Did you know that on winter nights in Red River, the mountain itself seems to catch fire, in the best possible way? Skiers and snowboarders carrying shimmering red flares descend the Face, the steep black diamond run that looks straight down on town, in a slow, S-shaped stream of light, while fireworks burst overhead. It is Red River Ski Area's Torchlight Parade, and it turns an ordinary ski day into a celebration the whole town can watch.
The parade is no recent invention. Ski New Mexico was already calling it a 45-plus-year tradition in its 2015 and 2016 holiday guides, which places its roots well back in the ski area's early decades. Those guides describe instructors, ski patrol members and local residents carrying the flares, with a Rail Jam kicking off the Christmas Eve edition, and a second parade on New Year's Eve sending skiers down the Face to greet the new year.
What makes Red River's version special is geography. The ski area's main lift and ski runs all come down the mountain and funnel into the town itself, so the parade does not happen at some distant base area most visitors never see. Ski New Mexico noted that it can be seen from almost anywhere in town, and New Mexico Magazine described a stream of bouncing light moving toward the village below. You can watch from Main Street with your neighbors while the line of fire writes its slow signature above the rooftops.
It is also a tradition visitors can join, not just watch. Tom Yates, the ski area's snowboard school supervisor, told New Mexico Magazine in 2022 that he got his start in the parade around age 12, when his family vacationed in Red River from the Dallas area, and that he had by then coordinated the participants for about a decade. Guests and kids can take part if they try out with him and show they are capable, he explained. The skiers and boarders ride up, light their road flares, and come down in an S formation, moving the flares in their arms, while he calls out "torch" and the crowd answers "light."
Yates also leads the procession dressed as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and he cheerfully admitted that one snowy Christmas Eve, in front of about 1,000 people, he caught an edge on his first turn, fell, and watched his Rudolph head go rolling down the mountain ahead of him. That mix of skill, showmanship and good humor is pure Red River. The parades return every Saturday night during ski season, and on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, so if you stand on Main Street this winter and see the Face light up, you are watching one of the town's longest-running winter rituals still gliding down the hill.