New Routes in New Mexico, 1991-3. In January, 1993,I made several new ice climbs around Questa, New Mexico. Luke Laeser, Mike Lyons and I climbed Eskimo Pie (II, WI4+/5, A0; 3 pitches), one of the finest ice routes in the state. It rises above Highway 38, opposite the Moly Corporation Mine. We three then climbed a one-pitch route, Hershey Squirts (I, WI4+). The second pitch never formed enough ice to allow climbing. Then Michael Horan and I climbed Droplet (I, WI 2) on the north side of the highway. Unreported from March, 1991 was the first ascent of Church Rock (II, 5.9 + ; 2 pitches), a prominent New Mexico landmark, by Mike Baker, Bob Rosebrough and me. Later, on the second ascent, Rosebrough placed two drilled angle pitons on the second face pitch, which were not used during the first ascent. Laeser and I climbed the tower King Rudi, near Ghost Ranch, on April 18, 1992 after several days of effort (III, 5.8, A2). Laeser and I made what we believe was the first ascent of Bennett Peak, (III, 5.8, Al) in the Four Comers area on August 8, 1992. Our route started up a gully on the west side of the main summit of this huge plug south of Shiprock. We then rappelled into a couloir and climbed a pitch to the three main summits. The peak is described in Herbert Ungnade’s Mountains of New Mexico. Last year, I reported a route by Baker and me on Ford Butte’s south summit. The first ascent of the north summit had been made by Mark Dalen and a partner in 1971. Laeser and I climbed the first route on the east side of Venus Needle in September, 1992 (III, 5.9, A2+; 2 pitches.)

Cameron M. Burns