly annoying. I wish they would stick to the groomers until they learn how to properly slide. One thing I used to love about TSV (and love about Alta) was the no snowboarding rule (sorry, Diva 'boarders); but I have noticed that those at Taos seem to be more skilled than many I've seen elsewhere, probably d/t the difficulty of the mountain, and the amount of bumps, which as someone pointed out, are more difficult to master on snowboards.
Those skillful boarders ride fast on the groomers at Taos. Fast.
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
From the recent thread about Deb Armstrong, I learned why she has a connection to Taos and NM in general. She went to college UMN after deciding it was time to move on from competitive racing. She's pushing 60.

She's 58.
 

TNtoTaos

Angel Diva
Those skillful boarders ride fast on the groomers at Taos. Fast.
True, but so do a lot of skiers. I wish they'd all go slower, and be more careful, but at least they're not destroying the snow.
 

Susan L

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Interesting to note that they're not offering snowboard Ski Wks this yr; probably because those who spend the $$ on Ski Wks tend to be older, er, less likely to be 'boarders, and they were having trouble filling the classes.
I have done 2 ski weeks as a snowboarder and both weeks I was the only student at my level (advanced). My instructor was both a skier and a boarder so I ended up having a private week for the cost of a group week and we did both snowboarding and skiing and had a blast!
 

Bookworm

Angel Diva
I tell my stepdaughter this: she's an excellent boarder and would probably have a ski week alone or with few people
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I tell my stepdaughter this: she's an excellent boarder and would probably have a ski week alone or with few people
I think you missed my post that says regular Ski Weeks are only for skiers for 2022-23. I think that was true the last couple seasons. A snowboarder has to do a Private Ski Week. Hard to say if TSV will go back to offering a regular Ski Week for boarders. I could imagine they might but only for limited weeks. As in perhaps in March when Texas schools have spring breaks.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Does bring up a point about how many people are likely to be in a Ski Week group depending on the ability level. My observation based on the the last six seasons is that there is some variation based on timing.

Fair to say that most advanced skiers prefer to make the trek to Taos after there is enough snow cover on the more challenging off-piste terrain. Some don't want to go until there is a good chance that the Kachina lift will be open because there is enough snow coverage, assuming it's not too windy or visibility is too poor. That means starting in February, the advanced Ski Week groups are more likely to be full.

Intermediates who go in early January will have plenty of terrain to enjoy and learn on. If there aren't too many ski club trips happening at the same time, then the intermediate Ski Week groups in February may be a bit smaller than the advanced groups. Perhaps 4-5 students.

I've seen low intermediates end up in a group with only 1-2 students. That may have shifted now that TSV has special programs geared to beginners and advanced beginners. There are also 1-shot clinics geared to intermediates that are fairly reasonably priced.

The traditional maximum number of students is 7, which is two chairs including the instructor. Instructors often mix up who they ride with and make use of the lift ride to talk about technique.
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Does bring up a point about how many people are likely to be in a Ski Week group depending on the ability level. My observation based on the the last six seasons is that there is some variation based on timing.

Fair to say that most advanced skiers prefer to make the trek to Taos after there is enough snow cover on the more challenging off-piste terrain. Some don't want to go until there is a good chance that the Kachina lift will be open because there is enough snow coverage, assuming it's not too windy or visibility is too poor. That means starting in February, the advanced Ski Week groups are more likely to be full.

Intermediates who go in early January will have plenty of terrain to enjoy and learn on. If there aren't too many ski club trips happening at the same time, then the intermediate Ski Week groups in February may be a bit smaller than the advanced groups. Perhaps 4-5 students.

I've seen low intermediates end up in a group with only 1-2 students. That may have shifted now that TSV has special programs geared to beginners and advanced beginners. There are also 1-shot clinics geared to intermediates that are fairly reasonably priced.

The traditional maximum number of students is 7, which is two chairs including the instructor. Instructors often mix up who they ride with and make use of the lift ride to talk about technique.
That's good information about number of people in ski week groups.
 

TNtoTaos

Angel Diva
That's good information about number of people in ski week groups.
And another good reason to set up private ski week groups. Before I started doing private groups 3 yrs ago, I was in several groups of 6 or 7 students, which can sometimes be difficult if not everyone wants to do the same types of terrain. It's obviously easier for an instructor to accommodate the needs of 3-4 students who know what they want than 6-7 who may or may not know what they need/want.
 

TNtoTaos

Angel Diva
I was planning to hit up Taos next season (this season I've already planned out my vacation days), but will look into TSV when I start my planning.
By then you should be able to access the Meet On The Hill (MOTH) forum, if you keep posting (you need 25 posts); there's a ton of info about planning for a TSV visit there.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Looks like Taos has developed an app. Presumably that will make it easier to know about lift status when it's windy. There is more than enough snow already that people skiing Taos after mid-December probably won't have to worry about Lift 4 being closed due to low snow conditions. That only happened in early February in 2018 since I've been going to TSV for a Ski Week.
 

TNtoTaos

Angel Diva
Looks like Taos has developed an app. Presumably that will make it easier to know about lift status when it's windy. There is more than enough snow already that people skiing Taos after mid-December probably won't have to worry about Lift 4 being closed due to low snow conditions. That only happened in early February in 2018 since I've been going to TSV for a Ski Week.
The app had been around for several yrs. I've been using it, but it's greatly improved this yr -- finally.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The app had been around for several yrs. I've been using it, but it's greatly improved this yr -- finally.
Good to know. So far I haven't found too much reason to have a resort app when I'm only skiing there for a week. Although that could be that I don't have to go at very busy times or to places that have multiple peaks with more than 4-5 primary lifts.
 

TNtoTaos

Angel Diva
One of the things I like most about the app is that you can call Ski Patrol with one click and access the trail map on your phone. It also gives you a lot of relevant info about events, lift and trail status, maps, mountain cams, and links to buy tickets, etc. It's basically a mini version of the website. In the off-season I just remove it from my phone -- it stays in iCloud, and I re-download it when I need it.
 

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