"Decided to tackle these two peaks before the snow flies, which may be this coming weekend. Very strenuous climb. Weather in the 30s and 40s depending on elevation. Some leftover patches of snow in shady spots here and there. " — rick-brown • Nov 12, 2025

"Saturday morning, August 12, 2023 I met 2 friends from Calvary Church in Albuquerque, Dave H. and David C. Calvary is the largest church in New Mexico and I have been going since 1988, when I was dramatically saved out of the “new agish other religion” darkness. I experienced it all! Since 1988 I have never heard a poor teaching, verse by verse through the Bible. The book I used to mock, the guidebook for life! We left at 5:30 AM, driving to the Santa Fe Ski Basin parking area. I needed a very obscure peak that is listed in Mike Butterfield’s book “Guide to the Mountains of New Mexico,” Peak 11,571 or also listed as Peak 11,564. I wanted the 2 Daves to have a wonderful experience so I planned other peaks to get them above the timberline. We started hiking at 7:50 AM heading north up Winsor Trail #254. The starting elevation was 10,260 feet. It was slightly cool with mixed clouds and blue sky. We followed a little stream for a while, then switched backed up the mountain to the edge of the Pecos Wilderness. We did not quite enter the wilderness but followed a trail east through a beautiful aspen and blue spruce forest. We made our first goal, Peak 12,027. There are 85, 12K and 13 ..." — Phil-Robinson • Aug 12, 2023

"We backpacked out with snowshoes and camped at the treeline below Deception. We tried to hike Lake Peak but the ridge was too dangerous with all the loose snow. But we saw a few mountain goats watching us while we were there. The next day we planned on waiting for the sun to come up and hiking down, but we woke up in a cloud so we had to hike back in the cold." — matthewanderson • Mar 14, 2023

"Most of the hike had 2-3” of snow but it made the trail easy to follow. Footing wasn’t too bad. I tried to make the scramble across to Lake Peak to finish the route but couldn’t manage to find a route that wasn’t pretty sketchy." — jgitz • Nov 3, 2019

"We hiked up Winsor trail to Ravens Ridge, heading to Lake Peak, but winds started picking up greatly once past the treeline and we decided to aim for catching Tesuque Peak instead on the way down. We looped the rout instead of doing an out and back, same way back, we hiked down the off season Santa Fe Ski slopes. LOVELY place we live in. <3" — saraculler • May 29, 2018

"After completing my last hike, climbing the Jicarita peaks in the Pecos Wilderness, cumulating with the final peak, Little Jicarita Peak East, I finally hiked all of the 12 thousand and 13 thousand foot peaks in New Mexico…………….that are possible………. or so I thought. When I returned someone added South Penitente Peak, elevation 12,110, to the list & I am adding Peak 12027 which was mentioned in a great, recently published book, “The High Peaks of New Mexico.” I decided to hike these peaks and an 11 thousand foot peak that I needed, Peak 11385. In the process I had to hike quite a few repeat peaks. Just a note - there are 3, 12K peaks that are not possible to hike in New Mexico. They are on the Taos Indian reservation. I recently made a 3 night trip to Taos with my wife and talked to many people seeing if I could pay for a guide to hike those peaks and did not have any luck. The peaks are restricted to Taos Pueblo members and someone would have to be a disrespectful sneak, risking jail and being shot at to hike them. My son and I were shot at just hiking on the edge of the National Forest and their land. They did finally give us permission for the edge peaks. (See my Red Dome Trip Re..." — Phil-Robinson • Aug 9, 2014

"On the morning of October 10, 2008, I, Phil Robinson, my 12-year-old daughter Christina, and our dog Daisy got up at 5:00 AM, left the house at 5:45, drove to Winsor Trail north of Santa Fe, and started our hike at 7:30 AM parking in the Santa Fe ski basin. I was carrying a 20-pound pack with food, water and a few emergency items for hiking above 12,000 feet at this time of year. Our starting elevation was about 10,250 feet. We picked one of the most beautiful weekends to hike. The aspen trees were in their yellow, orange and golden glory. It was a glorious, colorful hike as we started off. Our plan was to do a big loop that we thought would be 6 or 7 miles. It turned out to be quite a bit more. We went over a colorful saddle near Aspen Peak and then into the Pecos Wilderness. We followed the Winsor trail below Nambe Lake to Skyline Ridge trail. The weekend before it snowed 10 inches and we began to hike in snow. Our peakbagging adventure changed from a fall hike to a winter hike. At times we could not see the trail, so we had to follow the markings on the trees. We hiked along through the trees for quite some time until we got above timberline. The views were incredible! After tru..." — Phil-Robinson • Oct 10, 2008