Two years ago, on Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 41, Lupe and SPHP had climbed Peak 6046 for the first time on the last day of 2012. Back then, SPHP had given the private name “New Year’s Eve Peak” to the mountain. At the time, it had seemed like it might be fun to make a little tradition out of returning to New Year’s Eve Peak on the last day of each year. Of course, outdoor traditions at the end of December would always be subject to the weather, but that was just going to have to be a given. Some years, Lupe wouldn’t make it back.
Sure enough, Lupe didn’t make it back on the last day of 2013, but weather wasn’t the culprit. On December 30th, Lupe’s “grandma” suffered a transient ischemic attack (mini-stroke), and wound up in the hospital.
Now it was the morning of December 31st, 2014. The morning was bright and frosty, very frosty – it had gotten down to -10°F overnight, way too cold for one of Lupe’s Black Hills, SD Expeditions. Maybe Lupe was going to have to skip New Year’s Eve Peak in 2014, too? The forecast held out some hope, though – it was supposed to get up into the low 30’s °F.
The forecast was accurate! Things started warming up rapidly. When it reached 30°F a bit before noon, it was time for Lupe to head out! At 12:22 PM (30°F), SPHP parked the G6 on USFS Road No. 710 just off Hwy 385, about 3.5 miles S of the Pactola Reservoir dam. Lupe was happy to be out in the hills again! Lupe and SPHP started off following USFS Road No. 710 going W.
The road gradually climbed up through a small forested valley. After more than half a mile, No. 710 started turning S, as it emerged from the valley onto more level, open ground. Soon No. 710 turned SE, so Lupe and SPHP left it going SW instead. Lupe was now out in an area that had burned years ago in a forest fire. Just to the S, there was a low hilly ridge with rock outcroppings. Lupe headed for it, and was rewarded with panoramic views of the snowy landscape.
Lupe followed the ridge heading WNW to stay up on the high ground, continuing to climb as she went. She skirted along to the S of High Point 5917, then angled W to go down into a saddle between High Point 5917 and the next ridge. It turned out there were two saddles, the first one being larger and deeper than the second one.
Instead of climbing up to the next ridge (Pistol Point), at the bottom of the second, smaller saddle, Lupe and SPHP turned NW heading directly for New Year’s Eve Peak, which was now only 0.33 mile away. This route took Lupe into a rather snowy forest, with at least 6″ of snow on the ground compared to only 3″ or 4″ back out on the open ground.
The deeper snow didn’t seem to bother Lupe at all. She lost some elevation as she went NW, but eventually reached a road. The road was snowy too, but headed WNW up toward New Year’s Eve Peak. A short distance S of the summit, the road curved around to the ENE. Lupe and SPHP left the road to climb directly up the S slope of New Year’s Eve Peak.
As Lupe neared the summit, she circled around a bit to make the final approach from the ESE. It was an easy climb. Before long, Lupe was perched up on the very highest rocks on top of New Year’s Eve Peak. Two years after first climbing the mountain, Lupe was back to say good-bye to yet another year!
After a couple of photos of Lupe at the summit, Lupe and SPHP took a little break. SPHP shared a chocolate-covered granola bar with Lupe. Lupe made it clear she would be perfectly happy to complete the entire task of consuming it all on her own, but SPHP didn’t need quite THAT much help.
The summit of New Year’s Eve Peak was fairly heavily forested, so there wasn’t much of a view in most directions. There were a couple of small openings in the forest, though, that provided a look off into the distance. The best view was toward a succession of snowy blue hills off to the W. Lupe and SPHP found a spot to sit down, huddled together against the cool breeze, to admire the view for a little while.
Lupe had a great 2014. This was her 39th Black Hills, SD Expedition of the year, in June she’d been on a luxurious Dingo Vacation to the Kabekona Lake cabin in Minnesota, she’d had a wonderful Summer of 2015 Dingo Vacation to the Canadian Rockies and Beartooths, and she’d climbed Lonesome Mountain (11,399 ft.) in the Beartooths, the highest mountain she had ever been on. Now, on a chilly, quiet afternoon, way up on shady, lonely New Year’s Eve Peak, 2014 was slipping away forever.
It was actually a pretty good way to end the year, but didn’t change the sad fact that 2014 was passing into history. Lupe and SPHP would have liked to stay up on New Year’s Eve Peak until sunset, but sunset was still a couple of hours away. It was chilly enough up at the summit now, and wouldn’t be any warmer by then.
When Lupe and SPHP finally started back down off New Year’s Eve Peak, Lupe took the same route back to the G6, with one exception. Down in the forested draw just SSE of the summit, Lupe took a side road that went S out to a high rocky spot. From this high rocky spot, there were some great open views from the NE around to the S and W. SPHP later named the spot Pistol Point, for a large rock that looked like a pistol handle sticking up out of the ground.
It was 3:52 PM (24°F) by the time Lupe and SPHP made it back to the G6. Lupe’s final Black Hills, SD Expedition of 2014 was over. SPHP was glad that Lupe had made a trip to New Year’s Eve Peak a real tradition by returning to the mountain.
Back at home, 2014 stole away in the night. 2015 found SPHP snoozing with a tired, warm American Dingo. Peacefully and comfortably, another big year for Lupe was just beginning.
Links:
Next Black Hills Expedition Prior Black Hills Expedition
Expedition No. 80 – New Year’s Eve Peak (3-23-14)
Expedition No. 150 – New Year’s Eve Peak & Peak 5800 (1-1-16)
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