GUMO or Bust!

[Al]

Ahh. To be young again.  Can't believe you had trouble sleeping.  Did you forget your earplugs?

Al

[fartymarty]

I really hope he is in the caverns.. and may his pictures prove me/us all wrong!

Wow! did you prove me wrong. I am most impressed and looking forward to the rest of the pics and trip report.

[homerboy2u2]

Ahh. To be young again.  Can't believe you had trouble sleeping.  Did you forget your earplugs?

Al

 Dang...AL. You have got to be one of the smartest guys on this board.

All you need is a good tent, a good pad and a good bag. You can stay snuggy warm. However . . . if you don't have the above . . . you will be COLD! Staying warm while hiking is not a problem, in my experience.

Al

 A good Pad, preferably an air pad for complete insulation from the floor, a very good bag. At least -20°F with Dupont Holofill and the very best set of earplugs....you are set. Sound asleep....and that is a promise :!:

  Looking forward to your trip report, Bud ( Randell ) . And please, tell us what you have for lunch :?: .... :lol: .

Lotsa of pictures, please. I´m going to bookmark this thread.

[chisos_muse]

Well HOORAY! :D
Glad y'all had fun. I see me living vicariously through the GUMO trips, because it doesn't really sound like a Musey place... :roll:

[randell]

Ahh. To be young again.  Can't believe you had trouble sleeping.  Did you forget your earplugs?

Al

I had earplugs, a balaclava, and my head completely in my sleeping bag with only my nose poking out.  Still too noisy.  Warm, though  :D

[randell]

Well HOORAY! :D
Glad y'all had fun. I see me living vicariously through the GUMO trips, because it doesn't really sound like a Musey place... :roll:

Sooooooo not a Musey place.

[randell]

Here is Day One

Photos coming soon.  I'm having some issues with my photo service at the moment...

FRIDAY
My wife and I were up at 5am.  She had to catch a 7:05am flight to St Louis to drop off our 1 year old with her sister, and then drive to Quincy, Illinois for a college reunion.  I had to catch an 8:35am flight to El Paso.  We had left our three year old with a local friend the night before.  I quickly cooked breakfast while she got Bryson ready.  We were out the door at 6:00am.  I dropped her off at the airport then drove 40 minutes to pick up Matt, my partner on this expedition.  Our other hiking partner had to back out because of work.  

Back at the airport with Matt, we were worried about the severe weather we had been hearing about in El Paso.  We really didn’t want to have a cancelled flight.  The flight board said our flight was on schedule.  We nervously sat waiting for boarding to begin.  It began.  It ended.  The plane took flight and we were pumped.  As soon as we were off the ground we set our watches to Mountain Standard Time and started reading magazines.  

At 9:15am MST we were descending for a landing and Matt was telling me a story.  Matt is really hard to turn off once he gets started telling a story.  The captain came on and was saying something about going back to Houston.  I thought it was a joke, but didn’t really hear the whole announcement since Matt was still finishing his story.  The stewardess came by and asked if we were listening because we were not going to El Paso.  Matt kept telling his story.  Finally he finished.  All 20 passengers on the plane started looking very uneasy.  I thought it was a joke that the captain was playing.  I hadn’t felt the plane banking.  I got my GPS out and showed Matt.  We were turned around and headed back to Houston.  Finally we asked the stewardess what the captain had said and she said they had shut the airport down in El Paso and we were going back to Houston.  We sat there, dumbfounded.

Matt and I agreed that the best plan of action was to order drinks and discuss plans B and C.  We each ordered a beer and a whiskey.  I got my drink tickets out but the stewardess said it was on the house.  At least something was going good.  This really sucked.  We figured with any luck we could catch a flight to Midland and drive to GUMO.  If that wasn’t an option, plan C would be to catch a flight to Amarillo and go to Palo Duro Canyon.  

The captain came on again and said a customer service agent would help us with our travel plans when we deplaned.  We got off the plan and found that there was a line to get on another plane leaving to El Paso in 20 minutes.  Sounded crazy, but if they were still flying to El Paso, they may have hope that El Paso would open up again.  Back on the plane, we were once again on our way across Texas.  We knew if we did make it into El Paso the three hour delay would prevent us from hiking to the Guadalupe Peak campground by dark.  We didn’t really want to push our time by trying to hike down from the peak on Sunday as we might miss our flight home.  We d have to play it by ear.  

Two hours later we landed.  It was drizzling in El Paso, but didn’t look bad to us.  Eight initials and two signatures later we were in our rental car…a Suzuki Reno?   I thought we were getting a compact, but this seemed sub-compact.  Oh well, no time to argue.  We threw our gear in and took off.  

Outside of El Paso as we climbed in elevation the drizzle turned to snow.  The landscape turned to ice.  We stopped at a rest stop to take a photo of a tree that was completely encased in ice.  As the wind blew it, it creaked and groaned as ice crystals shattered.  Fenced were encased in ice.  Road signs had icicles dangling from them.  We dropped off of the plateau and down in elevation and there was no ice or snow.  

At the turnoff to Dell City we stopped at a store for a soda.  Well, it was kind of a store.  The place was half dump, half store.  The guy running the place was smoking a cigarette.  Connected to his nose was a tube that led to an oxygen tank the size of a 55 gallon drum.  He asked us where we were going and warned us that there was 10 inches of snow on the road.  We grabbed the last Nestea and Starbucks bottled beverage and got out before the whole place blew.  No turning back now.  

A few minutes down the road we turned North to Guadalupe Pass.  As we approached the pass, it got wetter and wetter.  Snow was everywhere.  Dark clouds were dumping snow and sleet.  We passed several DOT vehicles with light flashing.  The road became icy.  Our windshield started icing over even though we had the windshield wipers and heater on full blast.  We drove the last 5 miles going 30 mph.  

Matt gripped the wheel while I helped watch for ice on the road.  The DOT had been clearing the road of snow resulted in large snow banks on either side. We had to plow through a 2 foot snow bank in our tiny car to get into the park entrance.  Fortunately we made it without flying off the road.  We made our way to the visitor center.  We were the only car in the parking lot.  We double parked so we didn’t have to back up (we couldn’t see parking spot lines anyway).  It was 3:15pm.

Inside the ranger station, we visited with the volunteer and ranger on duty.  We told them of our original plans and how we knew that was not possible anymore but wondered what their thoughts were.  They told us how cold and windy the trail would be.  We told them we were prepared.  They said it would be icy and slippery.  I looked at Matt.  

I have to digress a little bit here.  Just before the trip I purchased a pair of ice cleats in case we encountered icy conditions.  I advised Matt to invest in a pair as well.  He said he didn’t think he would need them.   Two days before the trip I sent him the weather forecast and asked him to reconsider.  He said if the weather was that bad he would just tame a couple of coyotes and build a dogsled.  

So here we are at the visitor center talking to the rangers as they tell us about ice on the trail.  I looked at Matt and asked, “Ready to tame some coyotes?“  Matt just grinned and shook his head.  He hated it when I was right.  The rangers said we may be ok with trekking poles, which we had.  They said, however, that it was very ill-advised to try and make it up the mountain with backpacks on due to the snow and ice.  

We left the visitor center to set up camp and think about what we would do tomorrow.  The road to the campsites was very slick.  We slid into a parking spot and put the car in reverse just to see what would happen.  Our tires spun uselessly.  We got out and looked at the campsite.  It was covered in several inches of snow.  It was 27 degrees.  We decided to share Matt s small 2 man tent so we didn’t have to clear so much area of snow and we could conserve warmth in the tent.  Other than us, the entire campground was empty.  

After we set up the tent we went up to the bathrooms.  There was a car filled with junk and a man sitting inside listening to country oldies.   His car was covered in snow and he had an open 3 liter bottle of coke sitting next to him.  There was an extension cord going from the unplugged Gatorade machine and into his rear window.  Strange.  There was one other vehicle parked in the RV section, a small pickup with a man sitting behind the wheel.  It looked like there was all of 4 visitors in the park today.  We paid for our campsite at the self-pay station and headed back to camp.  

Our car was already covered in ice.  The doors were sticking when we tried to open them.  We cleared half of the picnic table of snow so we could eat.  I put down my microfiber camp towel so our food wouldn’t slip off and we ate bagels with cream cheese and pepperoni.  After we finished we cleaned up and when I lifted the microfiber towel, it was so icy that it was as stiff as a piece of cardboard.  We tossed it in the car and squeezed into the tiny tent and into our sleeping bags.  After three games of Travel Sorry we called it a night at 7pm.  It was 25 degrees outside.  Thankfully it was not windy.  There was hardly any wind.

I was warm in my sleeping bag for a while but later in the night I got a little chilly.  I tossed some hand warmers inside my fleece sweater and stuck some foot warmers in between my wool and fleece socks and I was fine.  The other problem was my thermarest went flat.  This was only its second camping trip.  I couldn't believe it was flat.  My old thermarest went years without a flat.  I blew it up by hovering over it balancing on my toes and my elbows while in my sleeping bag.  There was no way I was getting out of my sleeping bag.  

I listened to the sleet pinging the tent heavily.  Later in the night the sleet gave way to snow pelting our tent.  It would be an interesting day tomorrow.

[randell]

Here at the day 1 photos!

[okiehiker]

I can't wait to climb the peak!

[presidio]

The guy running the place was smoking a cigarette.  Connected to his nose was a tube that led to an oxygen tank the size of a 55 gallon drum.

He probably doesn't even associate his 'death sticks' with his physical condition. Smoking: a vile, disgusting habit...and it kills you, too.

They told us how cold and windy the trail would be. They said it would be icy and slippery. The rangers said we may be ok with trekking poles.  They said, however, that it was very ill-advised to try and make it up the mountain with backpacks on due to the snow and ice.  

Now, that's how it should be. They gave you advice but didn't try to tell you what to do.

...and the rest of the story.....

Man, you are either 'un hombre duro' or 'muy loco para seguro', but it looks like a heck of an adventure. You're lucky to not have gotten stranded by road conditions, if nothing else. The pass is being closed regularly due to icing. This winter in the Guads is the harshest in at least 10 years. Wave after wave of snow/sleet/ice is hammering the mountains. Going to be lots of water in the ground come spring.

[mountaindocdanny]

Great shots. I'm exceedingly jealous. Can't wait for the rest of the report.

[randell]

This must be what the ranger was referring to.  I'd say we narrowly made it to GUMO.

National Guard sent to help in winter blast

[randell]

I'll post the photos for this day later this evening...

DAY 2, SATURDAY
We woke up at 7:30am and looked out the tent window.  All we could see was ice.  I poked the window and it was hard as a rock.  I tried to unzip the rainfly and it just hung down like a piece of wood.  Finally I started punching the rainfly to break up the ice encrusted on it.  We had a couple of inches of ice and snow encasing our entire tent.  We looked out and there was a few inches of new snow on the ground and it was snowing heavily.  

We snapped some photos and looked around.  Everything was white.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  We were camped out in a winter wonderland and we were the only people in sight!  Man were we happy.  Just then a park ranger came down the road.  He got out and told us that the highway was closed until further notice.  We said that wouldn’t be a problem until tomorrow.  We’d just deal with it then.  He said El Paso had called out the National Guard, but he thought they were over-reacting due to bad floods they had last year.  He also said the visitor center was closed because of the weather.  We asked if the guy in the car at the bathrooms was still there.  He said yeah, he was still there, but he wasn’t bothering anyone so he was just going to leave him alone.  He concurred with us that the guy “just wasn’t all there”.  

After making sure we were doing fine, the ranger went on his way to check on the other two visitors in the park.  It was still 25 degrees so we went to the bathrooms to brush our teeth.  It was nice and warm in the restroom so we got our Mountain House Oven out to see if it worked.  A few cups of water later it was sitting in the corner for a 15 minute wait.  I ran outside to snap some more photos in the cover of the building.  I came back in the restroom and our Mountain House Oven was belching out steam.  Must be working.  

We ate our egg and bacon meals at the campsite registration booth so we didn’t get snowed on.  We walked by the guy in the car and he opened the door and yelled “Hey, you guys got any booze?!?”  We said no and he slammed his door shut again and started bobbing his head as Patsy Cline played on his radio.  

We mulled our options.  We weren’t going to get Matt’s tent folded up and into his backpack.  It we spent the night on the peak we may not get back down in time to make our flight.  It would probably take a long time to get out of the park with the ice.  Our best option was to just day hike the peak and try spend tomorrow getting out of the park.  I had climbed the peak in 2000 with my wife in six hours.  

We loaded up our camelbacks.  A park truck came by with a plow attachment plowing the roads.  The other visitor in the truck left just ahead of us with a tripod and pack of camera gear.  We signed the logbook and noted that he was going to Devil’s Hall.  As we extended our trekking poles, one of Matt’s snapped when he pulled it out a little too far.  He tried to put it back together but it wasn’t happening.  He would have to go with one pole.  The snow had stopped, which made us happy, and the clouds were breaking a little to the East.  

We started up the mountain with me in the lead.  We had gone a quarter mile when we stopped for a break.  We were both winded.  A little further and we hit the switchbacks and took another break.  We took some photos and started again.  The views were outstanding.  The clouds were congregating over the Guadalupes and they broke up as they headed East.  The sun shone through in some spots.  We could see for mile and miles.  The hills in the distance looked like a satellite image filled with dimples. Everything was coated with snow.  

My breaks became more and more frequent.  I was starting to feel pretty tired already.  This seemed very odd to me.  I am accustomed to being the most motivated and energetic one in the group.  Matt seemed to be doing fine but I was really feeling drained.  We had gone up a little over a thousand feet in elevation and only a mile.  I downed some trial mix thinking that would give me some energy.  About 2 hours into the hike we approached cloud level.  We were about to leave the bright views and go into a dark blue cloud as we went around the pass and into the murky heart of the Guadalupes.  It looked creepy.  

Onward we plodded.  One hour turned into two hours which turned in to two and a half hours.  I had to stop more and more.  Matt started looking at me funny every time I stopped.  I started wondering how much farther I could go.  I was so exhausted.  Finally after almost three hours Matt offered to take the lead.  I had no problem with that.  Maybe following someone would motivate me.  After about 10 steps he turned around and said, “It’s a lot HARDER to be the lead.”  I said, “Yeah, and it’s a lot EASIER to not be in the lead.”  I was so happy that I wasn’t crazy and the snow was to blame for the hike being so hard.

Upward we went.  Visibility became poorer and poorer until we could only see about 25 feet in any direction.  Century Plant stalks were enormous icicles.  Douglas Fir branches were frozen so solid that it was like hitting a brick when we ran into one.  It was surreal.  It was unlike anything I ever expected to see in Texas, but everything I had hoped to see on this trip.  

After about 30 minutes in the lead, Matt turned around and announced “New goal, we make it to the campground and turn around.”  The snow was kicking our butts.  Each step we had to break through a coating of ice and watch our shoe disappear in the snow.  Then we had to pull our foot out of the hole and take another step.  It was very draining.  I was feeling better, though.  Being in the rear and following Matt’s footsteps was much easier.

The campground was fine for me.  My main goal was to get some good photos, and we weren’t going to get above the cloud line like we hoped and the clouds weren’t breaking up.  Matt had never climbed the peak before so he really wanted to get to the top.  

Regardless of what we wanted to do, we were out of time.  We had 8 hours of daylight and by the time we would finish lunch it we would be through 4 of those.  We didn’t want to wind up climbing down in the dark.  We had flashlights, but it was still too dangerous to risk going down in the dark.  We simply had to allow ourselves 4 hours to get back down the mountain.  We had thought that six hours would get us up and down and gave ourselves two hours to play with.  The two hours were spent.

We finally reached the campground and huddled under a tree.  We spread out Matt’s reflective blanket to lay on.  The wind had recently picked up and was gusting very hard.  It was tricky to get on top of the blanket without the blanket blowing away.  Matt pulled out the Mountain House oven and we looked at our water supply.  We both had burned through about half of our water supply.  I didn’t want to run short of water.  I had plenty of trail mix to get me back down the mountain.  Matt, however, was determined to have a hot meal.  The meals and oven together would burn about six cups of water.  Too much.  

We decided to cook only one meal.  I was still worried about running short on water if something went wrong.  Matt came up with the solution: we could use the oven to melt snow and get more water.  This morning the oven had produced enough heat after our meals had cooked for Matt to make coffee.  I relented and gave up half of my water.  

Now for the next problem.  My camelback tube was frozen solid.  It had tried to freeze up earlier in the hike and I had managed to suck hard enough to get water going again.  Even though I had blown all of the water out of the tube back into the bladder after every drink to prevent freezing, it still froze.  Even though I had a tube director/insulator on the tube, it still froze.  I just took the tube off and squeezed out the needed water.  We sat and waited for the chemicals to produce heat.  

Sitting still we started getting cold.  The wind was really blowing.  Snow was pelting us in the face.  I was glad I brought my ski goggles.  Matt forgot his at camp but had glasses on which helped him.  The wind chill was really low as my hands started to hurt.  I zipped my jacket and pant ventilators closed.  I quickly got some handwarmers and put them in my mittens and buried my hands in them.  I had to do this in stages because my hands started hurting badly if I left them out of the mittens for more than 30 seconds.  I ate a marathon bar that was frozen solid to give me some energy.

My toes were getting frigid in my snow-covered boots.  I tried to untie my laces but the laces were encrusted with ice and hard to untie.  The additional cold of trying to untie icicles meant I had very little time to get my boots untied.  I untied one at a time and got a toe warmer in.  

After 15 minutes, the oven wasn’t heating.  Damn!  It must have been too cold for it or something.  I was starting to shiver.  This made me really nervous.  I had my down jacket still to put on but I was getting worried about time as well as cold.  We now had 3 hours 55 minutes until the sun set.  We had to get going.  Matt put a handwarmer packet under the oven and it started to heat up rapidly.  I was out of patience.  “Man, we gotta get going.  We can eat that thing down the trail when it finishes cooking.”  Matt agreed.  

We folded up the blanket which had helped enormously to keep us dry and off of the snow.  I led the way down the trail.  I had anticipated the trail down to be slick as it usually is in non-icy/snowy weather when you are sliding on pebbles.  We were in luck, though.  The snow padded our footfalls protecting our knees and provided traction because each step found our foot in a snowy hole that gave us traction.  We were really moving.  We were descending as quickly as our feet could safely move.  Occasionally I would slip a little on a rock but my trekking poles would catch me with no problem.  We took no breaks because none were necessary.  We got warmed up but not out of breath.  

Matt announced that the oven was great next to his chest.  It kept him toasty warm.  We hiked back to the pass around the mountain and stopped at a rock outcropping that blocked the wind and allowed us an outstanding view.  We pulled out the pitas and ate seafood chowder.  We were making excellent time.  

Back on the trail, we flew down the mountain.  In the distance we could see the highway and a troop of a dozen vehicles with flashing lights.  It looked like the DOT was clearing the road.  We might actually make it out tomorrow.  

We made it back to the trailhead in 2 hours.  Man, what a relief.  The GUMO roads had all been plowed except the road leading the tent camping area.  They had left 50% of the campers in the park stranded.  We decided we should try and get the car up to the rv/picnic area, which was up on a hill.  The tent campsites were in a valley so we would have to get it up an icy hill.  Better to try this today than tomorrow when we had to catch a flight home.  The road up the hill was icy since the rangers had been driving over it all day.  

Matt got behind the wheel and I cleared snow from behind the tires.  With a little spinning and pushing we got the car aimed up the hill.   I got behind the car.  Matt gave it gas.  The tires spun.  I dug my ice cleats in and pushed.  The car moved.  I got up to jogging speed and let go.  Matt had enough propulsion to make it.  He got all the way up to the parking lot!  My ice cleats saved the day again!

Next we decided to walk over to the visitor center to get a soda.  We had plenty of daylight.  The road was coated with an inch of ice.  We got on the trail and found cross-country ski tracks.  Looks like the rangers had been having fun.  The visitor center was shut down but we got a soda and sat on the rocks watching water drip from the enormous icicles hanging from the roof.  We spotted a pay phone and called our wives to reassure them in case they had seen the news and were worried.  Neither of them were available so we just left messages.  

After lounging around for a while we went back to the car and ate Peanut Butter and Jelly bagels.  The squirt bottles of peanut butter and jelly were great since I didn’t feel like hunting down my knife.  I put my frozen camelback tube in the defrost vent to melt the ice.  A ranger came by and asked when we got in.  We told him yesterday.  He was somewhat surprised.  We informed him we were the guys in the blue tent and then it all came together in his head.  He told us to get ready for a windy night.  We chatted for a minute about our hike and he went on his way to check on the other 2 visitors in the park.  The photographer was back in his truck from Devil’s Hall and the crazy guy in the car was still sitting in front of the restrooms listening to country oldies.  At least he had good taste in music.

We got in our tent at dark and played some cards.  We compared notes on who had the worst body odor.  “Gosh, I stink!”  “Oh yeah!  Smell these dogs!”  “Jeez, that’s horrible!”  At 7pm it was lights out.  

The wind outside was howling.  Gusts started pounding the tent.  At first the gusts were folding the tent over on Matt.  He offered to switch places with me.  I declined.  Then the gusts got so strong that the entire tent would flatten.  The first time it hit me, it pushed my shoulder twice.  I thought Matt was nudging me.  I sat up and said “What?”  Then another gust hit the tent and it slapped me in the face.

After a while I pulled out my earplugs and handed my extra pair to Matt while I put mine in.  I put on my balaclava and cinched my sleeping bag up so that only my nose was sticking out.  It helped some, but the wind howled on bending our tent over on top of us, then letting it pop back into place.  Sleep was hard.  I didn’t know where my lip balm was and I left my water in the car.  There was no way I was getting out of my sleeping bag to look for them.  My thermarest went flat a few more times just for good measure.

[homerboy2u2]

Man...what a trip. :!: ....Definately my wife would have opposed for me to go there.

  You got well under -12° C ( 25° F )...That was cold :!:

 slap us the pictures please. Oh, and BTW, did your friend got to taming them coyotes :?:  :shock:

  What tent & sleeping bags were you using?

[Al]

Sounds like there some good thinking on y'alls part.  Can you imagine having spent that second night at the GP campsite!  Great report. Need Pictures!

Al