Past Trips

Let's hike to the Stone Lions in Bandelier.  Starting at the visitors center, we will hike up out of Frijoles Canyon, taking the Frijoles Rim trail towards the west.  At 5 miles, we will take the trail down into Upper Alamo Canyon, and then on to the Stone Lions.  We will return past Yapashi Ruins and hike back to the Visitor's Center via middle Alamo Canyon.  The hike is approximately 15 miles and 2,300-foot elevation gain.  We will organize our carpools so that we can start hiking at 7 am.  It will be ~8 hour hike.

Lower Muley Twist Canyon (Park Service photo)

To explore some new country, and as a practice hike for the May 9-17 Muley Twist trip, let's explore the Galisteo Basin Preserve. The Preserve is a 13,200-acre conservation-based community development project located 15 miles southeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the central Galisteo Basin. An area of exceptionally fragile and ecologically significant land and water resources, the Galisteo Basin is internationally celebrated for its spectacular scenic, cultural, and wildlife habitat values. Most of the land will be kept as open space.

Mt. Shavano (14,229') is the southernmost 14er in the Sawatch Range. It's east bowl sports a very prominent three-fingered snowfield - the Angel of Shavano. The "Angel of Shavano" is a snow feature that sort of looks like an angel with arms and wings (see photo). When in condition, it offers a moderate-angled 3000' ski descent.

Friday night, we'll stay the night in a Salida motel and then head to Mt. Shavano early Saturday morning to summit, then ski or snowboard down the Angel!

For many years as I drove past San Antonio Mountain on my way to Alamosa I looked to the East and wondered what that obvious mountain was that almost looked like San Antonio's sister.  I later discovered it was named Ute Mountain.  I had climbed San Antonio several times, but didn't know how to get to Ute.  Luckily fellow LAM mountaineer Jason Halladay had posted a well written SummitPost route description.  I think it's time to check out the mountain!

Earn your turns! Sure you've hiked up New Mexico's highest peak, but have you skied it?  We'll head to Taos early Sunday morning. Then, we'll head to Williams Lake and either skin up or boot pack up to the Wheeler Peak summit. Lunch at the summit before we ski/snowboard down to Williams Lake.  Celebrate at Eske's Brew Pub!

A climbing trip to Hueco Tanks.  Hikers and afficionadoes of rock art are welcome also.

We'll leave on Friday the 20th about 1pm in order to reach the entrance station to Hueco Tanks Texas State Park before 5pm (to get our campsites before they close).

Climb, Hike, Sightsee the 21st/22nd/ and the morning of the 23d.  Vacate the campground before 2pm on the 23d, and leave the Park heading for Los Alamos before the park closes at 6 that evening.

This will be a practice session for snow/ice skills we want to learn or improve upon before heading to Mt. Hood.

We'll use the east end of Pajarito Ski Hill. Where you make a 90 degree righthand turn to make the final approach to Pajarito Ski Hill's parking, there is a large area to park in that corner. It overlooks the bottom of the Townsite chair. Let's meet here by 8am.

We'll find a place to pack down a sliding spot.

In order of priority:

1) Self-arrest.

We will start from the highway near La Cueva and ski to the San Antonio Hot Springs.  The tour will be led by Norbert Ensslin and is intended to meet up at the hot springs with the ski party coming from Pajarito Mountain, led by Scott Baily. Our goal is to have a fun, relaxed day of skiing, and hopefully provide some support (in the way of drinks, goodies, broken track, car switches, etc.) for tired skiers coming all the way from Pajarito.