There they were, far out, with all that untamed desolate space.
A place where wild ponies run, mountains rise out of the desert, and the native people still speak their mother tongue.
But how did it come to be that this ski area with perfectly carved runs would be forsaken?
Join OG crows Camille Jaccoux and Michael Shaffer as they find neglected powder snow and discover the mystery of a lost resort deep in the heart of New Mexico. black crows is an independent french freeski brand from chamonix. Founded in 2006 by pro freeskiers Camille Jaccoux and Bruno Compagnet, black crows was born out of a desire to collide beauty and efficiency into skis.
We create obsessively design driven objects that are uncompromising in performance and identity for contemporary skiing.
We aim for the pleasure of senses through freedom and adventure. We believe that ski culture is a window to the world.
AI Generated·May contain errors
Weird stuff happens up here. It's hard to explain.
I work here by myself most days and it's just kind of spooky.
Skiing in New Mexico is unique. You can be down
in the sagebrush by the river and then a few minutes later you can be up in high
alpine environment. I've always seen the landscape from the
ground and wanted to be out in the midst of it,
immersed in it. And when I started flying it was pretty mind-blowing because all
of a sudden I saw how it all connected. Where the river started, where the snow
started melting. All these places I love to appreciate
from the ground. How they all related to each other.
One of my favorite flights is flying over the ski area.
It's a very magical place steeped in mystery and
you can feel the mystique and the spirituality of that land.
It's very powerful. January 9th, 2000, on the day they closed. My name is Joe
Music. I came here in about 2009
and I really haven't left since. And as you can see we got weeds growing
up through the deck now. So my job is to
keep it kind of in the state it's been. This is cross-country ski rental offer.
We still have some of the old snowboards.
These are probably good skis back in the day.
Ski Rio is from the Rio Castillo. The Rio Castillo Cattlemen and Land
Association developed it in the early 80s. It was a
very family-oriented ski resort. There's not a lot of real steep black
diamond runs so it was mostly for families.
These are pretty good. These are still pretty open.
These are starting to really to really get treed.
The snow is deep and the sun shines all day long.
This winter the place to ski is New Mexico.
I would say the energy was high. People were excited
because this was the only employment in the area basically at that time.
The biggest problem this ski area faced I think was
the lack of consistent snow and at night
there was absolutely nothing to do because this was
free internet basically. You'd have families come up
and not everyone skied and there wasn't a lot for the other people to do.
Now these are old school back entry or back.
I don't think they make those anymore do they? And when
they closed everybody just walked away. Every room was made up.
There's food on the tables and it just all went to rot.
I think of all the memories that people have and no one's going to have any
memories more from the ski resort and I think that's
a sad thing to have happen. Yeah the ski touring scene is growing a
little in New Mexico. More and more people are just wanting to
get out into that pristine mountains and landscapes where
they can feel that peace and quiet
by themselves. From the top of this mountain you can see quite a bit.
That's the amazing thing about this mountain is the topography is
fantastic. It's always going to be beautiful up
here. We got 20 inches in the last couple days
and I think our base is I would say at least 40 or better.
I think the snow is going to be here till June.
There's definitely a lot here for the future I think.
There's a huge potential for backcountry skiing.
We have some of the biggest aspen trees you'll find anywhere on the planet.
This is an aborted dream but the current owners would like to see it
go back to its natural state which I believe in because it is it's a
beautiful mountain and I think the goal of this mountain is
to is to share the beauty and allow people to
to see that there's still natural parts of the world that
haven't been spoiled yet.
