Word Picture of de_I Hiking Epic

As stated in the last post, my two major electronic devices are all teetering on implosion.   Actually I can use my computer as long as I'm careful to not let it get overheated.  That means putting it into sleep mode whenever, I'm not actually using it.  I will be shopping over the next couple of weeks to find what I want for my next one.  I'm hoping that Macbook Air will work for me because I'd love to shed some of the weight I'm always lugging around with my Macbook Pro. 

But that's not why we're here today.  We're here to talk about last Saturday's hike.  With us anticipating a shut down of the mountain due to drought and fire danger probably in June, I'm trying to get in as many big hikes as I can.  Gaius Derf has a goal to climb the La Luz Trail every month of the year and had done all but 3 months with one of those being April.  So we (Wild Bill and I) set out to accompany him.

To save you searching down reference to this trail in the blog (near impossible since I refuse to tag any of my posts) , I will give you the details

• The La Luz is the landmark trail of the Sandias.  It is the most popular way of going to the top.
• It is 7.2 miles to the top (and another mile to the tram down if you want to go back which is our mode).
• You climb 4,000 feet from 6,600 to 10,600.
• Have of the climb is over the first 5 miles
• The rest of it is over the last 2.2 miles so the last 1/3rd is about twice as steep
• You also do most of that climb on seven big switchbacks that go up a big ass rock slide - meaning you are going over large broken rocks not a smooth trail.
• It is a fairly benign trail over the first 5 miles and a bitch the last 2.2 miles.

We started early and in spite of Derf and I having a long time to get into it, when we stopped at the 5 mile mark we had done it in just over two hours which is good for us and we were feeling good.  So off we went to tackle the switchback rock slide.  We hadn't gone very far when we started running into snow...deep snow...snow that completely covered the trail.  To go up it you had to climb up footfalls from other hikers in many cases going up almost vertically.  It was one of the four most exhausting climbs I've done (the others - oddly enough - almost always involving snow).  These are the moments where you are beyond cursing - beyond wondering when it will end - you're just putting one foot in front of the other...trying not to slip...watching your balance...hoping the snow doesn't give way under foot (Derf once went in up to his hip).

But we made it.  After getting beyond the major climb there was no more snow over the last mile to the Tram.  After coming down, we got the cars and headed home.  Usual icing of limbs, back and neck followed by a nap.

Next day felt great - endorphin city.  Nothing like terror and exhaustion to get them going.