Expolring Taos Ski Valley on the recommendation of some friends in this place so far looks spectacular I'm excited to get out there today I'll be taking the wheeler peak trail to bowl of the woods peak then to wheeler peak in the Simpsons peak and then to what I think is called Lake Fork peak and I rounded down the ski resort I'm calling today's adventure the Taos Traverse it probably already has a name it should be around 15 miles today with 7,000 feet of climbing so not a super hard day but also not an easy day I'm hoping that a lot of the snow has melted and I'm leaving my micro spikes in the car.
Today is going to be challenging, not just because I'm going to be about 12,000 feet for most of the day but because Christophe isn't here, so I won't be able to leech energy off of this pain and suffering.
First Glimpse: Wheeler Peak and the Valley Beyond"
I've rounded the corner here and got my first amazing view of this valley. I'm headed over to those snow-capped peaks, but right now things are just looking great. That's quite a climb up from the ski resort, probably a couple of thousand feet. There will be some domesticated sheep behind me. They don't even care that I'm here. I guess they realized that if they wanted to make a ram me to death moment if I was harassing them, but I got my first glimpse of Wheeler Peak, and while it's not the most dramatic peak, this is an amazing area. Give them some distance. I've completely forgotten how hard it is to film yourself on one of these things. So much back and forth. Thanks for running and time spent retrieving cameras while you're doing it. You don't even know what you're capturing; you could be capturing a complete turret of a video. I'm at Mount Walter Wheeler Peak, which is really close.
Peak Conquest and Ridge Expedition
I made it to the top of the wheeler 13,000 163 feet, all in all a pretty great hike up to this point. I've been going for about seven and a half miles with 4000 feet of climbing, but now I'm going to drop down, so what I think is called Simpson Peak, and that's where I'm going to turn west and head out along the ridge until I circle back around to the resort, and then I'll come down the resort. It's amazing up here to zero wind after all of our past windy peaks. Kings Peak Hood Helens I feel like I deserve this music. I made it two sips at peak, and I'm leaving the wheeler wilderness. My autonomous friend is going to go up in the air, and things are about to get spicy. This is a real ridge walk session.
I was an entertaining little section of scrambling. I didn't have to do anything death-defying, but it was fun, but I still have a lot of ridge to traverse. You like him out close to 800 feet. Um, I'm going to try to make up some ground. We're going so slowly because I've been filming myself. I really do miss filming somebody else in having them run around at my beck and call, but I'm going to pick up the pace also because thunderstorms are building, and I don't want to be caught in one that would be unfortunate because I am up high and I am a tall object with metal poles in my hand.
I've managed to complete the bottom part of this traverse, and now I'm headed back north on the ridge. The storm hasn't caught up to me yet right there; it's kind of stationary, but I feel like I still need to go fast because there are more and more towering clouds building up all around me, so I'm trying to get to that ski lift before I get hit by a thunderstorm.
I've come north along the ridgeline and reached the boundary of the ski resort. If the thunder and lightning were bad, I was going to drop down right here at the top of this lift, but the storm just seems to be lingering over there to the northeast, so part of me thinks I'll continue down this bridge and go down my original line, which is a little bit further down. I moved as quickly as I could through that section. It only took one break to eat a Little Debbie apple pie in honor of Blake. So far, this has been an awesome Ridge Traverse.
I'm done with the ridge, and now on to the road. From here on out, I'll be running down dirt roads and ski runs until I get to my car; it's about two miles away. So far, I've done 6,000 feet of climbing and 42 miles.
I'm not sure why they plow this road, but they have done me a huge favor. Back at the car, keep straight down below that ski lift. It was steep; that's the Wheeler Peak House Traverse, and it was everything I hoped it would be in more. It took seven hours, sixteen and a half miles, and 6,000 feet of climbing. Now I'm going to pack up my stuff and head to Colorado tomorrow morning. I'll be climbing Mount Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado.