{"id":4025,"date":"2016-08-14T08:10:43","date_gmt":"2016-08-14T14:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=4025"},"modified":"2021-02-21T15:17:04","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T22:17:04","slug":"black-hills-sd-expedition-no-112-new-years-eve-peak-12-31-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=4025","title":{"rendered":"Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 112 – New Year’s Eve Peak (12-31-14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago,\u00a0on Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 41, Lupe and SPHP had climbed Peak 6046<\/a><\/span><\/strong> for the first time on the last day of 2012.\u00a0 Back then, SPHP had given the private name “New Year’s Eve Peak” to the mountain.\u00a0\u00a0At the time, it\u00a0had seemed like it might be fun to make a little tradition out of returning to\u00a0New Year’s Eve Peak\u00a0on the last day of each year.\u00a0 Of course, outdoor traditions at the end of December\u00a0would always\u00a0be subject to the weather, but that was just going to have to be a given.\u00a0 Some years, Lupe wouldn’t make it back.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, Lupe didn’t make it back on the last day of 2013, but weather wasn’t the culprit.\u00a0 On December 30th, Lupe’s “grandma” suffered a transient ischemic attack (mini-stroke), and wound up in the hospital.<\/p>\n

Now it was the morning of December 31st, 2014.\u00a0\u00a0The morning was bright and frosty, very frosty – it had gotten down to\u00a0-10\u00b0F overnight, way too cold for one of Lupe’s Black\u00a0Hills, SD Expeditions.\u00a0 Maybe Lupe\u00a0was going to have to skip New Year’s Eve Peak in 2014, too? \u00a0The forecast held out some hope, though –\u00a0it was supposed to get up into the low 30’s \u00b0F.<\/p>\n

The forecast was\u00a0accurate!\u00a0 Things started warming up rapidly.\u00a0 When it reached 30\u00b0F a bit before noon, it was time for Lupe to head out!\u00a0 At 12:22 PM (30\u00b0F), SPHP parked the G6 on USFS Road No. 710 just off Hwy 385, about 3.5 miles S of the Pactola Reservoir dam.\u00a0 Lupe was happy to be out in the hills again!\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP started off following USFS Road No. 710 going W.<\/p>\n

The road gradually climbed up through a small forested valley.\u00a0 After more than half a mile,\u00a0No. 710\u00a0started turning S, as it emerged from the valley onto more level, open ground.\u00a0\u00a0Soon No. 710 turned SE, so\u00a0Lupe and SPHP left it going SW instead.\u00a0 Lupe was now out in an area that had burned years ago in a forest fire.\u00a0 Just to the S, there was a low hilly ridge with rock outcroppings.\u00a0 Lupe headed for it, and was rewarded with panoramic views of the snowy landscape.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe reaches a high spot along the low, open hilly ridge. There were some pretty nice panoramic views from this area which had burned in a forest fire years ago. Photo looks W.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking SE now at Peak 5800<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong> (L) from the low hilly ridge. It was kind of chilly up here in the WNW breeze.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupe followed the ridge heading WNW to stay up on the high ground, continuing to climb as she went.\u00a0 She skirted along\u00a0to the S of High Point 5917, then angled W to go down into a saddle between High Point 5917 and the next ridge.\u00a0 It turned out there were two saddles, the first one being larger and deeper than the second one.<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/a>
Another view back to the SE from farther WNW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.\u00a0 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\u00a0out on the open ground.<\/p>\n

The deeper snow didn’t seem to bother Lupe at all.\u00a0 She lost some elevation as she went NW, but eventually reached a road.\u00a0 The road was snowy too, but headed WNW up toward New Year’s Eve Peak.\u00a0 A short distance S of the summit, the road curved around to the ENE.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP left the road to climb directly up the S slope of New Year’s Eve Peak.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking SW from the snowy SE slope of New Year’s Eve Peak not far from the summit. A narrow gap in the forest provides a glimpse of distant blue mountains.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Lupe neared the summit, she circled around a bit to make the final approach from the ESE.\u00a0 It was an easy climb.\u00a0 Before long, Lupe was perched up on the very highest rocks on top of New Year’s Eve Peak.\u00a0 Two years after first climbing the mountain, Lupe was back to say good-bye to yet another year!<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe at the summit of New Year’s Eve Peak on the last day of 2014. Photo looks W.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe at the summit of New Year’s Eve Peak. A small cairn is visible next to her. Photo looks NE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a couple of photos of Lupe at the summit, Lupe and SPHP took a little break.\u00a0 SPHP shared a chocolate-covered granola bar with Lupe.\u00a0 Lupe\u00a0made it clear she would be perfectly\u00a0happy to complete the entire task of consuming it all\u00a0on her own, but SPHP didn’t need quite THAT much help.<\/p>\n

The summit of New Year’s Eve Peak was fairly heavily forested, so there wasn’t much of a view in most directions.\u00a0 There were a couple of small openings in the forest, though, that provided a look off into the distance.\u00a0 The best view was toward a succession of snowy blue hills off to the W.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP found a spot to sit down, huddled together against the cool breeze, to admire the view for a little while.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a>
On the final afternoon of 2014, Lupe and SPHP sat together for a little while admiring this view of snowy blue mountains to the W from New Year’s Eve Peak.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupe had a great 2014.\u00a0 This was her 39th Black Hills, SD\u00a0Expedition\u00a0of the year, in June she’d\u00a0been\u00a0on a\u00a0luxurious Dingo Vacation to the Kabekona Lake<\/a><\/span><\/strong> cabin in Minnesota,\u00a0she’d had a wonderful Summer of 2015 Dingo Vacation to the Canadian Rockies and Beartooths, and she’d climbed Lonesome Mountain<\/a><\/strong><\/span> (11,399 ft.)<\/span><\/strong> in the Beartooths, the highest mountain she had ever been on.\u00a0 Now, on a chilly, quiet afternoon, way up on shady, lonely New Year’s Eve Peak, 2014 was slipping away forever.<\/p>\n

It was actually a pretty good way to end the year, but didn’t change the\u00a0sad\u00a0fact that 2014 was passing into history.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It was chilly enough up at the summit now, and wouldn’t be any warmer by then.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Down in the forested draw just SSE of the summit, Lupe took a side road that went S out to a high rocky spot.\u00a0 From this\u00a0high rocky spot, there were some great open views from the NE around to the S and W.\u00a0 SPHP later named the spot Pistol Point, for a large rock that looked like a pistol handle sticking up out of the ground.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe on her way back to the G6 from New Year’s Eve Peak. Here she is at Pistol Point. Photo looks ESE toward Peak 5800.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking NE at New Year’s Eve Peak from Pistol Point.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The wavy ridge just L of center is Five Points<\/a><\/span><\/strong> (6,221 ft.)<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 . The high spot just to the R is privately named False North Point (6,130 ft.). Photo looks S from Pistol Point.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe sniffs around at Pistol Point. The “Pistol” is the oddly shaped rock at center, which to SPHP somewhat resembles the handle of a pistol thrust into the ground.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was 3:52 PM (24\u00b0F) by the time Lupe and SPHP made it back to the G6.\u00a0 Lupe’s final Black Hills, SD Expedition of 2014 was over.\u00a0 SPHP was glad that Lupe had made a trip to New Year’s Eve Peak a real tradition by returning to the mountain.<\/p>\n

Back at home, 2014 stole away in the night.\u00a0 2015 found SPHP snoozing with a tired, warm American Dingo.\u00a0 Peacefully and comfortably, another big year for Lupe\u00a0was just beginning.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The last long shadows of 2014 lengthen on USFS Road No. 710 near the end of the day. The only tracks in the snow were Lupe’s and SPHP’s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Next Black Hills Expedition<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prior Black Hills Expedition<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Expedition No. 80 – New Year’s Eve Peak (3-23-14)<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Expedition No. 150 – New Year’s Eve Peak & Peak 5800 (1-1-16)<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Want more Lupe adventures?\u00a0\u00a0Choose\u00a0from\u00a0Lupe’s Black Hills Expeditions Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span> or Master Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0Or subscribe free\u00a0to\u00a0new Lupe adventures<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years ago,\u00a0on Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 41, Lupe and SPHP had climbed Peak 6046 for the first time on the last day of 2012.\u00a0 Back then, SPHP had given the private name “New Year’s Eve Peak” to the mountain.\u00a0\u00a0At the time, it\u00a0had seemed like it might be fun to make a little tradition … Continue reading Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 112 – New Year’s Eve Peak (12-31-14)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[105,9,106,104,539,304],"class_list":["post-4025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-hills","tag-american-dingo","tag-black-hills-expeditions","tag-carolina-dog","tag-lupe","tag-new-years-eve-peak","tag-south-dakota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/P1050807.jpg?fit=1651%2C1238&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4025"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32288,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4025\/revisions\/32288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}