Mount Taylor, NM

Objective:  
Summit Mount Taylor (11,301') (successful).
  
Date:  
April 12, 2003
Photogallery:  
Party:  
Rob Budd, Richard Strong, Allison Aiken, Nathan George, Jessica Faulkner, Rob's flatmate James, and Mouser Williams
Summary:  
A five-hour round trip up Mt. Taylor along the Quad route. My first successful mountain ascent in some time.
Route:  
Drove north from Grants to the trailhead for the Quad and followed the easy trail from there to the summit, about 3 miles of hiking each way and 2,000' of vertical gain.
Noteworthy:  
My 57th county highpoint.
Lessons Learned:  
Bring gaiters, even if the snow looks "patchy" from below.

Get a warmer sleeping bag.

Force yourself to eat even when you don't feel like it.
Jessica organized a trip to El Malpais for her birthday and Rob suggested that we spend some of that trip climbing Mt. Taylor. The previous night in the tent I had been very cold and spent most of the night shivering. As a result I didn't get much rest and felt very drained in the morning, but the Taylor hike looked like an easy one so I went ahead anyway.

The group was somewhat inefficient in getting ready, and not what I would call the best prepared, but again this was an easy hike. Rob's instructions led us right to a good trailhead and off we went. I think we were on the trail by 11:30am. The trail is wide and easy to follow, and for most of the way it was covered in packed wet snow that we had no problem walking on with our boots (or tennis shoes, if you're Nathan).

I found myself having very little energy and lagging well behind the main group, but I didn't feel bad; I was just slow. They'd stop occasionally and rest to wait for me to catch up. When we reached a sign that read "heartbreak hill," the snow got noticeably deeper and we started postholing up the hill. At the top, Nathan had to turn around because he needed to meet someone in Albuquerque that afternoon. He took one of the dogs (only 3 months old and not ready for so much climbing) back with him.

There was some discussion as to which peak Taylor actually was, which my GPS solved handily. I love the new maps feature I've downloaded.

From the top of heartbreak hill, the trail winds around the mountain to the South in steadily deepening snow. Once on the South side, however, the slope goes from dense conifer forest to barren grass & rock, and the snow is much more patchy. From here, it's a straight shot up about 600' to the summit.

Once at the summit we found two registers (??) and a weird pit filled with snow. We spent about 30 minutes on top taking pictures and eating lunch. I hadn't eaten much of anything since my early breakfast at 6:00am, and somehow I was finding myself without an appetite.

The trip down was incredibly fast. We were happily post-holing down the snow slope when we passed a couple of skiiers heading up to the summit. Jessica, Richard, and James all missed the turn off into the forest. I was able to call Richard and James before they got too far down, but we couldn't see Jessica because she had gone way out to the side to avoid some of the post-holing.

When we finally saw her, she was a couple hundred feet below us and had to slog all the way back up. She was not happy. But her dog was happy to finally see her agian; it was very whiney and scared when she was missing.

Back on the trail, we made quick progress back to the car, where a lack-of-food headache and nausea set in for me. So I'm a dumbass. The trip took about 3.5 hours to get to the summit and 1.5 to get back. Due to a lack of gaiters, we had a lot of wet pants, socks, etc. going on. Some people had cotton on and they were not happy. We stopped by Wal Mart in Grants to get Richard some replacement underwear, pants, and socks. Back at camp, I proceeded to eat a 20 oz. dehydrated beef stroginof followed by four bratwursts and some cookies. Yum.
Written by Mouser Williams on 2003.04.16