The Organ Mountains seen from around 3 to 4 miles away. They are perhaps the most dramatic mountains in New Mexico.
Getting closer the the base of the mountains. The terrain was also getting progressively steeper and steeper.
This is the end of the dirt road. It is all on foot from here on out.
Brian's Jeep was an animal on the dirt road leading up the base of the mountain. It was nice to cut off about 2 hours of the climb due to its high clearance. Going down was a little scary at times but we all made it in one piece.
The Organ Needle (the highest peak) is the second peak from the right I think. That is the peak we summited.
Getting higher and higher into the ruggedness. At this point the hike was beginning to turn into a climb. My camera is pointed at about 70 degrees so the terrain is a whole lot steeper than it looks like in this picture.
This is the view about half way up the climb.
Here we are at the half way point. You can also see the obvious route we took up that big ravine.
Approaching the big ravine and the snow.
On the summit at last!
Enjoying the view from the top.
If you look closely you can see White Sands National Monument in the far background.
Some of the group relaxing after lunch and the big climb up.
It was a sheer cliff for about 300 feet off the top of the Organ Needle. We passed some of the time up there by hurtling boulders off of it and listing to the deafening Kaboom as it smashed into a thousand pieces at the bottom. Sometimes I think I take a little too much pleasure in the small things in life.
On the way back down. It took us nearly half and hour to go about 100 feet.
One last view from near the top while descending back into reality.
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