Sandia Mountains get a "Thumbs" up

From Oklahoma, we drove straight to the Sandia Mountains, just outside of Albuquerque, NM. We "camped" at the Sandia Crest, which is at 10,680 feet. Why not start the climbing aspect of our trip with a little elevation?

We got there a little before 9pm. We were about to start cooking dinner when three County Sheriff SUVs, lights flashing, rushed into the parking lot. We were wondering what was going on when we heard the phrase "search and rescue" over their radios. We were about to go over and see what was going on, but then the cops started putting on flak jackets and started debating whether to load their shotguns with buckshot or slugs. So, we hesitated. But then we did finally go over and ask what was going on. They said that there was an exhausted hiker who could not move any more and was stuck on the trail and they were going to help her. Apparently, Search and Rescue was going to be a while, so they were going to go down and see if they could help first. The guns apparently were in case of mountain lions or bears - and I guess the flak jackets were in case the other missed? Despite this, we asked if we could be of any assistance (with the rescue or shooting mountain lions), but they said no.

A minute later, the cops came by our van and asked us if we had any bottled water. We did and gave it to them. He came back after a few minutes and asked if we had a map. Feeling like these two deputies needed a little help, we then asked if they needed any food, emergency blankets, headlamps, extra jackets, a GPS, etc. They had none of that, so we asked if they were sure they did not want us to go and help. They then said that if we wanted, we could come along.

So we start down the trail with the two police offers from Bernalillo County Sheriff's department (they wanted us to make sure we know they were from the county and not the city of Albuquerque). The cops, by the way, are hilarious. They were making jokes and quoting movies the whole way down. For example, after about two minutes on the trail, we come across a young couple, who by the smell had clearly been smoking pot. One of the cops shines his light on them and yells, "We found them!" The couple, too startled to move, say nothing. He then adds, "Hey, you guys didn't call 911 did you?" The couple quickly says no, and we all continue down the trail. After a little while, the cops joked about how fun it was to scare the crap out of those kids smoking pot, ruining their "romantic time."

After about a mile down the steep trail and a few jokes later, we found the exhausted hikers. It was a man and women in their 60's from Oregon. They had started hiking at the bottom of the 7.5 mile trail that gains over 3000' of elevation at 5pm, and thought that they would be able to make it up in 3 hours (there is a tram at the top, that they were going to take back to the bottom). Around 8pm, still a mile from the top with the steepest part of the hike ahead, the woman was too exhausted to move any more. It was getting dark and they did not have any flashlights, so the man called 911 for help.

The hikers were in shorts and t-shirts (when we got to them, it was about 50 degrees out), had no more water or food, and had no flashlights. So we give the woman some water, an energy bar, and the extra jacket that I brought. After a little while, she starts to feel better and so we slowly start hiking up the trail. We soon ran into the Bernalillo County fire department, who had a couple of paramedics with them. They check the woman out and convince her to keep hiking (it was too steep to bring a stretcher down to her). After half a mile of climbing, the fire department decides to take them off the mountain via a different trail than we took to get down there because it was not nearly as steep and if the woman stopped being able to move, they would be able to get a stretcher to her. Since the woman had my jacket, and Pete was carrying the guy's pack, we had to follow them.

Once we got on the new trail, which was mostly flat, the woman was doing a lot better and we were able to hike the mile and a half out fairly quickly. The fire department gave us and the cops a ride back to our cars in the back of an ambulance, but not before one of the cops moons the other ambulance - you know the one with the patient in it. By the way, if you have ever seen the show Rescue Me on FX, the banter between the cops and the firemen was just like that show. They were quite the entertaining bunch. We have to give props to Bernalillo Search and Rescue, providing around 20 people from 3 different departments for one exhausted hiker. Oh yeah, and 2 civilian climbers with "pretty sweet gear" as one of the cops radioed to his dispatch.

It was a bumpy ride on some unpaved roads to get back to our car, but kind of fun. When we got back to the parking lot, we asked the cops, if they would pose for a picture with us. The cops said, "Sure. Want to hold our guns?" The photo is not great, but I think that you can make out Pete and me are in the middle. We're the ones with the guns.

So, it was pretty late by the time we got back to our van. We were able to make ourselves a quick dinner and go to bed by 1:30am.

We were up the next morning at 7:00am (hard to ignore the sun when you are at the top of a mountain with no shade). After a leisurely breakfast, we were on our way. We climbed the "Thumb," the peak in the photo below. It was a long hike down to the base of the climb though, on the bottom right of the ridge, out of view. The climb was long (1100+ vertical feet), but not too difficult, with five 5th class pitches and a good bit of fourth class scrambling. From the top of the peak, we rappelled down to the tree line, then bushwacked across to the boulder filed (the right boulder field closest to the peak). Then we stepped our way down the boulder field until it intersected the trail (you can faintly see the trail towards the bottom of the boulder field). We then had a long hike back up. We got back to the parking lot at around 6:30 and were quite tired.

We were planning to climb again today, but just were not up for it. So we spent the day in Albuquerque instead and visited with my friend Jennifer, who was in town. Tomorrow we head to Moab, UT. Pete spent the afternoon changing the oil and transmission fluid on the Goose in 100F Albuquerque heat. What's good for the Goose, is good for the gander, I suppose.