Prestigious Taos ski competition underway
Action is underway at Taos Ski Valley in the state’s most prestigious and important annual ski competition: the Taos Freeride Championships.
It hosted athletes competing in a lower “2-star” division Thursday as well as an invitation-only competition for “4-star” athletes and skiers 40 years and older in a Masters division on Friday and Saturday. A party and awards ceremony is set for Saturday at the Martini Tree.
The event is part of the Freeride World Qualifying Tour, which culminates with the best athletes competing at a world championship in Verbier, Switzerland, on April 1.
Taos is the oldest FWQ event in the Americas and several athletes who have competed here have qualified for the elite Freeride World Tour.
Athletes signed up for this year’s event hail from around the U.S., Canada, Europe, Columbia and even Brazil. At press time, organizers could not positively identify any New Mexico athletes, but there are usually quite a few, including some in the top-tier competition.
Known as big-mountain or extreme skiing, the event will be held on Taos’ famed steep terrain, with venues including the ragged chutes and cliffs of West Basin and Kachina Peak. Skiers and boarders are awarded points based on the difficulty of the line they chose to ski, fluidity, control, technique, and air/style. Enthusiasts of the sport hope for its inclusion in future Olympics. Spectators are welcome at the base of the venues, which become a rollicking picnic and party on the snow, with people grilling hot dogs and hamburgers over snow pit barbies, music, beverages flowing, lots of cheering, along with “Oohs” and “Aahs” as skiers launch off precipices and lay out back flips.
B Corp. certification
Taos Ski Valley is also in the news this week for becoming the world’s first major ski area to be certified as a B Corp. Companies voluntarily enter into an evaluation process of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability. The hope is to use the power of markets to solve social and environmental problems, and stimulate businesses to act as a force for positive change.
“The B Corp movement is one of the most important of our lifetime, built on the simple fact that business impacts and serves more than just shareholders — it has an equal responsibility to the community and to the planet,” said Rose Marcario, CEO of Patagonia, a company known for its social and environmental activism and a leader in the B project.
Key initiatives that were crucial to Taos’s certification include its Taos Verde initiative, highlighted by:
Committing to a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Between 2014-16, TSV reduced its emissions by 10.9 percent by using advanced energy-efficiency snowmaking systems, the growing use of electric vehicles and local food sourcing for the resort’s food and beverage operations;
Demonstrable land stewardship actions, including healthy forest initiatives in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy;
Maintaining water quality, river restoration projects, water-use reduction and green-building fundamentals;
An advanced geo-thermal system for the heating and cooling at the resort’s new hotel, The Blake;
Waste reduction and recycling initiatives that include the use of reusable dining ware in its food and beverage outlets and the “Hydrate
Locally, Help Globally” program, which offers water refill stations throughout the resort to reduce single use plastic water bottles and eventually eliminate them entirely.
“Louis Bacon, the owner of Taos Ski Valley and a lifelong conservation philanthropist, has been completely supportive of these efforts,” said Taos Ski Valley CEO David Norden. “The people who live and work at Taos Ski Valley have long known about our commitment to the community and our investments in the ongoing health of our mountain ecosystem.
“Visitors that choose Taos Ski Valley for their next vacation will be doing so with the knowledge that they’re supporting the ethics and commitment of a Certified B Corporation.”
Ski Santa Fe picked up 11 inches in the past week, taking its base to 81 inches. Friday is Customer Appreciation Day, with 25 percent off lift tickets, rentals, childcare, classes and dining. Enjoy live music on Saturday on the Totemoff deck by Half Broke Horses from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Taos Ski Valley saw 21 inches of fluff fall, pushing its base to 94 inches. Besides the Freeride competition, catch the Squash Blossom Boys on Sunday at the Martini Tree from 3-6 p.m.
Pajarito gained 5 inches, with its base now at a nice 45 inches. The Craig Martin Band plays jazz from 3-5 p.m. on Saturday with Bathtub Row Brewing serving suds.
Angel Fire reports 13 new inches and a 36-inch base. It holds a USASA snowboard slalom/GS race on Saturday down Liberation Park to Hully Gully, and a NM(X) Rail Jam from 5-7 p.m. On Sunday, join in the USASA ski and snowboard slopestyle comp at 10:45 a.m.
Sipapu has 5 new inches and a 44-inch base. It celebrates Hawaiian Days this weekend, with a split pig roast luau on Saturday night.
Red River accumulated a foot, and now has a 50-inch base. It holds a torchlight parade and fireworks on Saturday and March 8, and scavenger hunts on March 6, 8 and 10.
Sandia Peak gained just an inch, and has a 25-inch base, with 96 percent of its terrain open. Ski Apache has a 36-inch base and is 100 percent open.
Wolf Creek was blessed with 29 new inches of snow, raising its base to an enviable 135 inches. It has “College Days” on Saturday, with $44 lift tickets for students with photo ID and print out of current class schedule. Also on tap is a free fun race for boarders and skiers in many divisions on a modified GS course. Registration runs from 9:30-10:30 a.m., with the race from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Crested Butte gained 22 inches, with its base now at 90 inches. The region had 305 inches fall here this season so far! On March 10-12, it hosts the International Freeskiers Association Junior Nationals competition.
Telluride received 28 inches, and has a 74-inch base. It presents the Making Friends with Moguls camp on Saturday and Sunday.
Purgatory caught 17 inches, and has a 75-inch base. March 10-12 it hosts the top mogul skiers ages 8-14 in a USSA event being held on Upper Bull just below Dante’s Restaurant.
Monarch picked up 22 inches and sports a 97-inch base, and also crossed the 300-inch level in the process. It holds its annual ISFA sanctioned Big Mountain Comp on High Anxiety for skiers and snowboarders under 14 on Saturday.