In this mini-spring warming we're having, the hints of the end of the season are all around us but there is still "mad March" and, surely, more storms ahead. Meanwhile, here's an assortment of small snapshots of the regional ski scene.

Ski Santa Fe will host the Corporate Cup on Saturday, which was profiled here two weeks ago. Races will be held on Muerte and spectators are welcome. It should be a fast course. Action will resume here Sunday when the Santa Fe Ski Team holds a memorial fun race for Richard Abruzzo, whose family owns and operates the basin.

"It's open to the public to compete," says team president Paul Laur. "We welcome anyone of any ability to come out and give it a try — snowboarders, telemarkers and skiers. And, you don't have to be a racer."

Registration is $25 per person (cash or check only), with lift tickets running just $30. Registration will be held from 7:30-8:30 a.m. in the base lodge, with course inspection beginning at 9:15 a.m. Racing begins at 10 a.m. Winners will be selected on the basis of the best time of their two back to back runs on the GS course. Some custom medals and some fine prizes will be awarded at Totemoff's at 3 p.m., where free food and refreshments will also be provided by the ski area management for all racers.


A reader, Jutta Hartmann, wrote this week to say they were "rather sad" that I rarely mention Sipapu in this column. It's true, as I focus on where most people ski or board, as that seems most relevant. But Sipapu, tucked away in a small canyon between Peñasco and Mora, has its legions of die-hard fans.

Hartmann notes the tiny resort's short lift lines, "prices that are really fair" and "several enjoyable trails through the woods." He goes on to say it is not "glitzy or fancy" and its lack of pretension is a nice change from some upscale resorts. He points out that Sipapu grants free skiing to anyone 40 years old (yes, just 40), and kids with a 4.0 average (bring your report cards, students!).

He concludes, "Parents will also like the employees, like the big Indian guy on the bottom lift. They can ask him if their kids have gone up already, because he has worked there a long time and remembers most people."


Every fall, the trade group Ski New Mexico honors people and institutions in the state's winter sports field. Last October, it anointed the Chauchere family of Tulsa, Okla., the state's best ski customers. The family has been coming to Sipapu for Christmas every year since 1960. Also honored was John Paul Bradley, who was picked as the state's best ski resort mountain manager. Bradley arrived at Sipapu in 2001 and has doubled the number of trails and skier-visits by a factor of three. With a vertical drop of 1055 feet (though a relatively low 9,255-foot summit elevation, which does not bode well in a warming world), Sipapu is definitely worthy of further visits.


The Solomon Extreme Freeride Championships blows into Taos Ski Valley on March 3-5 for the seventh time. Athletes from around the globe will compete for the $12,000 purse and opportunity to qualify for the world tour's championship later this winter in Verbier, Switzerland.

If you've never seen an extreme comp, check it out. Skiing or boarding off West Basin Ridge or Kachina Ridge, competitors huck, chuck, flip and flop over huge rocks, cliffs and other terrain features, wowing the spectators below, who clack ski poles and roar out hearty cheers over the thumping music and wafting smells of burgers and dogs on the barbies. It's a scene, and New Mexico's largest and most important skiing competition. You can pop in and out over the course of a day. For details, or stills and video of last year's event, visit www.skitaos.org/freeride/.


Speaking of extreme comps, Taos-based Joe Augusten nailed down a respectable 11th-place finish at last week's U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championship at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. He finished sixth in the qualifying round, but dropped a bit in the final round. Brothers Lars and Silas Chickering-Ayers of Mad River Glen, Vt., finished in first and third positions, respectively, while Tom Runcie of Crested Butte finished second. The top female athlete was Angel Collinson of Snowbird. Taking the "Sickbird Award" was Crested Butte's own Gabe Robbins, who launched a 55- to 60-foot front flip off a cliff to open one run.


Monarch Mountain holds its annual Slopestyle Showdown on March 6. The course, on Aftershock, will include rails, boxes and a series of other hits. Contestants will be judged on finesse, difficulty and line choice. There will also be a special prize for biggest air. It is open to all ages, with a special beginner course for the grommets.

If your interests lie elsewhere, like off in a quiet glade of trees, ripping big headwalls and cornices, carving GS turns in fat bowls, or launching off cliffs, Monarch delivers in the form of Mirkwood Basin. This 130-acre pocket used to be the private stash of the resort's snowcat operation, but is now open to all of the resort's skiers or boarders. You hike out from the top of the Breezeway chair on a snowcat trail for 15 minutes to the first drop in point, which offers up 1,100 vertical feet of ungroomed. A regress road runs you back into the run K2 and the base area.

"It has all types of skiing," notes Greg Ralph, Monarch's affable public relations director. With east-, north-, and west-facing slopes, some powder is always free from direct sun and wind.

This winter, for the first time, the resort presents the Mirkwood Tour. Offered every Saturday at 11 a.m., the just-under two-hour tour takes you though an orientation session and one run for $55. You must be at least 13 years old and at least a beginning expert skier who can handle powder. Come to the ungroomed. Once you do, you'll never go back.

Daniel Gibson can be reached at dbgibson@newmexico.com.