Hello Skiers,

On Sunday, January 31, sixteen Ski Club members enjoyed an outing to the Redondo Campground area in the Jemez Mountains between Jemez Springs and Los Alamos.

From the parking lot at the San Diego Canyon Overlook, the skiers crossed NM-4 and skied clockwise around the 2-mile loop trail that brought them back to the highway about one quarter-mile east of the campground. Here the group are lunch, and some skiers applied MaxiGlide or similar products to their skiers so that ice and snow would not stick to the bottoms.

After lunch, some people skied to the campground and returned to the vehicles. The others skied the 1-mile Crater Spur Trail that passes two craters caused by hydrothermal explosions resulting from the interaction of magma and ground water. The extremely hot magma causes the water to instantly flash to steam, and the resulting explosion causes the formation of a crater when rocks, water, steam, and volcanic bombs are ejected. The large one is about 100 feet deep and 300 feet in diameter. About 2 dozen craters are found in the Banco Bonito area down to Battleship Rock where the last eruption in the Jemez Mountains occurred 40,000 yeas ago.

After skiing the Crater Spur Trail, everyone skied along a segment of Old Highway 4 to the campground and the parking lot.

Two groups of experienced skiers were led by Michael Arndt and Bet Gendron. The beginning skiers were led by Ruth Bargman-Romero and Sam Beard. The “beginning” skiers skied very well, and all of them completed the loop trail and the trail by the craters. I thank the co-leaders for helping with this outing. They made it possible for a large number of members to enjoy a day on the snow.

The Club members on this outing were Michael Arndt, Romie Lavoie, Connie Falk, Peggy Mohoric, Megan Mohoric, Nancy Jenkins, Marcia Congdon, Anne Hickman, Karen Kwam, Bet Gendron, Steve Gendon, Debbie McGrew, Geri Newton, Valentina Golub, Ruth Bargman-Romero, and Sam Beard.

The weather was sunny with warm temperatures after lunch. Snow conditions were generally excellent with depths up to 12 inches. In a few sunny locations, the snow was only a few deep inches, and we hit rocks.

Sam Beard, Trails Chair

N. M. Cross Country Ski Club

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