Santa Fe's First Snow of the Year - 2012

Dawn breaks on the season's first snow 11/16/12

A drier than average Fall finally broke to form last Sunday with the season's first substantial snowfall. A few of us were actually out running that morning, complaining wickedly that the forecasters had blown their previous day's call for snow. Roughly four inches fell in town later that afternoon, fourteen inches were reported on the mountain. Not as much as a flake fell south of La Bajada, even in Tijeras, near Sandia Crest in the hills above Albuquerque.

This was not the year's first snow of course which arrived November 16th. Pretty late in the year compared with previous years unless you count a very small dusting of the trees up above 9,500ft in mid-October. The November snowfall was exciting, not because I'm charting this stuff, but because it was the first snow that mini-Dirt had ever seen! Little guy couldn't seem to get his stoke on though due to the part about it being freezing cold. Not enough perspective yet on what stuff is awesome and what stuff is so-so. He'll get the hang of it before too long.

Myself, the Pistol, and Lucy (Sangres far left)

In any case, we made note of 2011's first snow (up on the mountain) here.
2010's first snow (in town) noted here. 

Area ski resorts are up and running - as of yesterday (Sat. 12/15). Snuck in my first turns of the season early this morning. Daniel Gibson does a great job writing about area conditions in his Snow Trax column in The New Mexican, so I'll defer to him on what's open and what the conditions are. Interestingly Wolf Creek got jobbed on last week's storm, receiving a paltry 4in. of new. Pretty sure they'll catch up during the first few hours of the next system that blows through. 

If you need any extra motivation for the winter season - a clip from In Deep, Sean Pettit, Hains, AK, 2009. Snow! Snow! Snow!