Douglas Preston’s recollection of a 1991 Santa Fe visit describes the Dalai Lama becoming curious about skiing and asking to see the mountain. The account’s charm comes from that spontaneous interest.
Visiting a ski area is not the same as skiing
The excerpt describes a chairlift ride and watching the activity below. It does not establish that the Dalai Lama made a ski descent. The outing offered a chance to watch the sport from above.
Preston’s recollection follows a visitor encountering an unfamiliar sport and asking practical questions about it. The interest begins with conversation and develops into a journey up the mountain. Its appeal lies in those ordinary steps: hearing about skiing, wanting to see it and discovering a new perspective from the lift.
Explore more: another chapter in skiing’s history; curiosity and a first experience on a ski-jumping hill.
An unexpected question at lunch
Douglas Preston’s recollection places the episode during the Dalai Lama’s April 1991 visit to Santa Fe. At a lunch with New Mexico public figures, someone mentioned the local ski area. The unfamiliar sport prompted a series of practical questions: how people skied, whether it was difficult, how fast they travelled and how they stayed upright. These details establish the tone of the story before the group ever reaches the snow.
The interest was observational. The account describes someone wanting to understand an activity he had heard about, rather than announcing an intention to perform an expert descent. The later chairlift ride grew naturally from that conversation.
The drive changed direction
The group had begun the return towards Rancho Encantado when the Dalai Lama indicated that he was not tired and wanted to see the mountains. Preston describes the driver, Rusty, checking what to do, followed by the decision to turn back through town towards the ski basin. The change of plan gives the recollection its spontaneity.
It also shifts the setting from an organised public visit to a less expected encounter. The press had dispersed after lunch in the account, so the mountain outing did not unfold like another scheduled appearance. That contrast helps explain why the ordinary ski-area activity becomes so memorable to the people involved.
Spring conditions framed the arrival
Preston describes the end of the ski season, with the mountain still open and the slopes busy on a mild April day. The group arrived below the main lodge, where Benny Abruzzo was brought out to meet them. His surprise was part of the encounter: the visitors were dressed in robes and ordinary shoes rather than familiar ski clothing.
Soft spring snow places the recollection in a particular season. The details of temperature and surface conditions give the mountain visit a setting rather than leaving it as an abstract story about curiosity. They also connect the conversation with the skiers and terrain the group expected to see that day.
The lift introduced another unfamiliar routine
The Dalai Lama asked about going up the mountain, and the request became a chairlift ride for the group. Preston’s account describes the operator stopping the lift to allow the visitors to board in groups. The footwear made the approach awkward in the snow, creating a small practical contrast with the skiers waiting nearby.
This is the key event represented by the photograph: a ride above the slope, not proof that the visitors put on skis and descended. A precise description does not diminish the story. The chance to look down at the activity was exactly what the earlier questions had prepared the reader to expect.
The conversation continued above the slopes
Preston recalls sitting beside the Dalai Lama, who spoke about noticing the mountains around Santa Fe throughout the visit and wanting to see them more closely. Skiers below the lift now supplied a direct view of the sport that had interested him at lunch. The chairlift connected the town’s surrounding landscape with the activity taking place on it.
The scene’s appeal is in that movement from hearing about something to seeing it. The chairlift visit offers a chance to watch an unfamiliar activity from above, without making the visitor’s own skiing ability part of the story. Curiosity and practical questions carry the human story.
An attributed recollection is more useful than a loose quote
Douglas Preston supplies the written recollection, while Bob Shaw is credited with the chairlift photograph. The two records approach the visit differently: the account follows conversation and anticipation, and the image fixes a moment on the mountain. Together they give the episode a personal scale, centred on the people present and their interest in the unfamiliar scene around them.
This episode centres on an interest in watching the sport. The account ends with anticipation of seeing skiers beneath the lift, and that modest conclusion is sufficient. A mountain outing can be memorable because it offers a new view of an ordinary activity, even when no one in the visiting group makes a ski run.
Sources, photography and further reading
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