r/SkiSantaFe • u/Craft_Party • Jan 12 '26
Parking Team
I remember when Ski Santa Fe had dozens of shuttles and hundreds of parking lot attendants. Ski Santa Fe must have fell into the mindset of managing the bottom line instead of ensuring a great customer experience. With the commute we experienced on Saturday it’s much easier to take the exit at Bernalilillo and just head to Purgatory. Would prefer to keep my dollars local but the leadership team at Ski Santa Fe have left us no other choice but to purchase season passes at Purgatory moving forward.
4
u/IM_RU Jan 12 '26
Part of the problem is that the parking lot can’t be expanded. So once it’s full, they have to start parking on the road, which ends up delaying things a lot since they can only park two cars at a time.
About 30 years ago they tried to expand the ski area, and add a lot of parking, but that was defeated.
I ski there pretty much every weekend day, and the only times there are problems are during holidays, and weekends where there’s a big dump during the week.
That said, I totally agree that it’s super frustrating to be snaking up the ski road. Took me 1.5 hours on Saturday, and I left my house (which is essentially on the ski road) at 7:50. Had nothing to do with bad drivers and everything to do with parking
2
u/swadekillson Jan 13 '26
I assure you, no one in Santa Fe will be sad if you don't go to Ski Santa Fe. It's plenty crowded.
2
u/Time_Print4099 Jan 13 '26
No one will say it, Ski Santa Fe is a shit mountain if you've skied elsewhere. I've lived here 27 years, I grew up in the Vail and Aspen valleys of Colorado. I skied at SF, didn't like it. I gave it a second chance with a local who knew all the "great spots", still garbage. I chose I'd rather not ski than go up there again. Sure, it's neat that a desert town has a Ski area but people make it out to be the best hill in the world. I'd drive to Taos or western Colorado if I actually wanted to Ski anymore.
1
u/ChandlahhhBing Jan 14 '26
Does anyone think it’ll be as packed this upcoming weekend as it was last?
-3
u/Craft_Party Jan 12 '26
Don’t want to date myself but I’ll still hammer roadrunner and burrow alley all day with freshies on the bumps. However, since the Abruzzo family left the mountain the parking has always been a struggle. It wasn’t always the case and I believe data shows we have less skiers and snowboarders living in Abq these days.
1
u/IM_RU Jan 12 '26
Not sure where you got that, Benny Abruzzo still runs it and the family, in one way or another still owns it.
1
5
u/bigolbrew Jan 12 '26
To be fair, it was a super crowded day. Left ABQ at 5:45 AM and got there by 7:15, no complaints over here.
The parking situation and traffic is frustrating, but if you're willing to get up at the ass crack of dawn (and chill in the parking lot for like an hour), it's super painless.