Join Zack for a modest day of backcountry skiing above Santa Fe. Meet at 7am, climb Raven's, ski to Windsor Trail, climb to Raven's, ski to Windsor, climb to Raven's, ski to car.
You will benefit from 1) skins 2) beacon and associated gear 3) snack 4) tolerance for downhill in closely spaced trees.
Let's ski up the Red Lake Road, from Highway 17 between Cumbres and La Manga Passes - and scout out the Red Lake trail, from the end of the Red Lake Road. The road is about 3-3.5 miles, starting at 10,000 ft and has an 800 ft elevation gain, and will most likely be packed from snowmobiles. Then we will explore the Red Lake trail - requiring route finding (the trail is blazed) and unlikely to be packed. It is about 1 mile to the South San Juan Wilderness boundary at about 11,400 ft.
Time to feel the snow under those boards that have been collecting dust for the past couple of months. Let's go test our muscle memory on a modest day ski in the Cumbres Pass area. The objective being Dixie Creek to the overlook (approximately 8 mile out and back). Looks like 2' of base and an additional 5" fresh expected in the next 36h. Los Alamos folks, lets meet in the LANB parking lot at 07:00, departing at 07:15. Folks from White Rock we can meet at the Y, departing at 7:30. Folks from SF can meet us at the Northern NM campus parking area, departing at 8:00.
Let's do the hike to the Stone Lions in Bandelier. This is a ~14 mile hike, with approximately 2800' of elevation gain. We will do the hike as a point to point hike - dropping off cars at the Bandelier Visitor's Center, and then driving up to Ponderosa campground to begin the hike. The hike goes thru the Upper Crossing of Frijoles Canyon, thru Upper Alamo Canyon, to the Stone Lions, and then returns to the Visitor's Center thru middle Alamo Canyon.
Let's hike up the La Luz trail, in the Sandias, and take the tram down. .
The hike is 8.5 miles with a 4200 ft elevation gain and will take about 6 hours or so. The cost for the one way down trip on the tram is $15.
Note - this is the start of standard time - so, it should be easy to get up early. Let's meet at the Sullivan Field Parking lot at 6:45 am - so that we leave Los Alamos at 7 am. We will carpool. This will put us down to the bottom of the tramway at about 8:30.
I would like to announce the eighth edition of our very successful trips to Moab. As I write this, the 2015 trip has recently concluded, and was a great success. The 2014 trip report can be found at http://lamountaineers.org/node/479#comment-57.
This trip is a bicycle ride on paved roads from Jemez Springs to the Gilman Tunnels and back. The trip is in conjunction with the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC), and is free for Los Alamos Mountaineers Members and PEEC Members, but PEEC charges a small fee for non members.
Background: This is another in a series of hikes that I like to call local treasures. We live in a spectacular setting, but often find ourselves fleeing the area to get away from our weekday lives on the weekends. There are spectacular adventures to be had within minutes of where we live. This is one of them. Monument Canyon was a designation given to the area in 1932 to protect a 1-square-mile section of old growth Ponderosa Pine Forest. I like to think it was given the name due the number of tent rocks and hoodoos in the area.
Join Zack for a nice fall bike ride and coffee on Saturday, Oct 22. We'll start at the Motorola building at TA3 and bicycle around past Bandelier. We'll stop for coffee at the Pig and Fig in White Rock, then continue back to Los Alamos. We'll start around 8:30 to let it warm up a little. Let Zack know if you want to come at zackbaker@gmail.com
