Considering moving to Santa Fe: Advice? (Albuquerque: ski resorts, loans, college)

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by Xavious Orgus

Lovehound,
I am also a big ski nut!! I just might make you move earlier than 3 yrs!! Skiing right out the back door in Santa Fe!!

Well don't keep it a secret! Fill me in! And I'm sure we have passive readers of this thread who would be interested too.

I expect any thread at CD and most open forums has 4 passive readers for every participant, and that's conservative. It might be even 10 times as many as the active participants. And they all want to know! Honest, I speak for them.

Is it just Taos or is there more?

Factoid: Santa Fe has an elevation of 7,000 feet. It is the highest state capital in the US, followed (in order) by Cheyenne WY, Denver CO, Carson City NV, SLC UT, and Helena MT.

Actually when you put it that way it's surprising that Santa Fe isn't colder. Why is that? I'm certain that Denver has far more snow than Santa Fe.

[santafescribe]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

Is it just Taos or is there more?

There's very good skiing in SF, about 40 minutes up the Hyde Park Road, past that $1.5 million home of yours Ski Santa Fe New Mexico

[Xavious Orgus]

Ski areas in and around Santa Fe. Although I have never skied any of them, I can't wait to give them a try!!

New Mexico ski areas

[Lovehound]

LMAO SF Scribe and XO. I'll check out the links that both of you graciously provided.

I'd like to thank all of you for my help in answering my questions about Santa Fe. Right now in my personal derby of where should I retire to Santa Fe is running #1 with no strong contenders.

I'm trying to reconcile my discovery in an earlier post that Santa Fe is 7,000 feet in elevation. My favorite ski spot in California, Mammoth Mountain, the adjacent city Mammoth is only 900 feet higher, a very high elevation city.

I don't understand why Santa Fe doesn't seem that high! I don't understand why Santa Fe doesn't have more snow in winter, why it isn't colder. Unless maybe I don't realize how cold it is, but the statistics as I recall them don't lead me to believe it's as cold as for example Denver the "mile high city" which I presume means about 5,280 feet elevation. No way does Santa Fe have as much snow as Denver, right?

[Xavious Orgus]

All I know, there is absolutely no way Santa Fe gets / stays as cold as it does where I am located!! Our Winters are way too long!!! That and we do not see the sun enough!!

[ziaAirmac]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

...are there any ski areas near SF? It's not a deal breaker and I wouldn't feel too bad if I never skied again. And okay, Taos (duh) right? Perhaps you can relate what Taos is like and if there are any other popular local areas for SF ...

...would it be appropriate for us to request that CD add a "Santa Fe" forum?...

I almost feel guilty telling you that in grade school I skied every thursday afternoon bussed up the mountain on public school busses that returned me to school after an afternoon of skiing. The top echelon will beat up Santa Fe's runs for lack of technical challenge, but I've skied all my life and I still have a great time on those runs. Plus 10,000 Waves (massages and saunas) is waiting for you on the way down along with all that the plaza has to offer at night. A great way to finish a day of hitting the slopes.

Nearby slopes? Taos, Sipapu, Angel Fire, Even the southern Colorado sites are easy weekend ski's. I love Wolf Creek, and the natural hot springs are waiting after you're done.

Check out:
Rocky Mountain Skiing and Snowboarding- Ski New Mexico

Taos can get a little nuts. So can Santa Fe for that matter. The word is out. Sipapu tends to be locals and light.

[santafescribe]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

No way does Santa Fe have as much snow as Denver, right?

No it does not. I am not a meteorologist but I notice always on those USA Today type weather graphics (Weather News: Forecasts, Maps, Radar, & Storm Reports - USATODAY.com) that Santa Fe is always in a warmer band than Denver. I guess it's because the Rockies traps the cold, and dumps it on Denver (and, often the NM/Colo border), whereas SF is at the lower edge of the Rockies so the weather just flows on through. Something like that

[ziaAirmac]

santafescribe, your description was as good as any I've heard on Action 7 news I'll buy it.

But really, I can tell you through direct observation, when the snow fell in Denver, it was more accumulation, and it stayed frozen longer than in Santa Fe. So when the next storm was coming through, the last storm's snow hadn't really moved. In Santa Fe the storms tend to hit all at once, and then leave super clear blue skies and sun behind to immediately start melting the accumulation. We always loved the 'snow' days for school because we knew by 10am it would be nice enough to get around town and hang with our friends. You'd go to sleep with this amorphous multicolored blob to the west, threatening the area. Then you'd wake up to a blanket of white and all the radios going on and on about the delays and closures.

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by Xavious Orgus

All I know, there is absolutely no way Santa Fe gets / stays as cold as it does where I am located!! Our Winters are way too long!!! That and we do not see the sun enough!!

Actually, yes, Xavious, Santa Fe WILL get as cold as where you are in NE Iowa in the winter. Actually, not terribly uncommonly.

Santa Fe is at 7000 feet in altitude. People believe Santa Fe to be "Phoenix-esque" and they couldn't be farther from the truth.

The months of DEC/JAN in Santa Fe average mid-40s for highs, but mid-teens for low. It is very common for lows to hit the single digits for many weeks in Santa Fe.

Highs in the mid-40s are respectable, however, usually those temps are reached only for a few hours.

Don't get me wrong:

a) Santa Fe WILL get much, much, MUCH more sunshine than where you are in NE Iowa in the winter, and

b) Santa Fe will get less snowfall (although SF still does get plenty of snow). The stats I see in Santa Fe always allot for about 30 inches of annual snowfall in a Santa Fe winter. Others on this forum state that the average winter is usually between 15 and 20 inches.

Regardless, the snowfall, in comparison to the Midwest, is less / less significant and does melt quicker, but it *isn't* snowless by any means. You'll get good snow-dumps generally a few times a year in SF, sprinkled in with some more dustings / light snows.

*For the real *mild* winters to start in NM (and not to speak for him too much, but the ones I believe that zia is really referencing), they start in Albuquerque and work their way southward (as long as the altitudes are like ABQ - 5000 feet - and lower). Santa Fe averages between 15 and 30 inches of snowfall a winter, ABQ between 6 and 10 inches - big difference. ABQ averages 50 degree highs even in the coldest months and mid-20s for lows...big differences to the mid-teens of SF.

This isn't by any means to "put down" Santa Fe. Not even close. Or to try to somehow discourage you from Santa Fe.

But as a fellow Midwesterner who transplanted to NM and is very familiar with Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, etc., I believe that Santa Fe is the most mis-perceived / misunderstood climate by northerners of any Southwestern city - potentially by far.

Santa Fe has a real winter. An at times snowy, cold winter. It isn't *awful* by Milwaukee or Twin Cities standards, but frankly, outside of the ever-present (glorious) sunshine - and that IS a great aspect of SF's winter - I don't know if there is a huge difference between Santa Fe's or say, St. Louis'. In fact, many St. Louis winter nights are warmer.

Santa Fe winters are sunny and dry. But they are also many-times cold and snowy.

Originally Posted by santafescribe

I notice always on those USA Today type weather graphics (Weather News: Forecasts, Maps, Radar, & Storm Reports - USATODAY.com) that Santa Fe is always in a warmer band than Denver.

Actually scribe, while I don't discount your overall premise and I think you had a good post, I actually find Santa Fe and Denver to be very comparable weather-wise EXCEPT for that snow-factor. Denver averages 60+ inches of snowfall annually (in the city alone) whereas Santa Fe aveages that aforementioned 15-to-30...much less snowy in SF.

However, temps wise, year-round, Denver and SF actually have similar temps. Go to Weather.com and type in Denver and go the average annual temps, and do the same for Santa Fe. They aren't much different. Both are sunny and semi-arid.

Actually Denver if anything, outside of the snow factor, typically seems to get either warmer highs or colder highs than Santa Fe, where SF seems to kind of always stay in a more standard range. Denver can get a handful of 100+ degree days in the summer each summer, whereas in Santa Fe it is almost unheard of to approach to the 100 degree mark. Transversely, Denver can get days in the 70s in winter and 80s in spring which are both quite high for SF. Yet, in the spring, Denver can also see many more highs in the 30s and low-40s which is fairly uncommon for SF too. Denver has more "roller coaster" type days than SF, but SF has many more than say, ABQ or Las Cruces.

Frankly, I think outside of the snow-factor, the two cities are good, similar comparisons.

Originally Posted by ziaAirmac

I can tell you through direct observation, when the snow fell in Denver, it was more accumulation, and it stayed frozen longer than in Santa Fe. So when the next storm was coming through, the last storm's snow hadn't really moved. In Santa Fe the storms tend to hit all at once, and then leave super clear blue skies and sun behind to immediately start melting the accumulation. We always loved the 'snow' days for school because we knew by 10am it would be nice enough to get around town and hang with our friends. You'd go to sleep with this amorphous multicolored blob to the west, threatening the area. Then you'd wake up to a blanket of white and all the radios going on and on about the delays and closures.

I think this is a perfect comparison of the respective winter snows.

[Dancingearth]

It is one of the things I get tired of repeating repeating to my friends. It was cold this winter! They can't seem to get it that it's not hot here all the time. I froze my thai basil because I forgot him outside last week. The warm day fooled me and I got lazy and brought in only a few plants. The salvia froze but survived. It is colder than WA but I'll take the sun over the warmer constant rain during the winter.