Resorts Skirt Natural Gas Outages In Northern N.M.

All of New Mexico mountain resorts appear to have weathered a massive shutdown of natural gas lines in much of New Mexico that began Feb. 3 and lasted into the next week in some areas.

Red River Resort is the only area that hooks into natural gas lines, so its base lodge heaters went cold about 11 a.m.  Feb. 3, according to Lauren Judycki House. The resort, however, has a propane backup system into which it connected. The town of Red River and the ski area were back on the natural gas system by Sunday, Feb. 6.

Taos Ski Valley's operations were not affected, but the power company in the town of Taos asked resort management to switch its ski lifts to diesel generators to reduce the load on the electric grid in northern New Mexico, as residents turned to electric space heaters for warmth.

"We're running on the generators, which isn't unusual for us because of frequent power outages," Administrative Manager Adriana Blake told OnTheSnow. "All our buildings are on propane, so it's more a problem for our staff. Everything is running as normal (except a lot of our folks need a shower)."

Angel Fire Resort also heats by propane but, in response to power company requests, management cancelled snowmaking, night skiing, and tubing for several nights to help reduce grid load during peak-use hours, said spokeswoman Christi Germscheid.

Neither Ski Santa Fe nor Sandia Peak reported any changes in operations, even though the outages stretched into Albuquerque and the surrounding area.

News reports said that the shutdown of gas lines in New Mexico came after unseasonably cold weather across the Southwest strained natural gas supplies and production in neighboring Texas. More than 30,000 New Mexicans were without gas for at least two days.