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Trip reports, what this group could use is some more trip reports.
Last week a Santa Fe, New Mexico, homeboy, Matt, asked around to see if
anyone was interested in skiing the highest peak near here, Santa Fe
Baldy, 12600 ft.:
http://topozone.com/map.asp?lat=35.83222&lon=-105.75778
My Saturday was open and the weather'd been dry and stable for over a
week so it seemed like a good idea and we arranged to go up. One thing
about SF Baldy is that the base of the mountain is four miles from the
trailhead, so you have to figure on covering some ground for a day trip.
The weather was clear as a bell, but the forecast called for strong
winds. We left the Santa Fe ski area parking lot just after 7 AM and
started down the Windsor Trail. A couple hours later we were at the
southwest flank of SF Baldy, ready to start up. The skinning was
excellent over wet corn, frozen corn, then wind packed powder as the
elevation increased.
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb33.jpg
It was clear and sunny, but the wind was coming up throughout the
morning. We were able to keep our skis on the whole way to the top. We
hit the saddle into the east side cirque at around 12,300ft:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb37.jpg
There was a humungous cornice on most of the leeward summit ridge:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb40.jpg
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb42.jpg
And it was kind of windy, like gusts to 40 mph:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb41.jpg
We hit the top just after 11 AM. This is the view south from the summit
- we decided to ski that chute in the middle of the picture with the
rock shadows because it was pretty and mostly cornice-free. Nice view:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb44.jpg
Our line was ENE facing, with a steep entrance, mellowing out to around
40 degrees, and a drop of about 650 ft. This is Matt's first (or
second?) turn, making it count:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb45.jpg
The snow wasn't too bad for being kind of old:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb46.jpg
The entrance - it made you pay attention:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb47.jpg
Matt likes the BIG turns - I made about four for every one of his. Snow
conditions in the chute ranged from wind packed powder with a small
crust to mashed potatoes near the bottom, and just about every condition
in between. It made the skiing interesting, but way fun:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb49.jpg
In the next pic, Matt checks out the cirque - my tracks are in the chute
in the center of the picture, to the looker's right of the big rock
outcrop, Matt's tracks come out to that flute a bit more to the looker's
right. That sluff farther right was caused by someone else a day or two
earlier.
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb51.jpg
Another view - check out that cornice and the color of the sky:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb52.jpg
We took a short break for lunch in the bottom of the basin. Matt has
this trick pack with a built-in seat, just right for checking out the
views. Pretty comfy, eh?
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb53.jpg
Nice view as we headed out:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb56.jpg
After lunch we headed over to the side of the basin to try to skin back
out over the SE ridge. The climb out ended up being one of the most
challenging parts of the day. We began on skins, but there was a thin
wind packed layer over a crust that was pretty tricky. After we had both
lost our edges a couple of times on the steep slope, we decided that it
would be easier to boot back over the ridge. Kicking steps up the
shaded, steep, north-facing slope to the ridge was kind of heinious
because the snow was hard - it often took a couple of kicks to get the
step in.
We topped out on the SE ridge somewhere around 12,000 ft. That would
have ranked as a memorably painful part of the day, except that when we
crested the ridge (around 1 PM) the frozen corn on the south-facing
slope that we had skinned up on the ascent had softened nicely in the
sun. The run down that slope was *so* nice! The snow was creamy and the
slope was just steep enough to let us swoop and turn effortlessly though
a widely-spaced pygmy spruce forest in the brilliant sun - a bonus run
of 1000 feet of easy super-fun skiing. I only got this one picture,
because it was so effortless it was hard to stop:
http://www.swcp.com/~rlee/sfb59jpg
But then we had to begin the skin back up and out to the road. It was
four long miles of sidehill trail skinning though thick woods. It had
the potential to be soul-crushing, so I had to go to my happy place. We
trudged along, getting back to the trailhead just after 4 PM.
Really a great day. And tonight, it's snowing like a bitch here - close
to a foot at my house this evening. It'll be a while before the steeper
backcountry lines are skiable again, but it's good to have winter back.
Bob
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