Lived there just under five years, and it's by far one of the best mountains I've ever skied.
Note that I said mountain, and not resort as the amenities, the lifts, and pretty much every other aspect besides the terrain itself is lagging behind even most middle of the road ec resorts. Obviously, that doesn't mean shit, as it's all about the skiing there anyway. No apres scene worth mentioning (unless you wanna rub elbows with gaper tourists or filthly, sketchy, druggy hippies...)
If the snow is bad...Taos is bad. Period. They groom nothing but catwalks and bunny slopes, and the whole mountain, particularly the front side and most accessible terrain from the primary base lift is BUMPED up. If there's snow (and I mean in the last week or so as nothing gets skied out...the place is a ghost town outside of two weeks a year) you wanna warm up on the stuff under chair 2, or even out towards chair 8, and then hike either the west basin, or the ridge towards Kachina. There's literally dozens of chutes, wide open bowls, glades, and cliff zones to explore....it never gets old. If you happen to the backside early on (take chair 1, to chair 2, to the backside), take the short traverse from the top of kachina chair (lift 4) to hunzigers and el funko, and even further skier's right to a stash of seldom skied goodies that require NO hike to access. you can lap really great stuff off of chair 4 and 7 if you don't feel like hiking. I can't remember the glade/tree run right beneath 7 chair...something trees probably? haha...but holy shit it's awesome.
You WILL have fun if you're an all mountain, adventurous, not lazy skier. If you're a park kid, prepare to be miserable, and drive to Angelfire.
