Big Bend--Window Traverse

[steelfrog Profile 14er Peak List Not Entered]

Howdy--I thought you might be interested ina traverse (almost) of the Window in Big Bend that my Bro and I did over the weekend.

First, we attempted Vernon Bailey, which forms the right (west) side of the famous Window in the Chisos Basin of Big Bend N.P.:



The left (east) side of the Window is formed by Amon Carter Peak:



Vernon Bailey was quite a bushwack, and rather than follow another plan we had heard about, we successfully tried to find a more direct route, but ran out of time about a half hour from the summit; but did get some pretty sweet views of the Chisos Basin:



Carter was another issue altogether--the idea I had was that I would climb Gilbert's Promontory, which is to the east of Carter and about 200 feet higher, and take a picture of my Bro on top. First, we had to negotiate about a 800' talus slope, which took 25 minutes (this pic is about 100 feet up or so):



Here's a pic of my Bro (circled in red) on his way up Carter:



And here he is on top of Carter, with the Christmas Mountains visible in the distance behind him:

[MtHurd Profile 14er Peak List (57) 14ers in Winter (4)13er Peak List (29)]

Hey I thought Texas was flat? Amazing stuff!

[elhombre Profile 14er Peak List (28) 13er Peak List (13)]

So, I have to come to 14ers to get the good pictures.....Very nice Basin shot. It sure is nice to see a different perspective of the area.

[dsbrian Profile 14er Peak List (12)]

Beautiful photos. I did this hike a few years ago and ran into a black bear heading up trail toward the end where it narrows. We stared at each other for a minute, I moved to the side and he walked on by me and up the trail. One of my most memorable experiences while hiking but also one of the most nerve racking when it ocurred.

[tx_mountain_medic Profile 14er Peak List Not Entered]

Great pics. I have some of the same. I climbed that a few years ago, a pretty tough climb on the account of the talis! We climes it a few days after a good rain in the area and had about 100 m wide section of mountain side move while we were on it. Definetly one of my scariest climbs! Good to see some of texas on here. I might post a few pics of palo duro canyon on here too. Later!