Cookes Peak has one of the more unique and recognizable profiles of any mountain in southern New Mexico. Located north of the city of Deming in Luna County, Cookes Peak is a large, prominent mountain whose summit is a rocky spire, slightly skewed to one side, similar to a dollop of whipped cream. From below (and even up close), Cookes Peak looks like one would need rock-climbing experience and gear to get up this peak, but in reality the climbing is much gentler than would be expected, although it is by no means a walk in the park.

Deming sits along Interstate-10 about 300 miles from our home in Chandler, Arizona, and is a nice little town to stop in for a meal and a hotel. My wife has relatives on her dad's side in Deming going back about 130 years. On one of our trips we stopped in at the historical center, and once she mentioned her family name, they knew her old-time relatives well. It's a nice town, sitting in the high desert, with the large Florida Mountains nearby, and of course, impressive Cookes Peak up north. I was well into my county highpointing bug before I thought to attempt Cookes Peak, partly due to its relatively close location to home, figuring I could go get it at any time. This weekend proved to be a good opportunity.

My chum Adam Helman was in southern New Mexico for some peaks of his own, and a few other like-minded people had coordinated with Adam to tackle a handful of southern New Mexico highpoints. We all had different intentions, some of us had differing schedules, and not everyone desired the same peaks, but somehow Adam was able to formulate a schedule so that we could partner off as needed for our peaks of interest. I had driven out from Chandler on Friday afternoon, camping in the Coronado National Forest with Scott Casterlin and Adam. Saturday (yesterday), Scott, Adam and I had an enjoyable afternoon exploring *Ahem* Peak, before driving back to our site in the forest. The weather was kind of unsettled: we had a small amount of hail fall on us at one point. After a nap back at camp I started the drive out toward Deming by way of Columbus, arriving in town about sixish to meet Edward Earl, my partner for Cookes Peak, and Dave Covill, who was heading southwesterly on his way to meet Adam and climb up *Ahem* Peak. We all ate dinner at the Rancher's Grill in town. After Dave got moving, Edward and I were kind of bummed to see the weather had become very stormy. Our plan had been to drive to the trailhead of Cookes Peak and camp, but I didn't want to drive dirt roads in the dark in a storm, so we stayed in a cheap hotel in town.

The next morning the rain had stopped but the clouds hung low. It was quite cool but very still. We weren't heartened by the weather, but absent a major deluge, we figured we'd at least drive out to the trailhead and hope for the best. From Deming, we went north on US-180 for a mile, then northeast on NM-26 for 14 miles to County Road A29 on our left. The county road was gravel and a bit "grabby": the previous night's rain making the dirt a bit sticky and slick at the same time. The first six miles is pretty solid and in good shape, when dry. We went another six miles up this road, now a notch worse in overall condition, with yesterday's rains not helping much. I skidded and lurched up this road, fishtailing in places, until we reached a gate. Beyond the gate is a small corral/pen used by the local rancher, but beyond this pen, the road continues up some more and is on state and BLM land again.

The rancher had given us permission to pass through the gate; we were on his property for maybe 100 feet before passing the second gate back onto public lands. The road hereafter was much rockier, necessitating 4-wheel drive, but the rocks were more stable than the slick mud we had coming up. I crunched my trusty truck up another couple of miles or so, parking in a clearing near the junction of a very old and decrepit side road that headed westerly into the range, elevation 6,000 feet. The weather was steady: cool, gray, low clouds and kind of ominous, but so far, no more rain. Temperatures were in the 40s and there was no breeze. What we could see was gorgeous: high desert scrub and succulents, lots of yucca, and impressive canyons and rocky mountainous ridges. An old mining town sits a few miles up the "main" road from here but we did not explore that way. Cookes Peak itself was hidden in the clouds. It was about 8 a.m. when we started our hike. Given the conditions, I held little hope of success.

We walked up this old road for a short while, on a southwestern bearing, as it gained steeply up the bajada slopes and into the canyons, all this in maybe a half-mile. At times the road would switch sides, hugging one side of the canyon before crossing over. We stayed on the road maybe another quarter-mile until it came to a sharp left turn. The road actually switchbacks up the slopes here, but based on previous reports, this just leads one into a gruesome bushwhack afterwards. Instead, we left the road, staying on our general southwestern bearing, as we hiked up the bottom of the canyon itself. The going was pretty good as the canyon floor itself was generally open, albeit narrow. The hillsides were choked in brush, however. We kept at this for a little while more as the canyon began to noticeably steepen and narrow. Whenever the canyon would split we always went left. In time we had hiked essentially to the canyon's headwall, and it was time to venture onto the slopes and gain the ridges.

In talking with Dave Covill the night before, he described a good set of switchbacks that leave the canyon bottom and ascend the ridge, eventually topping out near the knob shown as elevation 7,402 on the map. Try as we might, we never found these switchbacks. We did, however, find about three or four "trails" that angled up the hillside and that at first seemed solid, but each time they'd degenerate into thick brush very quickly. We figured these to be game trails. In the process of looking for the switchbacks we lost a bit of time, but not too much. Instead, we essentially hiked as far up the canyon as we could, always staying left wherever the canyon split. Various footpaths and cairns were spotted but nothing significantly substantial. A lot of our navigating was just by dead reckoning. Finally, we made our own way up to the ridge, hiking over rock piles and moderate foliage to gain the top of the ridge. A GPS reading put us a bit southwest of knob 7,402.

We then hiked the spine of this ridge southwesterly, blazing our own paths through the brush and man-high trees. We made steady uphill progress, then surprise, found an obvious man-made trail which expedited our progress substantially. This trail put us on the principal southeast saddle just below the peak. Covill also said we'd find occasional bits of red yarn tied to tree branches and a fence line, which we did, and we followed these. Bear in mind, we still had about 30 feet of visibility, no more. It was good to know we were in the right place despite having no visual cues. We trudged up the steep slopes, following a use-trail and the yarn. About 400 feet below the summit the weather turned ugly and we started to get a rain/sleet/graupel mix. Motivated by this we made fast time and got to the base of a large rock fin that is the summit of Cookes: we were getting close! We scrambled up the easy class-3 slopes, gaining about 150 fairly quickly. Despite the rain mix, footing was good. Upon surmounting this, we had to hike up another small bump, where, for the first time, the summit of Cookes Peak came in view through the mist. Then ... crack ... BOOM! Lightning. Not good.

We literally ran the final 100 feet to the top, tagged the summit, got one or two photos, then busted our asses down the rocky sections into the trees. We didn't stay up top for any time at all, no time to take in the views (there were none, given the mist). We didn't stop much until we had descended about 400 feet to get back into the trees. Fortunately we only heard the one lightning strike, but the rain was now falling faster and in time it began to snow. We were back on the "good" ridge trail, and when it turned to descend into the canyon we followed it, hoping it would stay good, which it didn't. It just petered out into the brush.

We chose to descend directly down the slope, no longer trying to locate paths, the worst obstacles being a few crumbly cliff bands, maybe 6-8 feet high at worst. The snow was sticking but not accumulating in any great quantities. Actually, it was falling slowly, there was no breeze and all things considered, conditions weren't too bad. The snow made our footing even a little more surer, as we could usually smoosh our boots into the snow and it would usually hold. Quickly we were in the canyon bottom, which we followed out to the road and back to my truck, arriving about 12:30 p.m. The snow line was right about this elevation as we could see a distinct line of snow in the terrain. I changed into some drier clothes and we didn't waste any time starting the drive out.

Driving out proved to be quite an experience. The rough rocky mountain roads above the corral weren't too bad, since the rocks held us in place. We passed through the gates at the pen and were now back onto the gravel/sand road we'd driven coming up. The rain had turned this road into a slick, clay muck. I had no traction most of the time, spinning my wheels and more often than not yawing in place and kicking up all sorts of gunk. The only upside was that we were not on any slope where we had danger of going over the edge. I was now in 4-wheel drive low and if I went really slow, I could inch forward with some progress but it was excruciatingly slow. We'd hit patches where I could make up about 100 feet then hit a gigantic mudpit, hopping I had enough momentum to get through it.

I came upon a somewhat clever solution: the road grader had pushed a berm of rocks along the side of the road, so I eased one side of the truck onto this berm, where there was more traction, and inched forward slowly, all the while at a sometimes steep side-ways lean. This worked, although it took a solid hour to drive out the 12 miles of this road back to the pavement. We were damn glad to be back onto the hardtop afterwards, and especially pleased to have climbed Cookes despite the weather, and to be back out where we were safe. The drive into Deming went quickly and I dropped Edward off at his vehicle, before making my long drive home.

As I left Deming on westbound Interstate-10, the storm subsided and the clouds lifted, offering me a chance to get a good look at the peak we'd just climbed. The top was covered in newly-fallen snow and was quite beautiful. I was genuinely surprised we'd actually made it! The drive home was its usual long boring endurance contest. The storms had caused some trouble: a big rig was laying on its side near Willcox, Arizona, and some strectches of highway were covered in hail or snow mix. This surely was the last big storm of Spring as usually by this time of year the temperatures are starting to rise into the warm regions.

For some excellent photographs of Cookes Peak in clear, dry conditions, please check out Gerry Roach's fine report: Cookes Peak. The east face of the peak looks quite intimidating! It also shows the scrambling sections nearer the top. Despite the seemingly severe exposure, the rock is solid, it lays back well and is actually very nice, easy scrambling.