Sierra Blanca Peak

[imike]

This peak should be nicely buried in snow by the holiday weekend, so this will not only be a long haul up the western face of the mountain range, but we'll likely be packing snow shoes and foul weather gear for an interesting, and very long day effort... peak bagging! It will require a very early start. So, hours in the dark before the real work begins...

[Jim]

You don't think you're pushing it with the snow forecast? It just seems that this peak is drier than our San Francisco Peaks and it gets snow in lower amounts and a little later in the winter.

[imike]

it would be nice to hike up there on rock, but at 12,000' it usually gets hit early November... often melting off on the sunny side...Farmers Almanac predicted 10' of snow for the area last year and hit it right on the nose... this year sounds like they are calling for 20'!!! I'll be lucky to be back in shape for the regular hike... snowshoes to the top will push it for me that soon, so I hope I'm wrong about that part of the hike. My last time up there, it was in November and fully snow covered... I caught hell from the local SAR gang for hiking up there without snow gear.

[imike]

Friends are talking about coming over for the hike... might switch the day to Friday to give more recuperation time before they have to drive back to Tucson...

[imike]

the plan for this day is not the 9900' trailhead on the east, but the 6400' trailhead on the west... making it over 6,000' of up/down and close to 20 miles of trekking... if it is just snow above 8,000' we will likely stick to this plan. If the snow is there and deep, we may switch over to hike from the ski area, the east side upper trailhead.

[imike]

Susan has to cancel, so I'm probably heading out for a canyon hike instead... less driving... more adventure.