An awesome view of Tijeras...

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An awesome view of Tijeras...

An awesome view of Tijeras...

An awesome view of Tijeras Peak in October from Lower Sand Creek Lake. Music Mountain on the right.

Tijeras in October would be challenging ascent, the cliff band that runs below the upper slopes is typically choked up with ice and snow.
Kane
on Oct 21, 2004 2:51 am
Lat/Lon: 37.92440°N / 105.5397°W
Image ID: 74787

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RyanS

RyanS - Oct 21, 2004 3:16 pm - Hasn't voted

cool shot

How'd it go in Sand Creek this week, Kane?

Kane

Kane - Oct 21, 2004 5:43 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: cool shot

.Not so good. Weather was calling for 20% precip, so it surprised Jim and I to see the clouds build up as fast as it did around noon on Sunday. It was also very windy. There was about 6-8 inches of consolidated snow all the way up to the lake. We found a few dry spots around the lake and set up camp in hope that the next morning would bring us some blue sky and less wind. By this time there was significant cloud cover, and our day would not include an ascent. We were really up for it(that approach seemed short and easy) but the weather was worsening.



We both decided that Music's east ridge actually looked safer (lack of snow) than Tijeras's cliff band which was choked up with ice from the freeze/thaw cycle of days prior. Our decision was to hike up to the east ridge of Music and also scope out the ramp up through Tijeras's cliff band and see which looked best.



At 5:00 pm it started snowing. At 6:30 it was time to get in the tent because of the wind and snow. We stayed optimistic, but in the end after 12 hours of laying in a bivy, we woke up to more wind, light snow and very cold temps. Both Tijeras and Music were completely socked in. It snowed maybe 2 inches over the night but it was really windy. We decided it was in our best interest to pack up and head on out and maybe we could run up 12,739 from the pass.



At the pass the wind was fierce and all the mountains were still socked in, we passed on a summit attempt and chalked it up as bad luck.



Thanks for the timely Music Mountain beta, that east ridge doesn't look as bad as i envisioned, although the summit ridge looks interesting. Next year let me know if your heading down there for either Pico or Music, I would love to join up and I would guess Jim would to. Nice area worth visiting again

RyanS

RyanS - Oct 22, 2004 11:42 am - Hasn't voted

Re: cool shot

crummy.... shows what I know about Tijeras, eh? I didn't figure it'd load with ice so soon. I'm sorry you guys didn't have better luck, but now you know it's an area of the Sangres that's not to be missed!

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