Our History
In the early 1950s, Swiss ski pioneer Ernie Blake spotted this awe-inspiring mountain's towering vertical and snow aspect at the base of the Rocky Mountains from his Cessna 170 during his routine commute between the Santa Fe Ski Basin and the Glenwood Ski Area. From that day forward, Blake, his wife, Rhoda, and their children, dedicated their lives to building a destination, their way. The whole family relocated to what is now Taos Ski Valley in an eleven-foot camper and got to work.
What began as a small hill with just one lift and one run (the current Snakedance on the frontside steeps), quickly grew into a world-class resort with the help of other ski pioneers like Jean Mayer, the French junior champion skier who arrived in 1957 to found the award-winning Ski School and create the revolutionary Ski Week tradition. The Blakes created a pure mountain experience, where local culture and traditional European hospitality formed a welcoming spirit rooted in the natural environment. That essence remains at the core of the resort to this day.
Our Purpose
Enjoy • Protect • Give
Our appreciation for the mountains runs deeper than skiing and riding.
We are committed to enjoying, protecting, and giving back to these mountains and our community. This is why we pursued the B Corporation certification in 2017 becoming the first mountain resort to obtain certification. Being a B Corp helps us learn how to use our business as a force for good for our environment, our workplace, our community, and our guests by providing a framework to conduct our business in a responsible manner to benefit our stakeholders. It also connects us to the community of certified B Corp businesses around the world that inspire and challenge us to be better. B Corp Certification gives us a benchmark to improve our performance so that we continue to focus on beneficial practices such as calculating and reducing our carbon footprint, paying living wages, providing benefits that are meaningful to our staff, and supporting other responsible businesses. The certification is not an end game, but a guideline to help us be better. Please check out our annual report below to review our progress.
Our Vision
At TAOS, we have four principles that guide our decisions:
- Iconic & independent
- Better, not bigger
- Confluence of cultures
- B Corp ethos
Each component is as important as the next. Together, they create the unique, world-class destination nestled in the heart of the Sangre de Cristos. Our vision does not expand our resort boundary, but instead focuses on enhancing the guest experience both on and off the mountain. In the past few years, this has included projects like the beautiful slopeside lodging, The Blake, which pays homage to the incredible history and art of the region, the state-of-the-art Rio Hondo Learning Center and beginner terrain, and becoming an all-season destination by launching summer activities like lift-served mountain biking and a Via Ferrata guided climbing experience. In the upcoming years, differentiated restaurant choices and replacing older lifts with high-speed lifts will help disperse crowds.
As we look towards the future, we want to ensure that we never to lose the soul of what makes TAOS so special. Guided by our history and surroundings, we vow to remain true to the people and places that were fundmental to TAOS's formation.
Hotel St. Bernard
Preserving the Heritage
Jean Mayer helped solidify Taos Ski Valley’s place as a world-class resort, and all those who met him, skied with him, or stayed at the Hotel St. Bernard were graced with his warmth and passion for the sport and the mountain. Although Jean is gone, his legacy will live on. We’re thrilled to share the vision for the future of this famed hospitality experience.
Master Development Plan
In accordance with the terms of the Ski Area’s Special Use Permit, Taos completed a Master Development Plan (MDP) in 2021 to outline plans for future improvements on National Forest Service lands within the Ski Area boundary. Several public engagement and outreach meetings occurred during the planning process of the 2021 MDP, in order to better develop and refine concepts for improvements at the Ski Area. The map below shows the full range of improvements proposed in the MDP. To hear more information about the Master Development Plan and Process, please watch this video from a public forum that occurred in May 2021: 5.04.2021 Master Development Plan Virtual Public Forum Recording - YouTube
To keep up to date on the Carson National Forest’s review of the proposed improvement projects, please visit their site here: [Forest Service (usda.gov)]