Powder

Santa Fe, New Mexico

POPULATION: 83,875

MEDIAN HOME PRICE: $310,000

MILES FROM A CHAIRLIFT: 15

SNOWFALL LOOKS DIFFERENT in New Mexico. When it snows, the ground looks redder, the junipers greener, and, somehow, the snow whiter. Snowfall stacking on adobe looks like some kind of magical realism. It makes for an altogether incredible aesthetic.

But those beautiful days were behind us, I assumed—it was late March after all. A few days earlier, I skied in denim. I had friends in town, visiting from California, and they didn’t even bring jackets. Plus, this whole mountain biking thing—that was pretty fun.

Then, in the matter of a March afternoon, the weather went

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Powder

Powder3 min read
Get In, We’re Going Skiing
MY NAME IS HANS LUDWIG, sometimes known as the Jaded Local, and I’m an addict. For 25 years, I have been part of an operation that distributes a habit-forming substance to the public. I regret nothing. I was born in 1972, the same year as POWDER Maga
Powder1 min read
LIGHT & DRY
Special thanks to Sam Cox and Hans Ludwig. ■
Powder13 min read
When Skiing Saves Us
ON APRIL 7, nearly 400,000 Americans had already been stricken with COVID-19 since the disease was first detected on U.S. soil in February 2020. Of those, 12,757 had died from it—and yet that was just the beginning. Entire swaths of the economy were

Related Books & Audiobooks