Sipapu

I was at the bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico watching the national college football championship game, eating nachos and drinking beer.  A small place, the atmosphere was social, and the guy next to me got to talking about skiing.  He mentioned a small mountain called Sipapu.  They’d just had some fresh snow and he made it sound so good.  “It’s real small.”  “Almost a local’s only mountain.”  “They have great blues.”  The only thing I had to do the next day was have lunch at 1pm, so I thought well heck, why don’t I wake up early and drive up there?

So that’s what I did, I woke up and drove up there very early, up past Chimayo and Abiquiu, in the Kit Carson National Forest.  The spot was small and nothing fancy, there’s nowhere to stay up there, renting skis was kind of a rickety procedure.  But once you got going it was beautiful, the sky was clear and blue, warm and the snow was soft.

I tried out the portrait mode on my phone.

Mostly, I had the place to myself.

I didn’t think much about the name, Sipapu, although I liked it.  I said it in my head, alone on the chairlift.  Sipapu.

Later I was home I was looking through this book:

From the glossary:

Sipapu.