Past Trips

Petroglyphs, ruins, natural arches and a slot canyon. 8-miles, out-and-back, along an arroyo.

This is a remote hike in the Chamisa Wilderness Study Area, southwest of Cabezon Peak. The drive from Los Alamos to the trailhead takes approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes. The last hour is on a well maintained, mostly flat dirt road.

Maximum participants: 8

Contact Cecile if you would like to join.

The weather forecast looks great for this weekend, so let's get out for another climbing outing!  Potrillo Cliffs offers a range of technical climbs, from 5.6 to 5.12. Top rope or trad. Please bring your own gear: rope, anchor-building equipment, harness, shoes, helmet, belay device, etc. 

https://www.lamountaineers.org/pdf/Potrillo_Cliffs.pdf

Meet at the trailhead (428 Estante Way) at 9 AM. Bring water, snacks, sunscreen. Hope to see you there!

Are you ready for a nice, long day hike in beautiful meadows through Oat and Hay Canyons in the Jemez Mountains?

Please join Toni, Gwendolyn and other local climbers for a fun and safe day of outdoor climbing at one of White Rock's local crags. We especially encourage new LAM climbing school graduates to come out and refresh/relearn your newly acquired skills. Please bring your own gear, but contact me if you don't own a rope, anchor-building gear, and/or quick-draws (or trad gear). And, if you don't prefer to lead a lead a route, please don't feel intimidated - there will be climbers there who can/will lead and set up routes as topropes for you to climb. 

This will be a 2-night backpack to the Sangre de Cristos in Colorado, doing a loop on the Venable and Comanche trails via Phantom Terrace. The terrace is known for its exposure and the loop for its views. The elevation gain is quite significant, ca. 3,000 ft the first day over 4.5 miles, another 1,000 ft the second day to the ridge, plus two (if time permits) summmits to Venable and Comanche peaks, both of them over 13,000 ft (that's another 1,100 ft or so in combined elevation gain).

Let's get together on Friday October 10, 2025 at Camp May pavilion.  There is a fireplace and a covered area with picnic tables.  We will attempt to recreate our gathering of July 23,2024 with a potluck dinner, campfire and stories.  Note that Ellen Mills's final Ski Hill Potluck Dinner Hike is on October 3.  This outing can be considered an add-on to that series of hikes and potluck dinners.

We have returned from our last llama trip with packer BJ Orozco. Since there will not be a llama trip this fall, I have arranged to rent a very nice house in Hanksville, Utah (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/48361359), which will our base for a week of day hiking in a part of Utah that has escaped my attention for these many years. We have the house from Sunday October 5 to Sunday October 12, giving us 6 days for hiking.

This will be the final hike of the 2025 summer season ski hill hikes. I hope to start up again in May 2026, weather conditions allowing. The dedication of our new picnic table will be held early in the hiking season of 2026.

This coming Friday we will meet at the ski hill parking lot and begin hiking up the service road at 5:00 PM. Please bring a dish to share, your own plate, utensils, and beverage. It is much cooler at the top. Raingear and warmer clothes are highly recommended. 

I would like to announce an exploration in the Colorado Plateau terrain along the Chama River. Reading the river guidebook on our recent Chama River raft trip, I noted a mention of slot canyons in the gypsum formations downstream of “The Dome”, a mesa visible to the left when one hikes across Skull Bridge. New Mexico canyoneer Doug Scott mentions a canyon that he calls Dome Canyon at https://dougscottart.com/hobbies/SlotCanyons/Dome.htm.

We are approaching the end of the season for the Ski Hill hike with this trip, and one more the following Friday.  We will meet at the ski hill parking lot and begin hiking up the service road at 5:00 PM.  Please bring a dish to share, your own plate, utensils, and beverage.  It will likely be cool at the top of the mountain so warmer clothes and reingear are both highly recommended. You may want to carry a head lamp for the hike down the mountain.