Let's ski up the Grouse Creek drainage, at Cumbres Pass. This is an exploratory trip, to find a good way to get up to the Jarosa Peak plateau above the Grouse Creek Yurt. (The exploration is to set up the next trip, a Grouse Creek/Red Lake Road loop ski).
Although the snow is still a little sparse around Los Alamos, southern Colorado is doing just fine. I propose to head north to take advantage of that snow (54” base at Monarch as of December 18). As we have done in past years, we will head for Salida to establish a base in a comfortable house or cabin, and spend our days in winter sports in the Monarch Pass area. Any of the 3 top Pajarito season passes offer three free days at Monarch, and otherwise tickets are relatively inexpensive online.
I just found out that the Laboratory, in its wisdom, is requiring us to take an additional vacation day during the break and delaying our post holiday return until Tuesday January 3rd. So, this may be wishful thinking but lets spend the day doing something a lot more fun than work anyway. Snow permitting, I plan on skiing the Los Gregos trail complex from the NM 4 parking area at MM 35 for a couple of hours. This is a moderate BC ski requiring intermediate skiing skills. Scaled skis, or superior waxing skills are required; and if you can wax for the Jemez - you got something to teach me.
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.
