At the Top of New Mexico

For several years, my brother Bart has been talking about climbing Mt. Wheeler, the highest peak in New Mexico.  This year it was going to work out that we could go, too, so foolishly, we signed on.  We didn't really know what we were getting into, but we thought we could manage it.  I mean, "How hard could it be?"  Frankly, we knew how hard . . . and I think both Don and I were pleasantly surprised at our ability to get to the top.  But more on that later . . .

Beginning after Memorial Day, I started walking stadium steps at Wichita State's Cessna Stadium.  I figured it would help.  I am SO glad I did that, though nothing could prepare me for the altitude.  When we left here on Friday morning, June 29, we were at 1300 ft above sea level.  By Saturday at noon we were at 13,160 feet.  Quite a change.

At 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, we left Angel Fire for Taos Ski Valley.  Here we gained our greatest advantage by catching a shuttle with Northside at Tao Ski Valley.  We met the driver in the parking lot at the ski area, and then she drove us by shuttle to 12,100 feet.  That saved us about 3 miles and 2000 feet of hiking.  Walking that extra way would have been brutal.  As it was, we lost about 1000 feet that we had to gain back, but it was far better than the alternative.  Here we are at about 8:00 a.m., bright eyed and bushy tailed!

Once we left the shuttle, we headed down and then up the hill.  While everyone else walked quite a bit ahead, I just kept on going . . . Travis called me the Little Engine That Could.

On the way up the hill, we ran into some very friendly big horn sheep.  They didn't come right up to us, but they certainly seemed like they might.  This in a later blog . . .

We walked along many ridges, and some of the landscape was spectacular.  This is Horseshoe Lake, steeply far below us.

The scenery was incredible.

First we had to reach Mt. Walter, which for many years was thought to be the highest mountain in New Mexico.  Don called it the "Hillary Steppe" since we still had a ways to go to reach Mt. Wheeler.

Finally after one last burst of energy, I made it, with Don not far behind.  An exhilarating climb for sure!

The biggest surprise was how many people were climbing to, coming from, or at the top . . . we met several people who were over 70, another man who was running to train for the Hard Rock 100 race, and numerous others who were doing just what we were.  After experiencing this, it is hard to imagine the crush of people on Everest.  But this is our Everest . . . and it was worth every step.