November 25, 2019

Start/End: Pine Springs Visitor Center

Peaks: Guadalupe (8,751')

Elevation Gain: 3,000 ft

RT Mileage: 8.5 mi

Duration: 5 hours, 21 minutes

Rock Difficulty: Class 2

When we visited Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns for Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to bag Guadalupe Peak on our last day there. Perhaps taking George Mallory's words, "because it's there," too literally, we decided to just wing it the day of without doing any of our homework, despite not having any previous hiking experience.

Leaving Carlsbad at 9:30 AM, we arrived in Pine Springs at 10:30, and began hiking at around 11:00. Coming out from the trailhead, the trail wasted no time gaining elevation as it switchbacked across the desert slope. After around a mile and a half, the trail made a sharp turn around a ridge and entered the coniferous forest. It got significantly colder at this point, so the coats and mittens went on.

The trail became noticeably less steep through the coniferous forest, switchbacking more gently and traveling nearly parallel to the ridge above. Occasionally, views would open up to the north, where Hunter Peak took center stage.

At around 8,000 ft, a steep section brought us above treeline and the trail flattened out as it approached the wilderness campground. The summit was visible from here, and we were disheartened to see that it still looked very far away despite how far we had thought we had come. We had also run out of water and were considering turning back, but some nice folks at the campground offered us a refill, so we were able to continue.

After descending into a canyon and crossing a wooden bridge, we re-emerged above treeline, where we were immediately met by strong winds. We were caught by surprise since there had been almost no wind lower down in the coniferous forest. Some of these gusts were probably over 40 mph, and made the scrambling over Class 2 terrain for the rest of the ascent significantly harder.

We seriously considered turning back at one sketchy, exposed section just below the summit, but after watching another group make it across we decided to go for it as well. At 2:00 PM, we were sitting on the summit, because we were too scared to stand up, and we stayed there just long enough to sign the register and get someone to take our photo.

The upper part of the route didn't seem quite as bad while descending, and we flew past even the sketchy section. Still, we were relieved when we made it back across the wooden bridge to the safety of treeline. The rest of the descent was quick and uneventful, and we made it back to the trailhead just before 4:30.