Wheeler Peak - Taos, NM

At 13,162 feet, Wheeler Peak, in the Sangre de Cristo range, is the highest point in New Mexico. More importantly, it offers the kind of views rarely equaled anywhere. The vantage point is high enough that you get a 360-degree view but not so high you don't perceive depth and details to a stunning level. You see all the way to the snow-capped hills of Santa Fee on the south side and deep into the Colorado San Juans on the north side. In the foreground, the cirque that includes the Taos Ski Valley shows the unlimited potential for stellar backcountry skiing this area offers

With a 6:30 am start on June 2nd, the snow was firm and in parts frozen which became challenging when it involved steep climbing. I went up via the William's Lake trail and as soon as I left Williams Lake behind and started walking up the west face of Wheeler Peak it started to feel a lot more like, at times, stressful mountaineering and a lot less like the Zhen a hike will deliver. There was enough steep snow and ice cover to keep the trail out of view so I ended up straight-lining a fair amount which got me to what felt like the brink of exhaustion a couple of times. Microspikes came in very handy on this hike, they were close to critical. I got up faster than I descended. To get to the summit took a tad bit over 3 hrs. After a 30-minute break on top (that's how incredible the views are) and a leisurely 4 hrs down the whole thing worked out to a very enjoyable 7:30 hr hike.

The William's Lake route amounts to an 8.7-mile walk with a little over 3,000 ft elevation gain. Here are the pictures.

In the foreground is one of many Wheeler Peak early
morning ice fields - afternoon post-holing slush fields.

A huge number of exciting ski lines...

...more ski lines. The highest peak is
Lake Fork Peak at 12,881'

In the next bowl over (east of Wheeler Peak) Old Mike Peak,  
13,113' looks a lot like Mt Raymond (10,241') in the Wasatch
other than the almost 2,000' elev. difference.

William's Lake

Yours truly with Loki the magnificent.