The Millennium expansion opened in 2005 and added a bit of vertical to Ski Santa Fe.The bottom station and tower 1.Another view of the Alpha drive.Side view of the lower station and operator house.Breakover towers 23 and 24.Fixed return bullwheel up top.View down from the summit.Tower 22.Upper station overview.View down the lower part of the line.Another line section.Lift overview.The upper part of the line.Riding past the first of two large water tanks along the line.View back down about half way up the line.Breakover towers 14 and 15.Upper lift line.View back down near the summit.
This lift seems fairly useless to me. Excluding the top 200 vertical (which only makes up about 10 acres of terrain), this lift’s terrain is entirely serviced by the other triple.
I think a much better place to install this would’ve been south of the current ski area boundary (see picture below). This lift would be about 6,000 feet long and service ~1750 vertical and hundreds of acres of new terrain.
That’s a nice idea but the Millennium really helps make it easier to access the east part of the upper mountain. Before this lift was built, Tesuque Peak was the only lift that could access the upper mountain and it was more difficult to access the east runs because you’ll have to go through the Sunset Catwalk.
Irony is that Big Tesuque bowl sees very heavy ski traffic, there’s a boundary gate right off the Gayway trail into it, to get back to the resort one just needs to take the radio tower road, a x-country trail in the winter, out to the access road and hitchhike. I am kinda surprised the ski area didn’t tri to get a no lift alternative using shuttle bus just to get a foot in the door as they are blocked by wilderness areas to the north and east.
Ride time appears to have been 13 minutes (not 11.5 as listed on the table). That’s a chunk of time.
Still, this seems like a cool investment. I last hit Ski Santa Fe in 2003 and I don’t think I rode Tesuque more than twice because the traverse to the skier’s right blue was, IRRC, kind of a pain on a snowboard.
Lift Blog 
This lift seems fairly useless to me. Excluding the top 200 vertical (which only makes up about 10 acres of terrain), this lift’s terrain is entirely serviced by the other triple.
I think a much better place to install this would’ve been south of the current ski area boundary (see picture below). This lift would be about 6,000 feet long and service ~1750 vertical and hundreds of acres of new terrain.
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That’s a nice idea but the Millennium really helps make it easier to access the east part of the upper mountain. Before this lift was built, Tesuque Peak was the only lift that could access the upper mountain and it was more difficult to access the east runs because you’ll have to go through the Sunset Catwalk.
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Let’s not forget the enormous amount of local opposition to such an expansion, from many years ago: https://www.hcn.org/issues/53/1637
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Irony is that Big Tesuque bowl sees very heavy ski traffic, there’s a boundary gate right off the Gayway trail into it, to get back to the resort one just needs to take the radio tower road, a x-country trail in the winter, out to the access road and hitchhike. I am kinda surprised the ski area didn’t tri to get a no lift alternative using shuttle bus just to get a foot in the door as they are blocked by wilderness areas to the north and east.
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That would have to be a different lift
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New footage:
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Ride time appears to have been 13 minutes (not 11.5 as listed on the table). That’s a chunk of time.
Still, this seems like a cool investment. I last hit Ski Santa Fe in 2003 and I don’t think I rode Tesuque more than twice because the traverse to the skier’s right blue was, IRRC, kind of a pain on a snowboard.
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