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Monthly Program:

Get to Know the Santa Fe to Taos Thru-Hike

published by bill on Sat, 2025-09-13 13:18
Date: 
Tue, 2025-10-28

The October 28 Mountaineers meeting will feature a talk by Pam Neely, the creator of the Santa Fe to Taos Thru-Hike. In this presentation, she will introduce this new hike, which has been over a decade in the making.

We call all adventurers to learn about this new long-distance trail in New Mexico. The Santa Fe to Taos Thru-Hike goes from Santa Fe Plaza to Taos Plaza 132 miles over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The route is now extensively documented in a new guidebook. Come find out more about the trail and hear answers to the most common questions about the thru-hike. The information could be invaluable to anyone considering the route.

Pam Neely is the founder of the Santa Fe to Taos Thru-Hike and the creator of the route. She is the author of The Santa Fe to Taos Thru-Hike Pocket Guide, a certified Wilderness Responder, past Search & Rescue volunteer, and a 20-year resident of New Mexico.

We welcome all to this Mountaineers’ meeting, held on the usual fourth Tuesday of the month. The social hour, with cookies, begins at 6:45 PM and the program at 7:00 PM. The presentation will be in-person at Los Alamos Nature Center; the slides will be live-streamed on Zoom. Registration is required to Zoom and recommended for in-person – we would love to see your smiling face. Registration details will be posted once they are available.

Cover of the new guidebook

 

Pages

Climbing School Update

Registration is Open for Los Alamos Mountaineers Climbing School

The Los Alamos Mountaineers are thrilled to announce that they will be offering a climbing school following last year’s successful revival of the school, in conjunction with Mountain Skills Rock Climbing Adventures of Taos. Details can be found on their climbing school page, here .
Mountain Skills, supported by Mountaineers volunteers, will teach rock climbing with a safety first attitude, including movement on rock, belaying, rappelling, cleaning protective gear, and removing anchors, with extensive on-rock practice. The course objective is such that successful students should develop the skills needed to participate in top roping, follow a leader in a multi-pitch trad climb, and be able to climb or descend moderate technical obstacles in unplanned backcountry situations using improvised gear (e.g. rope and carabiners). No previous rock climbing experience is required.

 

Ongoing Events


 

Monthly Public Meeting and Presentation:


Normally held in the planetarium of the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC)
on the fourth Tuesday of each month. Now offering hybrid meetings with in-person and zoom options! Sign up for each talk at the Monthly Program page.

Social at 6:45.  Reports of recent and upcoming trips at 7:05pm.   Program to follow.

Visitors are always welcome!  Free refreshments!

Past presentations, and occasionally future, can be viewed here

 

Future Club Speakers:  In addition to frequent presentations by nationally known adventurers, we love to hear from our own members....not that some of you aren't in that group.  A presentation gets you a free club membership and dinner at the restaurant of your choice in Los Alamos.

LAM Member Presentations Wanted! The LAM Board would like to encourage our members to provide more of our monthly presentations.  We understand well that club members are an active lot, with a wealth of activities in their repertoire that can and have been inspiring to new and old members alike.  We have often focused our monthly presentations on the elite of the outdoor adventure world, and perhaps created the undesired effect of squelching the voices of our own members who participate in frequent beautiful and exciting adventures of their own.  Although our own activities are not always "world class", they are representative of what we "weekend" athletes can and do accomplish.  We want many of our programs to inspire the "I can do that" attitude in our members, not merely entertain.  Shock and awe may have their rightful place, but inspiration to participate and shine is our true goal.

 

Trip Leaders:  Post your trip by logging in and then going here.  If you do not have an account, contact  the webmaster. For overnight trips, please ensure that membership waivers for participants are current and recorded by the club Membership Chairperson prior to your trip. Non-members may participate in day trips. All club sponsored trips require the trip waiver. After the trip, please scan and email a PDF of the waiver to the Trip Coordinator.

Trip Leader Awards: The club will recognize trip leaders as described here.

Borrow Equipment: We have a limited amount of mountaineering equipment for loan (e.g., avalanche transceivers). Contact our Equipment Manager listed on this page.

 

 

Trip Leaders: Anyone can lead a trip! Post your trip by logging in and then going here. If you do not have an account, contact the webmaster. For overnight trips, please ensure that membership waivers for participants are current and recorded by the club Membership Chairperson prior to your trip. Non-members may participate in day trips. All club sponsored trips require the trip waiver. After the trip, please scan and email a PDF of the waiver to the Trip Coordinator.

  • Ski Hill Potluck Hike - Last of the Season

    published by efmillsnm on Mon, 2025-09-29 09:34
    Leader: 
    Ellen Mills
    Telephone: 
    5056602345
    Date: 
    Fri, 2025-10-03
    Leader Email: 
    efmillsnm@gmail.com
    Difficulty: 
    Moderate
    Technicality: 
    Beginner
    Are dogs allowed?: 
    Allowed

    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. 

  • Hanksville-based Hiking October 5-12, 2025

    published by Anonymous on Sat, 2025-05-10 16:10
    Leader: 
    Bill Priedhorsky
    Telephone: 
    (505) 412-0376
    Date: 
    Sun, 2025-10-05
    Leader Email: 
    bill@priedhorsky.net
    Difficulty: 
    Moderate
    Technicality: 
    Intermediate
    Are dogs allowed?: 
    Not allowed

    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.

  • Late Season Weekend Backpack in the CO Sangre de Cristos

    published by tpietrass on Wed, 2025-10-01 17:38
    Leader: 
    Tanja Pietrass
    Telephone: 
    5754187969
    Date: 
    Fri, 2025-10-10
    Leader Email: 
    tpietrass@gmail.com
    Difficulty: 
    Strenuous
    Technicality: 
    Advanced
    Are dogs allowed?: 
    Not allowed

    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).

  • Moab bike/hike/explore Nov. 1-9, 2025

    published by Anonymous on Sat, 2025-03-08 15:06
    Leader: 
    Bill Priedhorsky
    Telephone: 
    5054120376
    Date: 
    Sat, 2025-11-01
    Leader Email: 
    bill@priedhorsky.net
    Difficulty: 
    Moderate
    Technicality: 
    Intermediate
    Are dogs allowed?: 
    Not allowed

    I would like to announce the seventeenth edition of our successful hike/explore/bike trips to Moab. We have been going almost every November since 2008, and every time has been a great success. The 2014 trip report can be found at http://lamountaineers.org/node/479#comment-57. Let me (Bill Priedhorsky) know if you would like to join the trip.

  • Bluff Hiking weekend Dec. 10 - Dec. 14

    published by Anonymous on Sat, 2025-06-28 11:47
    Leader: 
    Bill Priedhorsky
    Telephone: 
    (505) 412-0376
    Date: 
    Wed, 2025-12-10
    Leader Email: 
    bill@priedhorsky.net
    Difficulty: 
    Moderate
    Technicality: 
    Intermediate
    Are dogs allowed?: 
    Not allowed

    We have many times travelled to Bluff, Utah for a taste of the canyon country. Bluff is less than six hours from Los Alamos and, situated along the San Juan River, at a low altitude best suited for trips late or early in the season. Even in early December the average daily high is around 50 F. There are numerous places to hike and explore from Bluff, including the ruins and big views of Comb Ridge, the canyons accessible from Cedar Mesa, the canyon rim just north of Bluff itself, and farther afield to places like White Canyon.

  • Floating the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande near Big Bend, 3/27-4/5/26

    published by Anonymous on Sat, 2025-08-09 11:10
    Leader: 
    Bill Priedhorsky
    Telephone: 
    (505) 412-0376
    Date: 
    Fri, 2026-03-27
    Leader Email: 
    bill@priedhorsky.net
    Difficulty: 
    Moderate
    Technicality: 
    Intermediate
    Are dogs allowed?: 
    Not allowed

    For a completely different outing, I propose a river trip in early spring 2026 to the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande in the Big Bend area, with an outfitter, Far Flung Expeditions, that comes well-recommended by a friend. We will leave Los Alamos and environs on Friday, March 27, driving to Marathon, Texas, about an 8-hour drive. We will meet the outfitter and go onto the river the next day, Saturday, and emerge from the canyons on Saturday, April 4. After overnighting, we will drive back home April 5. We will carpool as much as possible, to minimize driving costs and parking needs.

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