Mt. Lindsey

14,042-foot Mount Lindsey is a high mountain summit on the Sierra Blanca Massif in the Sangre de Cristo Range.

The summit and most of the southern flank of the mountain are privately held, but access to the summit is allowed. In 1954, the name was changed to honor Malcolm Lindsey, a beloved chaperone for the Juniors of the Colorado Mountain Club in the 1940s. Previously, the mountain had been known as Old Baldy.

The following is an account of an ascent of Mt. Lindsey:

We were up and out early, early enough to be walking past the trailhead signs at 7:30 am. This year we had a much better idea of what we were looking for and there was much less snow in the way of us finding it. And we couldn’t have had a nicer day.

The climbing was much easier because we found the trail. At about 10 am, we reached the ridge that leads out onto the northwest shoulder of Mt. Lindsey. At 13,100′, our immediate future looked to be filled with lots of rock. The south side of the ridge was sheer rock. The north side of the ridge was filled with broken rock. We chose to stay on the north side.

After ascending this first chute, we found ourselves crossing couloir after couloir in a long ascending traverse of the rock face. The exposure was pretty constant, but it wasn’t too bad. Finally, we made it straight back onto the ridge and climbed a few boulders and a catwalk to get to the top. Bill felt we should have had a rope and hardware, but we did fine. We were eating lunch, signing the register, and taking photos at the cairn on the summit at 11:30 am.

At noon we started back down. The trail was easily lost and after a while, one rock looks just like every other rock. We basically climbed back down off of Lindsey, hand and foot, staying out of the loose stuff. It seemed to take forever, but we were back in the car by 4 pm, thanking each other for an excellent day in the mountains.