From the Pajarito Canyon trailhead on West Jemez road, we will hike up on the Pajarito Canyon trail to the Townsite lift area and continue on to the top of Ski Hill. We will go off trail from here down the steep slope to connect to the Canon De Valle trail. This portion will go down almost 1000 feet in less than a mile. Once we are on the Valle trail it is mostly downhill hike to the Perimeter trail junction and then back on the Pajarito Canyon trail to the car.
On Sunday, October 6, we will attempt the Wheeler Peak via Williams Lake trail head. This is the highest peak in New Mexico over 13,000 feet. It offers outstanding full panoramic views. The round trip mileage is about 8-9 miles with significant elevation gain of more than 3000 feet. Much of the trail is above the tree line with the final 1000 feet being rock scree slope. This is an extremely strenuous trip and participants should be prepared and in shape for the challenge.
For a fall 2019 Canyon trip, we will head to a destination that we have not yet visited: Ladder Canyon, beyond the First and Main area and above the Escalante River. First and Main was our fall 2006 and fall 2011 destination.
After a year off of this popular LAM trip, I'm excited to get back to Zion National Park for some canyoneering. I hope you will join me! The 2019 dates are September 26th to October 1st. The first and last days are considered travel days, and the four days between are canyoneering days.
In order to keep this trip notification short (I tend to write very long ones), I have put all of the general trip information on my website at http://www.canyoneeringnm.org/lam-zion-trip
For club members certified in WFA or WFR (or those recently timed out) who would like to participate in a 'non-formal' review and refresher, lets spend Saturday September 21st at my house starting at 10:00 AM. We will spend about an hour reviewing systems and fundamentals. After that we will set up a series of scenarios with different sets of participants acting as patients, responders and observers. Following each scenario we will critique the response as a group to identify positive elements and alternatives to the actions taken by the responders.
This is one of my favorite hikes in Los Alamos. We will meet at the trailhead at 8 am, about 1.5 miles north of the intersection of NM 501 and NM 4.The second half of the hike has a completely different feel than the first. It is a steady climb up 1700 ft over 4 miles to the rim of Valle Grande, and then we return along the same trail for a total of about 8 miles round trip. It isn’t completely shaded, be prepared with sunscreen. Bring a hat, lunch, and plenty of water. There might be some rain, so bring rain gear and layers. It should take about 4 hours.
Heidi Rogers is opening her home in the Brazos to be a base for a weekend of hiking at Cumbres Pass and vicinity. We will have some suggestions about possible hiking destinations.
