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Ascent of Sierra Grande on 2012-03-03

Climber: Dennis Poulin

Other People:

Solo Ascent
Only Party on Mountain

Date:

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Ascent Type:

Successful Summit Attained

Peak:

Sierra Grande

Location:

USA-New Mexico

Elevation:

8720 ft / 2657 m

Ascent Trip Report

I opted for the east side approach to climb Sierra Grande. At milepost 31 on Hwy 87, turn south to a dirt road that is gated. There is a big brown sign there saying the parking area is 3.5 miles up the road. The gate is unlocked, so close it when you get through. At mile 0.9 take the right fork and the road now gets rougher and high clearance is nice. At 1.5 miles there is a brown sign with an arrow pointing right at a gate. Go straight thru the gate and make sure you close the gate. There were about 60 very friendly cows beyond the gate who didn't want to let me out when I came back through. There is a fork in the road just past the water tank, take either fork. The right one requires high clearance and 4WD. At 2.4 miles there is another brown parking sign with an arrow pointing right, go straight. At 3.5 miles reach the signed parking area at elevation 7,220 ft, park.

Hike over the barb wire gate, the road ends just beyond the gate. Then I just hiked uphill towards the summit. At about 8,100 ft I emerged from the juniper forest and could see my objective ahead. I went around the the south side of the sub peak 8550 because the wind was blowing good and I was freezing. It was 25 degrees when I left the parking area, there was 2"-3" of fresh snow on the ground, and the wind was blowing about 30 mph. The high point is in the middle of the comm towers on the summit. I found a benchmark but no register. It could have been under the snow somewhere. Great views from the summit. Besides the cold, the only obstracle was getting back through the gate without letting about 60 cows through with me.

Summary Total Data

Elevation Gain:

1600 ft / 487 m

Distance:

4.7 mi / 7.6 km

Route:

East Side

Trailhead:

7120 ft / 2170 m

Route Conditions:

Open Country, Snow on Ground

GPS Data for Ascent/Trip

GPS Waypoints - Hover or click to see name and lat/long
Peaks: climbed and unclimbed by Dennis Poulin
Click Here for a Full Screen Map
Note: GPS Tracks may not be accurate, and may not show the best route. Do not follow this route blindly. Conditions change frequently. Use of a GPS unit in the outdoors, even with a pre-loaded track, is no substitute for experience and good judgment. Peakbagger.com accepts NO resposibility or liability from use of this data.

Download this GPS track as a GPX file

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