New Mexico’s Angel Fire Resort stated that new events and mountain improvements, including expanding the terrain parks and widening several of the most popular trails, are planned for the resort’s 50th Anniversary season. Angel Fire Resort opens December 9, 2016.
Under the direction of terrain park designer Jon Eppler, Angel Fire Resort’s Liberation Terrain Park is expanding for the second season in a row. Eppler, who has created parks for major events including The Winter X-Games and The Burton U.S. Open, redesigned Liberation Park last winter and is now developing plans for a new boarder-skier cross course for the park.
“Boarder cross courses are the fastest growing areas of interest for skiing and snowboarding families,” explained Jon Eppler, slope operations manager, Angel Fire Resort. “We did an experiment and left the course up that we built for the USASA Boarder-Skier X Games for our guests to try out and it was so popular we are now creating New Mexico’s first and only season-long, lift-accessed boarder-skier cross course.”
Eppler, a second-generation terrain park developer, is also expanding the Stash Parks he built last season. The Stash Parks use non-conventional terrain park features like natural snow and logs to ride through as skiers and riders make their way down the mountain. The resort will be adding several more Stash Features along various green and blue trails. The resort has also purchased two PistenBully 400 snowcats.
“The winter weather in New Mexico can be unpredictable, which is why adding these more efficient, top performing snowcats to our fleet of grooming machines will allow us to make the best trails and cover the most terrain regardless of snow conditions,” explained Andy Whitacre, mountain operations manager, Angel Fire Resort.
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary season, Angel Fire Resort will host a weekend-long celebration January 19-22, 2017. To mark the resort’s Golden Anniversary, a select number of lift tickets will be $5.50 each on Saturday, January 21, and Sunday, January 22, 2017. This is the same price the lift tickets were when Angel Fire Resort first opened back in 1966, and is limited to the first 550 skiers/boarders each day.
The weekend will begin with a cocktail welcome party and an open house featuring selected pieces showing the resort’s history over the last 50 years. The night party will include a live performance by Atomic Balm. The weekend celebration includes the Vintage Ski Suit Après Ski Party on the deck and free night skiing, and will wrap up with a firework show.
Angel Fire Resort is a member of the Powder Alliance, which allows all season pass holders three days of free lift tickets at 14 partner resorts. Additionally, season pass holders are offered three days of free lift tickets at Brian Head, UT; Powderhorn and Ski Cooper in CO; and Ski Apache, NM.
The Angel Fire season runs December 9, 2016 through March 19, 2017
