Angel Fire's 60th Winter Starts With the Lights Off
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
For six decades, one of the oldest pieces of equipment on the mountain carried some of its most distinctive skiing. Lift 2 was a fixed-grip, two-seat chair that was 59 years old in March 2026. In its farewell to the chair, the resort described it as "as old as the resort itself." It was also the chair under the lights. Angel Fire Resort calls itself the only resort in New Mexico offering night skiing, and Chair 2 served the two runs it lit.
The chair has been taken down. In its place is Angel Express, New Mexico's first high-speed six-person chairlift. With the old chair gone, the resort has paused night skiing for the 2026–27 season, which is also its 60th anniversary season. The mountain opens December 11. Apart from a few holiday events, the slopes go dark at closing this winter, and the evening calendar is set at the lake, in the visitor center parking lot and at the base area.
Lift 2 changed many times over its life. The resort's history says it was once known as "the red chair," back when lifts went by color instead of number, and that it was blue and black at other points. It was moved and modified over the years. Before Chair 1, now Dreamcatcher, was built, Lift 2 even had a midway unload station. Its riders used it to reach Exhibition and High Road.
Last winter was the final one with lights on those runs. The Albuquerque Journal ran a February 2026 feature on Angel Fire's after-dark sessions, with the schedule running through March. Nobody had announced yet that those sessions would be the last under the old setup.
Angel Express was finished over the summer, and the resort announced its completion on July 29. The mountain now has eight lifts, three of them high-speed. The resort has done this before. In 1996 it installed the state's first high-speed four-seat lift.
Here is how the old chair and the new one compare.
| Lift 2 | Angel Express | |
|---|---|---|
| Chair | Fixed-grip, two seats | High-speed, six seats |
| Age | 59 years old as of March 2026 | Completed summer 2026 |
| Runs served | 2 runs under the lights | 14 runs |
| New terrain | None | Heaven Sent, Kofler's Run, Deer Glade |
| Uphill capacity | Not published | Adds 1,800 skiers and riders per hour |
The new lift also changes things for beginners. Skiers and riders moving up from the Dream Catcher beginner hill can now ride to friendly mid-mountain terrain without going all the way to the 10,677-foot summit. For a family with a child in the second or third season of lessons, that may change how a whole Saturday goes.
The resort plans to use this season to watch how skiers and riders actually move across the runs off Angel Express, and then decide where to invest in new lighting. In its announcement, the resort said it wants to "illuminate the runs our guests love most."
The announcement also says night skiing will return in future winters. The runs skiers choose off Angel Express this season are the information the resort says it will use to place those lights.
For now, the season happens in daylight. The resort's activity window runs from December 11, 2026 through March 21, 2027. The tubing hill is open daily over the same dates, with sessions from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and a 9 a.m. start on the holiday schedule. For anyone still deciding on a pass, the current pass page lists adult prices of $789, $889 and $999 across its three purchase windows. It also introduces a reusable Access Card with a one-time $5 media fee.
Last winter, an Angel Fire evening could be spent on skis. This winter the published evening events mostly run between 4 and 7 p.m., and most of them are off the slopes. Here are the dates that are set so far:
Evenings with nothing on the calendar happen indoors. The resort's dining page lists Elements and The Lounge as open Wednesday through Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m. El Jefe, a bar and taqueria with a Mexican theme, is listed Thursday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The page cautions that hours and availability change with the season, so check before you go. Away from the base area, One People's Kitchen is at 3453 Mountain View Blvd., Unit 1. Taos News described it as a comfort-food restaurant run by chef-owner John Sturdivant.
The Nordic Center has more than 12 kilometers of groomed trail and allows snowshoeing. The hours on its page are still from last season, so call ahead before planning a late-afternoon loop.
The two runs that used to be lit are the clearest part of Lift 2's legacy. The rest of its legacy is in the new lift's alignment. The resort describes Angel Express as changing "how guests move across the mountain, where they ski, and how they experience our terrain." The resort will spend the 60th season watching those patterns from Heaven Sent, Kofler's Run, Deer Glade and the eleven other runs off the new chair, and then decide where to put the lights.
Until then, the brightest scheduled evening on the mountain is Christmas Eve, when the torchlight parade comes down between 6 and 7 p.m.
At Summit Group Real Estate Professionals, we follow changes in the Moreno Valley the way owners there do, one chairlift and one season at a time. If you're wondering what a new lift, a new run or a change on the mountain could mean for a home or lot near the resort, we'd be glad to talk it through. Contact Us.
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