makingturns.com

May 19 2011

Wheeler Peak 13,161 and Mt Walter 13,131 New Mexico Fun 5/13/2011

Published by Fritz at 9:46 PM under Highpoints,New Mexico

So I went up to Hoosier Pass in the evening of the 12th and went for a little walk to assess the new snow. Winds were howling with gusts well over 70 mph. I decided that our plans for Democrat the next day weren’t going to fly, not with over a foot of new and high winds. I went to Breckenridge and had some dinner. What could I do. I looked at the weather for all the 14er areas in Colorado and it was all the same, HIGH WINDS. I’m not sure why but I checked the Taos area and the forecast was for only 5-8 mph winds. I had a plan, no partner but I still had a plan. So off I went southward. I got to the trailhead parking at 1:30 am and got to sleep pretty quick. I had no idea what the snowpack looked like but at alarm I was off up the Williams Lake trail. I made pretty good time thru the woods and figured my way up to saddle between Walter and Wheeler. I was able to skin almost all the way to the saddle and saw a reasonable line on the west side of Wheeler. It looked like a fun ski though kind of boring. AT the top of Wheeler I decided that I’d ski the east side for about 500 vert then climb up to Walter and ski that too. And so it went. Whe I got to the top of Walter I checked the northeast bowl and it was stacked. I decided to ski this instead and was it fun. The I went back up Walter and skied down to the saddle. A quick traverse got me to the West side line. I skied all the way back to Kachina lift. A fun 1st day of a great week in the hills. Time to go back to Colorado. Here are some pics.