| Lake Peak, Penitente Peak, Santa Fe Baldy Day Hike Trip Report |
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| Lake Peak, Penitente Peak, Santa Fe Baldy Day Hike   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: New Mexico, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 35.83220°N / 105.7575°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Jun 19, 2003 Activities: Hiking | Page By: Jeff Moore Created/Edited: Dec 23, 2003 / Oct 12, 2007 Object ID: 169201 Hits: 915 Loading... Page Score: 86.06% - 1 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
I arrived at the Santa Fe ski area trailhead at 8:30 having driven from Los Alamos that morning. Starting up the Windsor trail, the first mile or so is fairly steep as it switchbacks up the hill. At the Santa Fe (Pecos) Wilderness boundary fence, the Lake Peak trail veers off to the right following the fence line. The trail then ascends Raven's ridge, trending east, and at various points affords some nice views of Lake Peak ahead and Santa Fe Baldy to the north.
The weather was fine in the morning, but it had rained every afternoon all week so I was not surprised when the clouds and fog rolled in. Shortly after the trail rises above tree line, it joins a narrow ridge that trends north-east towards Lake Peak. Looking down into the Nambe basin from the ridge showed Nambe Lake as well as the steep northwest slope of Lake Peak. Traversing the ridge to Lake Peak was the funnest part of this hike, as the ridge is nice and narrow in some sections. By 10:15 I was on Lake Peak, the weather was not cooperating for views or pictures so I continued on to Penitente.
There was a fine trail traversing over to Penitente Peak, and I was there by 10:30. Also there was Ash (a former city planner) and his two young dogs. Ash and I walked off the grassy summit ridge together, and he showed the route where trail 251 leads down through the forest to Puerto Nambe - the area between Penitente Peak and Santa Fe baldy. At 11:45, Ash and I reached the intersection of trail 251 (Skyline trail) and 254 (Windsor trail) and the point where I would depart to ascend Santa Fe Baldy. There were good views here of the 2 peaks I had just climbed.
By 12:00 I had reached the saddle where the informal trail departs from the Windsor trail towards Santa Fe baldy, and the trail once again got quite steep. At about 11,750 feet, snow from a recent storm was lightly covering the ground and the trail. As I ascended, the snow got thicker, although never reaching more than a couple inches. By this point the weather was pretty bad, with strong winds and heavy fog, visibility was poor. By 1:00 I had reached the summit of Santa Fe Baldy, which was only immediately apparent to me by the large pile of rocks. Being unsure if I had reached the actual summit I traversed the ridge line a little farther north, and briefly caught a glimpse through the clouds of Katherine Lake below, showing me that I was indeed in the right place.
The descent was decent, just a bounce down to the Windsor trail intersection. At this point I allowed myself to sit down for the first time of the day and promptly got a monster headache. To return, I would follow the Windsor trail back 4.5 miles to the parking lot (the main route for SF baldy). This was kind of a slog, because I was pretty tired, and then at 2:00 or so it started to rain pretty hard. I arrived back at the car at 3:30, 7 hours after I left. I estimate that the total loop was about 15-16 miles with an elevation gain of about 4200 ft. Images
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Sangre de Cristo Mountains
