Last Saturday, seven of us set a nice track up to the middle reaches of South Mountain, in Valles Caldera National Preserve. There is LOTS of snow in the Valles right now, and temperatures have remained low enough to help preserve the snowpack. After procuring our permit at the information cabin, we drove to the Cabin District and parked in the well plowed lot. It was overcast and cold (15F) initially, but soon enough the clouds dissolved and we enjoyed bright sunshine and mild temps for the remainder of the day. The first mile and a half or so is very low angle skiing (class I) but as soon as the trail heads up South Mountain proper, it becomes a good bit steeper (class II-III). We skied about 3 miles from the car before stopping for a lunch break in a sunny level area at about 9150’. We explored a little bit more after lunch before a quick return trip back down to the bottom of the mountain, where we then got to enjoy some great kicking and gliding back to the cars. Hopefully our ski track will remain, as we were careful to avoid the snowshoe track that we paralleled most of the way. Viva los Valles!

Photo credits: Cecilia Navarrete, Andrew Lieuwen, David Espinosa, Ron Beauchamp

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