I had definitely been looking forward to this trip. For the last couple of years, state highpointing had basically been a diversion for me as well as a fun way of seeing the country. Britton Hill, Florida; Ebright Azimuth, Delaware; Mount Sunflower, Kansas. You get the point. Enjoyable travel, but not any kind of legitimate mountaineering or even any serious hiking objectives. This trip would get me back into the swing of things … harken back to mountains such as Mount Marcy (NY), Katahdin (ME) and Mount Washington (NH). These cool Northeastern peaks and the thought of eventually exploring out west is what had gotten me hooked on the idea of state highpointing in the first place. It has proven to be a hobby that can be both silly and serious, but always fun.
Guadalupe Peak, Texas – September 22, 2006
So here I was with my 67-year-old father in El Paso, Texas, crawling into the rental car bound for the Guadalupe Mountains National Park some 100 miles away. We had flown in from Albany, NY (elevation basically zero) the night before and I was a little concerned that we might feel a few effects of altitude even at the fairly moderate 8,749-foot summit of Guadalupe Peak. As we headed east on Routes 62/180 and the Guadalupe massif came onto sight, it was hard not to get excited about the day’s objective. More than half-a-dozen 8,000-foot peaks shot up several thousand vertical feet above the West Texas plains and the impressive El Capitan was quite a sight to savor.
The day was sunny and cool by Texas standards and a gray mass of clouds hung over the Guadalupe massif … a sign not necessarily of stormy weather but a warning of the winds that I would later encounter up high. My Dad and I signed through the trail register around 8:30 AM and started up the rocky exposed trail. Up until now, my father’s most difficult hike in terms of total elevation gain had been on Harney Peak, South Dakota (although he swears Eagle Mountain, MInnesota was more difficult). The rough terrain of this West Texas landscape soon proved a little too rugged for him and after having gained several hundred feet in elevation, he urged me to go on ahead as he didn’t feel up for a summit attempt. Much to his credit, he plodded along at his own pace as I continued to zig-zag up the series of switchbacks leading to the top of the first ridge.
Only one other party had signed through the trail register on this Friday morning and after meeting and exchanging pleasantries with this now descending couple, I knew I had the mountain to myself. They warned of the wind up high, but I had deduced as much by this point. I was really enjoying myself and moving well in spite of the fairly rapid gain in elevation over the last 16 hours. It wasn’t until after crossing the well-known bridge that I started to notice my breathing was a little labored. Nothing to be concerned about at the moment as the summit loomed just a few hundred feet above, but a big red flag regarding my plans to not only summit Wheeler Peak, New Mexico the following day but to also attempt a traverse of the ridge from Wheeler over to Simpson, Point 12,728, Lake Fork Peak and Kachina.
The summit of Guadalupe proved impressive as advertised and the views down at the vegetated backside of El Capitan were breathtaking indeed. The wind whipped in gusts that I would estimate to be speeds of about 40-50 MPH although I later heard that by late afternoon, they were blowing as fast as 80 MPH. I guess this is fairly normal for Guadalupe and when coupled with summit temperatures in the mid-50s, it proved to be a fairly chilly summit experience.
A spectacular day on a fine peak.
Thwarted on Wheeler Peak, New Mexico – September 23, 2006
The drive from Guadalupe Mountains National Park to Taos, Mew Mexico wasn’t exactly long by highpointing standards but it did take the better part of seven to eight hours. By the time we arrived in Taos and settled some unexpected hotel issues, it was pushing 10 PM. We had heard that the higher elevations of Colorado were getting hammered by snow, but there was no indication the snows had reached this far south. We went to bed expecting a challenging day starting with a 6 AM rendezvous with my highpointing friend Kevin and his wife Jenni, but we really had no idea we were in for an ass-kicking courtesy of high altitude and deep snow.
The morning started out crisp and clear and after my Dad and I met up with Kevin and Jenni, the four of us hit the trail for the Bull-of-the-Woods approach to Wheeler right around 7:20 AM. The pace we all set was slow and steady but clearly Kevin was looking fit and ready to kick it up a notch. Unfortunately, on this day, neither my Dad nor I could match his energy or enthusiasm. My Dad really entertained no serious thoughts that he would attain the summit. Mentally, I think he had reached the end of the road on his state highpointing journey and just wanted to enjoy a nice day out for as long as he could last. In the end, my Dad turned back somewhere between 10,500 and 11,000 feet in elevation after having had a fun time hiking with Kevin, Jenni and myself.
Now a threesome, Kevin, Jenni and I continued but I was feeling very sluggish. Just a year earlier, Kevin and I had proven to be a well-matched team for a Presidential traverse we completed in New Hampshire during the annual State Highpointers Club Convention. On this day, however, I was outmatched by both Kevin and Jenni and soon called it quits myself when nausea and lassitude began to set in at about 12,000 feet … just below the summit of Frazer Mountain. A personal elevation record for me, but still over 1,000 vertical feet shy of my goal for the day.
A solid defeat.
Redemption on Wheeler – September 25, 2006
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed about not reaching the summit of Wheeler on Saturday the 23rd. It kind of threw me for a loop for several hours as I tried to figure out what I wanted to do. A big part of me wanted to go right back at it on Sunday morning. I’d scheduled a rest day into my agenda and had initially planned to head for Mount Elbert on Monday. But the heavy snow that Colorado had received – up to three feet in the higher elevations coupled with a whole bunch of closed roads – made me realize I wouldn’t have much chance of bagging Elbert on what would also turn out to be my fourth consecutive day of hiking. I definitely did not want to go home with TWO failures. So then I thought about heading to Humphreys Peak, Arizona for an attempt on Monday. I was almost sold on leaving town for Flagstaff but finally took a deep breath and decided the best course of action would be to just hang out in Taos, get completely acclimated and try for Wheeler again on Monday the 25th. This turned out to be the right decision.
My Dad and I scouted out the first portion of the Williams Lake approach Sunday morning and the trail to the lake was a hard-pack of snow and ice. This raised my concern about the possibility of ice on the slope to the peak particularly for the early morning ascent we planned. Warm temperatures were melting the snow during the day, but cold overnight temperatures were certainly having a freezing effect. I hadn’t brought crampons so we headed to Taos to buy a pair, but were quite surprised that neither outfitting shop in town currently had strap-on crampons in stock. One of the stores was a little more helpful in trying to scare up a pair but in the end, the clerk conceded that the early season snow had simply caught them off-guard. I didn’t know if I’d actually need the crampons, but it would have been nice to have them in my pack … just in case.
As it turned out, crampons weren’t truly needed on this route. As we started out along the Williams Lake Trail a little before 8 AM, we soon realized that the last 1.2 miles of trail to the lake was a solid sheet of ice, largely as a result of the heavy foot traffic that had been through over the weekend. The grades, however, were gentle enough that it really wasn’t a big deal. And as I scouted out the route from the lake to the summit, which ascends 2,000 feet in .9 miles, I knew that in spite of a good deal of snow and ice on the slope, there was certainly enough solid ground with which to work.
As I left my Dad at Williams Lake and ascended the lower part of the slope, the conditions actually reminded me of early spring hiking in the Adirondacks. A mix of snow and ice … some of it firm, some of it soft. The weather could not have been better on this day. Bright sunshine dominated the scene, contributing all the more to the outstanding mountain scenery on all sides of Williams Lake. As I worked my way out of the last section of woods onto the scree slope, the sunshine was quick to warm although the temperatures were still in the low 30s.
I gained elevation quickly and soon noticed a lone climber several hundred feet above/ahead of me. He seemed to be moving well and when I later attained the ridge, I stopped to talked to him as he was now on his way down from the summit. As far as I could tell, we were the only two people on the mountain on this Monday morning … a huge contrast to the crowds my Dad and I had encountered two days earlier along the Bull-of-the-Woods approach. I finally topped out somewhere between 10:30 AM and 11:00 AM and was very satisfied with the way it had all turned out. I knew that if I went home with a failure on my first big western highpoint that it would eat at me until I got another crack at it, which might be at least a year away. I could see down at Williams Lake and thought my Dad might be watching so I waved my hiking pole to let him know I’d made it, but as it turned out, I ran across him at 12,200 feet or about halfway up the slope. Pretty damn good if you ask me. I would have gone back up to the summit, but he had gone as far as he wanted so we headed back down and started working our way toward Denver and our flight back home the following morning.
A great trip with two more fun highpoints. 38 down, 12 tough western state highpoints to go. At this point, I’m hoping to do two or three highpoints per year over the next handful of years. For 2007, it’s looking like Humphreys (AZ) and Elbert (CO).
Mark’s Mountain Travels 