A Windy Spring Break

The plan and Heading up

Since last summer of 05, I had been wanting to climb some more mountains. I wanted to go up to Colorado, but I soon found out that that was a stupid idea. MY 2nd climb ever, in snow above 10k, yea right. We settled on Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
Took I-10 out to Van Horn and headed north. Road construction slowed us down a bit. Finally the chosen peaks came into view. I was pumped. We wanted to summit two mountains, Guadalupe peak and Hunter peak. We were going to try El capitan via Gaudalupe peak if conditions were in our favor. It was windy, I mean windy. We couldn't get a campsite in the park so we headed North to New Mexico. We found some trailer park/camping area in White City. Set up camp, ate and hit the sack.

To the Top

The next day, we prepared for our hike and split. It was colder than I thought it would be. The wind cut through my cotton hoodie. Got on the trailhead at a decent hour. Man, I don't know why, but the hike seemed like it was going to last FOREVER. Got into some trees and out of the wind. We kept hiking thinking that the summit was just around the corner. NOT. We came to a bridge, and stopped. Our next break we decided would be the summit. Going up, the wind howled and blowed against us. At this time in my life, hieghts were still a problem. The cliff to our left wasn't helping that. Finally, we hit the top. I sw the famous metal pyramid on the top and literally shouted. I stood there with the summit to myself. How peaceful. Just then, a wind gust cought me of guard and I almost fell. Wake up call. My dad made it up, and we had the summit to ourselves for about 5 minutes. Then all the people came. Before we knew it, there were about a dozen people up there. Then I remembered something. I have got to hack it up. I learned that hacking in 60 mile per hour wind SUCKS! Yo ucan't keep your balance and the hackysack moves alot in the air. We also decided not to go for El Capitan, because it looked too steep for us and the wind was an issue. Also time was a factor. After lunch we headed down. Got to the trailhead. One mountain down, one to go. when we got back to camp, our huge tent was blown over. The wind had bent our poles in two. After about 15 minutes of cussing, we got out all our gear out and said screw it. We booked a room in the neighboring Best Weestern. Ate a good dinner at the resaurant too.

Hunter Peak

Another day, another hike. Today, for some reson my dad's knee was killing him. I asked him if he was still up for the hike and he gave it a go. Started out strong, and then came the switchbacks. We are inexperienced hiking, so these switchbacks sucked. They took forever. Finally, we made it up to the bowl. Lots of trees, and shade. Also, the wind was nerely nonexistent today. We kept heading up the trail towards the peak. It was only a mile, but my dad was going so slow. WE finally made it to the base of the peak. After, following the "trail" we made it to the top. I went to the edge, but my dad was freaked out by the cliff thing. His fear of hieghts has always been strong. He yelled at me to get back, but the view and feeling I got on the summit was too much. I stayed, but sat down instead of stand. I was proud. This summit was too small to hackysack on, so I blew that off. Took some photos and just sat there for who knows how long. After lunch we took off down Bear Canyon. During the descent, we saw a rock that was inside a live tree. Made it to the trailhead, and headed out to Fort Stockton. Made it back home the next day. Those two summits were kick ass. So far I had only summited 3 mountains, but hey, it was fun as hell.

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