Taos Ski Week, Day 6

Hike the Ridge, Pass the Martinis

By Carson Bennett, 3-10-08

	Your Friendly Neighborhood TSV Ski Instructors

Today is the last day of the Taos Ski Week. In the morning Dano immediately takes us up to hike the ridge. Any upper-level (or even mid-level) Taos Ski Week class would be incomplete without a crowning run on the famous Highline Ridge.

At the top of lift two we pop off our skis, sling them over our shoulders, and hike up through the trees to the ridgeline. I take the lead and Dano hollers at me to pace myself, but I’m too excited. I have hiked the ridge before, many times, but for some reason it feels different today. It’s a celebration. The culmination of a full week skiing hard and pushing ourselves past our own boundaries. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I’ve never in my life skied better than I have this week.

It’s windy and cold on the ridge. The sky is slate gray, the cold wind makes my hood brittle. It cracks as I pull it down over my face and wait for the rest of the group to catch up. From here, the summit of Wheeler Peak (New Mexico’s highest mountain at 13,161 feet) is clearly visible to the east. It is the pinnacle of a gentle sloping ridge not unlike this one. To the west, bright sun highlights golden mesas near the small town of Taos.

We regroup, step back into our skis, and follow Dano across the ridge to “Corner Chute,” a steep double-diamond chute well known for its powder. Today it delivers. We hoot and holler as we indulge in deep powder turns, and just as quickly as we began, it’s over.

Dano waves for us to follow him. For a while we fly down a long cruiser. Suddenly, he waves and points, “To the right! To the right!” We follow him into the trees and stop. I find myself at the famous Martini Tree. In a semi-secluded, top-secret tree well, there is a lockbox attached to the trunk of a large spruce tree. In this lockbox is a pouron – basically a glass pitcher with a long, fragile spout that looks like an icicle – filled with gin martinis. Ernie Blake started the martini tree tradition back in the sixties, hiding pitchers of martinis in the trees for him and his friends (and the occasional ski school student, too frightened to make it down the mountain without a bit of liquid courage.) God bless Ernie Blake. The tradition continues with the Taos Ski Week. Most instructors will invite their students for a drink in the trees to celebrate the end of the lessons. We pass the pouron around, drink and praise Taos and the ski week and Dano and each other. It has been a tremendous week.

Like many Taos ski-school students, I plan to return to Taos for another ski week next year. Not only did my skiing improve, but I basically had my own personal guide to the mountain and the culture of Taos.

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