This Day in History — November 1 in the Enchanted Circle: Snowmaking Starts in Red River
November 1 arrives in Red River with the clocks turned back, rain in the valley, and snow in the forecast — the hinge day between fall color and ski season. On November 1, 2010, the Red River Ski Area officially started making snow, building the white piles visitors could see on the webcams as the town prepared to open on November 24. Here is November 1, and the season around it, across the Enchanted Circle.
This Day in History — October 31 in the Enchanted Circle: The Halloween Storm of 1972
October 31 arrives in Red River with frost on the boardwalks, the last gold holding in the canyon cottonwoods, and winter plainly on its way down from Wheeler Peak. It is a fitting date for this daily almanac, because the strongest story tied to this exact day is a Halloween when winter did not wait. Between October 30 and November 1, 1972, a storm buried Red River under deep snow and opened a legendary ski season.
From Garmisch to Red River: How Sigi Klein Lured a Ski-Jumping Legend to Town
Did you know that in its first few winters, tiny Red River Ski Area had a ski school with a European pedigree that resorts many times its size would have envied? The men who gave it that pedigree came from Garmisch, the German Alpine resort that hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics. One of them, Sigi Klein, talked the other, the legendary ski jumper Erich Windisch, into leaving Colorado to teach in New Mexico.
Powder Puff Mountain: Red River's Little Beginner Hill That Taught a Town to Ski
Did you know Red River once had two ski areas? Just west of town, a small beginner hill called Powder Puff Mountain taught generations of first-timers to turn, stop, and fall in love with winter in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It was never the biggest mountain in New Mexico, and that was exactly the point. Powder Puff was friendly, close, and built for learning.