I can understand the animosity towards Taos...believe me.
I've preached, bitched, heckled and argued for close to 20 years about it...on many, many levels. Far more then most will ever realize. Hell...I care so much about the issue of boarding at Taos. I flew close to 1,000 miles (?) just to be there for the emancipation day.
But you know what. In the end...we won. They had to come begging to us to save them. And if anything...it was great to rub it in their faces a bit....just by being there.
Adrianna was very gracious towards all the boarders there in the early morning. The staff/lifties/etc were VERY welcoming. They auctioned off the first 10 lift chairs to 40 people for a charity cause. Adrianna was gracious and understanding enough to give the guy that slept at the lift one of the spots on the very first chair. We were treated with class and respect...on many levels. The hill had a distinctly positive vibe all day...people we're glowing with the weight of hate lifted from their shoulders.
The simple fact is Taos is an incredible mountian...offering steeps that few others ski areas offer. The only thing you'd be doing by not going there now is hurting yourself and denying yourself the opportunity to ride at a special area.
Hold on to the animosity if you'd like...they certainly spewed, and supported, plenty of skier/boarder hate in their day...but that's (very thankfully) in the past now and you can either choose to move on, or wallow in the animosity and eventually develope an ulcer. If people don't want to forgive or give them any of their money...I can understand that...I just choose to forgive easier then others probably...and move on to a newer era.
While there I pretty much went looking for some haters...just to rub their noses in their, inevitable, 'loss'. I stood next to an older ski school instructor and essentially forced him to talk to me...you could tell it killed him to just be near a snowboarder....never mind talk to one. It was like pulling teeth to just get him to respond to me...which was my own way of claiming victory.
I generally wear mittens, rather then gloves, and I went by a group of ski patrollers (who are notoriously grump, hard line assholes there) and raised my hand in the air and said..."Guess how many fingers I'm holding up for Taos today? It used to be one...but now it's two..." And I'd whip my mitten off and show them the peace sign. Some smiled, others looked blankly at me.
I won't claim Taos deserves unconditional support or even forgiveness for thier past stances/marketing..but I will say that it's better to be the bigger man in the whole deal...claim the moral high ground and move on. Because at this point you're only hurting yourself. It is that good of a hill.
One of the more memorable experiences (From watching a cute young couple...one obviously a skier the other obviously a boarder walking hand in hand together to having the lifties cheer for me and other boarders on *every* lift ride up) was at the opening lift. As things got going and everyone was anxious and hyped...the chair started moving and the 60-100 or so boarders waiting all started pounding their decks on the snow...it was loud...very loud. You could see how some of the workers hadn't ever really ever experienced that noise and they looked confused, even scared. You could feel the snowboarder power and years of emotion in that echoing sound...it was incredible and was one of the things that made the whole trip worth while.
I generally heckle hippies...and bristle at being called one. That said...it's better to focus on the postive and the love rather then wallow in the negative and the hate. I fully understand that there is plenty of negative in this world that shouldn't be ignored, and should be battled..I'm not saying to be blindly accepting of everything. I am saying that we won and that should be celebrated. After many years of bringing the hate to Taos...it's time to let it go and bring the love.. It's time to mend the wounds and move forward. For the betterment of all. Boarders and skiers alike.
Call me a hippie if you'd like (and after re-reading this I can see why)...but, generally speaking, life is simply better if you're more love oriented then hate oriented.
The choice is yours to make.
