What clients say about Cerro Pedernal in Augustine (NM)
My wife and I have climbed Pedernal twice while we were living in New Mexico. It is one of the most technical climbs we have ever done, but so worth the effort. For us the trail up to the base of the cliff face and back down was the hardest because of all of the talus. We both thought that climbing up the actual cliff face was the easiest part of the climb. For me, climbing back down the cliff face was challenging because I couldn't see the toe holds so I was uncomfortable. My wife had no issues with that part. On our second climb she climbed down the cliff face first so she could tell me where to put my feet when it was my turn. That made it a whole lot easier. Here are some pictures of the two times we climbed Pedernal, including some from the top.
Over the last 40 years, I've probably climbed Pedernal 10-15 times. I got engaged on Pedernal in 1997 and for the last 40 years I've climbed up the trail on the right as you're looking at the backside of the mountain. It has always sucked and I've never really enjoyed the hike.
Today for the first time we turned left at the two berms that block the road up and went up another mile or so on a road that like the approach to the two berms requires 4WD. But the hike from that trailhead up the nose or the western side was delightful! There was only about 100 feet of scree and the rest was a great hike. We made it up in 90 mins and down in 80 mins. We will NEVER hike the old path!!
It's just a rare beauty, like so much of New Mexico, coincidentally made famous by the beloved Georgia O'Keeffe! One can see why she never returned home to her eastern home, the land of enchantment truly draws us into it's uniquely mountainous and desert beauty. What a place!
I've been here to see this monumental behemoth mesa a couple of times prior to relocating to New Mexico a few months ago; we too have been and are enchanted.
It's Labor Day weekend and here at Abiqui Lake below the stoic Pedernal, we find it hard to believe that there are more than about a dozen visitors on the lake! What a refreshing change from the crowds of 6.2 million or so in the Atlanta Georgia area!!!
Abiqui and Pedernal- what a gorgeous combo!
As a longtime lover of Georgia O’Keefe’s art, it was an ecstatic moment to stand on top of the mountain she made famous, where her ashes were scattered. What a stunning view of Northern New Mexico. It’s a treacherous journey — the final twenty feet are an extremely dangerous vertical climb above a 45-degree slope that declines for hundreds of feet. But once I made it up that terrifying ascent I got the view I had waited all my life to see.
Georgia O'Keeffe is reported to have said of Cerro Pedernal "It's my private mountain. It belongs to me. God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it." Cerro Pedernal's meaning in Spanish is "flint hill." Its stone was used for arrowheads and spearpoints by indigenous people. On its 9862 foot summit, Georgia O'keeffe's ashes were scattered.
