Ski Basin Slope is located about 12 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Its coordinates are latitude 35° 46' 07" N., longitude 105° 48' 26" W. and it is included on the topographic maps published by the U.S. Geological Survey entitled "Aspen Basin, N. Mex.," scale 1:24,000 and "Santa Fe, New Mex.," scale 1:250,000 (parts of both appear in this folder, figures 1 and 2). It can be reached by taking the road from Santa Fe toward the Santa Fe Recreation Area and Ski Basin. At a distance of about four miles before reaching the ski area (about 12 miles distant from Santa Fe), the North and Middle Forks of Tesuque Creek pass under the road in culverts. One parks the vehicle in this vicinity and walks upstream a distance of several hundred feet to a stream gaging station. Ski Basin Slope is located 300 feet upstream of the gaging station on the slope leading down to the right bank of Middle Fork of Tesuque Creek. The location sketch map in figure 3 should enable the observer to find the site.
Ski Basin Slope is located in a forest cover of aspen, spruce and fir at an elevation of about 9800 feet above sea level. Bedrock is granite and outcrops frequently in the area. A soil mantel, rich in humus and in some places shallow, has developed over the granite bedrock. With an average rainfall of about 16 inches per year and the frequent opportunity for wetting and drying and freezing and thawing, mass movement or soil creep is believed to be an important slope process in the area. This is indicated by a number of trees having their trunks bent downslope near the ground surface. This is schematically shown on figure 4.
To measure rates of soil creep, a mass-movement line was installed and monumented on either end with a permanent reference point or bench mark. Each reference point is a four-foot length of 1/2-inch diameter steel rod driven into the ground and protruding about six inches above the ground surface. The mass-movement line consists of 10-inch long steel pins driven into the ground and surveyed to determine their position from the line of sight between the two end bench marks. The individual pins will not maintain their permanency without proper maintenance and surveilance. However, the end bench marks are permanent and the line could be reestablished in the future even if the intermediate pins were lost.
The mass-movement line was installed on August 16, 1963 and has been resurveyed on August 4, 1964, November 7, 1966 and November 14, 1967. The data of these surveys are listed in table 1 of this file. The file of original data includes color ground photography at the time of each survey.