1663: Snow Day

Los Alamos National Laboratory might be the only large scientific institution where it’s possible to do world-class science in the morning, ski powder at lunch, and be back in the office for a two o’clock meeting. 

One crisp and snowy morning recently, this point wasn’t lost on three Lab employees and volunteer ski patrollers—Katie Higgins, Hans Herrmann, and Eric Brown. They were lounging inside Pajarito Mountain’s patrol shack, waiting for the day’s first “customers,” as they call injured skiers. “I had a pretty good idea I’d end up here when my Ph.D. advisor told me to bring my snowboard for after the interview,” says Eric Brown, the patroller in charge of lift evacuations that day and the user facilities director of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center.

Pajarito is one of the Los Alamos amenities that never appears on a job offer sheet. But like the big views that played no small role in Oppenheimer picking this seemingly random mesa in Northern New Mexico as the site of a secret weapons laboratory, for a certain type of scientist, front-door access to outdoor recreation is among the Lab’s greatest selling points. 

As Brown puts it, snowboarding clears his head, which creates space for more science. Herrmann, now a guest scientist, accepted a job at Los Alamos over offers in San Diego and Washington, DC, because of Pajarito. But for other scientists, it’s the blue-ribbon trout fishing, several wilderness areas, cross-country skiing, rock climbing, or the 50 miles of trails on campus that connect to hundreds of miles of off-campus trails—all within a short drive. 

Higgins, like many of the 40 Lab employees who volunteer for Pajarito Mountain Ski Patrol, finds in patrolling the sense of adventure and community that has kept her here for almost 30 years. It’s the same allure that has been shared by generations of patrollers and scientists. This year marks the patrol’s 75th anniversary. It was founded by Manhattan Project-era scientists, making it one of the oldest ski patrols in the country. What makes it unique is that many of its volunteers have Ph.D.s and the skiing population they’re serving is dense with colleagues.

“Every day we’re up here, we’re loading friends and co-workers—or their kids—into toboggans and taking them off the hill,” says Higgins, who is the deputy leader of the Lab’s Environmental Protection and Compliance division and a 16-year patrol veteran. “That can feel good, but it can also be really hard.” Their efforts keep Pajarito’s lifts spinning and, indirectly, give many Lab scientists another good reason for being here.

“We don’t really do big-city stuff in Los Alamos,” says Higgins. “But if you want to do excellent science and play outside in a place with few parallels, it’s hard to do better than here.”

> A version of this article first appeared in the Laboratory’s science magazine 1663.