Taos Ski Valley
Taos Ski Valley is a ski area located in the state of New Mexico in USA. The resort is in the town of Taos Ski Valley, NM.
We recently ranked all of New Mexico's ski resorts, so you can see where Taos Ski Valley stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Taos Ski Valley is a part of the Ikon Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all or most of the Ikon-sponsored slopes with it throughout the year, depending on the type of pass you bought.
Taos Ski Valley is a part of the Mountain Collective network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all of the slopes that are also a part of the Collective.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Taos Ski Valley around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Taos Ski Valley Terrain Overview
Taos Ski Valley has a total of 110 ski trails, which are serviced by 14 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 1,294 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 524 hectares, 2.0 square miles, or 5.2 square kilometers.
Taos Ski Valley's slopes see on average 225 inches (6.9 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 18 feet every year!
Total Runs
110
Lifts
14
Skiable Acres
1,294(5 km2)
Annual Snowfall
225"(6,858 cm)
Taos Ski Valley Elevation
Taos Ski Valley has a summit elevation of 12,481 feet, or 3,804 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 9,200 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 3,281 feet (1,000 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
The summit of 12,481 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.
Summit Elevation
12,481'(3,804 m)
Vertical Drop
3,281'(1,000 m)
Base Elevation
9,200'(2,804 m)
Taos Ski Valley Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
82.8out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Taos Ski Valley has 1,294 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Seeing as Taos Ski Valley is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, it's no surprise that over 86% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level. This leaves only 14% of its skiable acres as beginner terrain.
Beginner
14%(181 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
16%(207 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
70%(906 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Taos Ski Valley good for beginners?
This is one of the hardest ski areas in the country to ski at, so it is not great for beginners. Taos Ski Valley ranks in the top 10% of the most-difficult ski resorts in the country. It has 70% of its trails rated as expert, or black-diamond level.
Taos Ski Valley Location
Taos Ski Valley is located in the state of New Mexico, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Taos Ski Valley, NM.
Address:
Taos Ski Valley, NM 87525 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
skitaos.com
GPS Coordinates:
36.44000, -105.61000
Getting to Taos Ski Valley
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Taos Ski Valley), its coordinates of 36.44000, -105.61000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Taos Ski Valley, NM to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Taos Ski Valley.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Luis Valley Regional Airport/Bergman Field | ALS | Alamosa, CO | 70 mi |
| Albuquerque International Sunport | ABQ | Albuquerque, NM | 112 mi |
| Pueblo Memorial Airport | PUB | Pueblo, CO | 142 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Taos Ski Valley, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Taos Ski Valley.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angel Fire | Angel Fire, NM | 10,677 ft | 50% | 18 mi |
| Sipapu | Vadito, NM | 9,255 ft | 47% | 20 mi |
| Red River | Red River, NM | 10,350 ft | 45% | 22 mi |
| Pajarito | Santa Fe, NM | 10,440 ft | 47% | 47 mi |
| Ski Santa Fe | Santa Fe, NM | 12,075 ft | 54% | 52 mi |
| Wolf Creek | Pagosa Springs, CO | 11,904 ft | 50% | 97 mi |
| Sandia Peak | Cedar Crest, NM | 10,378 ft | 38% | 97 mi |
Taos Ski Valley Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 12,481 ft |
| Base Elevation | 9,200 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 3,281 ft |
| Trails | 110 (14% Beginner, 16% Intermediate, 70% Expert) |
| Lifts | 14 |
| Skiable Acres | 1,294 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 225 inches |