The view south from the summit toward Deming:
| I'd had my eye on this peak long before I had any aspirations of completing New Mexico's County highpoints. Very prominent from both I-25 and I-10, the siren effect takes hold. I arrived at the gate surprised to find it open, and I tought I better get permission to drive past the gate so that I didn't end up getting locked in. Mrs. Hyatt was very polite and granted access for me to continue up the road. I had a bit of a late start because of thr back and forth dricing, and started up the creek bed at 9:00 a.m. The imposing North Face dominated the majority of the hike up (photo on right). I was surprised to see ice along the creek, covering rock slabs. The brush thickened as I approached the saddle, and true bushwhacking began. The ascent to the saddle was complicated by 6" of loose snow on the ground. Ample vegetation provided good belays to avoid a slip in the snow. Still, this was easy hiking. |
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| Once on the shoulder, I found a game trail on the east side which avoided much of the yucca and other evil-doing plants. After reaching the East Ridge, there was blaze tape marking much of the remainder to the face. After a few hundred yards, the face came into view from the east (photo on left). The vegetation here was more than threatening if one were to fall, which I almost did. I was grateful I brought trekking poles, thus reducing the risk of being quasi-impaled. The wind picked up a little, but the ambient temperature was still quite acceptable for hiking. On the ridge, I could see several other prominent peaks and highpoints, most notably, Organ Needle and the namesake Sierra Blanca. | |
| Finally, I arrived at the base of the face. I put my trekking poles aside to ascend the obvious weakness (photo on right). This short section of scrambling was fun, and not at all precipitous. I took my time, arriving at the highest point quite satisfied at 10:30. The register was very large compared to what I'm used to - an 8" white PVC Cannister. I made the mistake of not looking at my GPS during my descent into the (wrong) drainage. I thought I was just temporarily off route when I was downclimbing facing inward holding Oak and brush. The bushwhacking was so terrible to arrive at the (wrong) creekbed, I was bleeding from several places. Finally pulling out my GPS, I realized it would probably be best to ascend over the ridge to the west to acquire the proper drainage. Thus, after reascending 600' in nearly the worst bushwhacking experience of my life, I finally began the intended descent. I reached my truck at 12:30, after wasting about 45 minutes with my haphazard routefinding. |
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The view south from the summit toward Deming: | ||