The Time I Almost Died At Tent Rocks
Wilderness will kill you
I froze halfway up the rock face. My knapsack had shifted and I was out of balance. If I reached up to the next handhold I’d slide off this rock face and forty feet into the canyon below.
I was stuck.
I felt a wave of panic wash over me. I was less than ten feet from the top but it looked miles away. I needed to calm myself down and figure a way out of this.
“You ok there, Tom?”
“No,” I replied to the voice below. “I’m off balance and I’m about to fall. My pack is off-center.”
“I got you,” Bob said.
He climbed up below me and pushed my sack back into the center. I regained my balance and climbed up to the top of the trail. Bob climbed up right behind me and I helped him up. We dusted ourselves off and caught up with the rest of the group.
We worked 4 nine-hour days from Monday to Thursday and then 1 four-hour day on Friday. That schedule was no accident, the owners of the company set it that way so everyone could get a head start on heading out to the mountains.
I loved it, it was the perfect balance for a young man like me. Work hard all week and then ease into the weekend early. My Fridays were always filled with some new adventure. In the summer we’d head out to hiking or biking trails at 12:01 PM, and in the winter to go skiing.
There was an informal hiking group at work. A group of us, men and women, would toss around ideas during the week until we decided which trail to go on for Friday.
“It had nothing to do with gear or footwear or the backpacking fads or philosophies of any particular era or even with getting from point A to point B. It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets.” ― Cheryl Strayed
When Friday morning came we brought our knapsacks and water with us. We dressed in typical outdoorsy fashion. A hat, shorts, and hiking boots.
To save time, we’d order a big hearty breakfast from a local take-out place. We’d be so full that we’d skip lunch and not waste time getting to the trailhead. We’d make up the meal by ending the day with a big New Mexican dinner somewhere with a few beers to celebrate a successful hike.
The morning before my brush with death, I had huevos rancheros for breakfast.
It was a glorious day when we set out for Cochiti Pueblo. The sun was shining and the weather was going to be in the 80s. A perfect late Spring day.
The majority of the way to the trailhead was on pavement but the last few miles were a washboard-riddled dirt road. A small turnout area would show where to park and a trail marker would tell you where the trail began.
“In Wildness is the preservation of the World.” ― Henry David Thoreau
We parked and grabbed our gear and water. We always traveled light because we’re all experienced hikers and the plan was not to get too deep into the wilderness. We’d stick to the trails marked on our hiking maps.
We wound through slot canyons and found a side trail that took us up on the ridge. After a few minutes, we climbed out of the canyon and up between the Tent Rocks.
Tent Rocks is a small gem compared to the high-traffic Sandia Mountain trails. It’s northwest of Albuquerque in the Cochiti Pueblo reservation. From a distance, these rock formations are like narrow tents. They taper into a point with some of them balancing large boulders on top of them.
After a while, we came to what appeared to be a side path to a lookout area. It wasn’t marked on our trail map but we saw a lot of boot prints veering off the beaten path and down to the lookout.
The only catch? It was a 20 to 25-foot climb down from the ridge.
There are two schools of thought when faced with a decision like this. One, you can go ahead and explore the new path, or two take the safe option and stick to the designated path.
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” — John Muir
We all decided to go with option one. All four of us climbed down and went to the lookout. I remember thinking that this little side detour was worth it.
There have been a handful of times when I was confronted with death in the wilderness. The moment you realize that unrelated decisions chained together led you to this point, is illuminating.
Your eyes narrow, your heart races, and adrenaline courses through your body. You need to execute a decision and all your body’s faculties are at your disposal. The question is, what’s the right decision?
Hanging on that cliff wall was one of those moments. I couldn’t go up and I couldn’t climb back down. Any movement would unbalance me and cause me to fall. Thirty years later and I can still feel the panic well up inside me.
Wilderness will kill you if you’re not prepared. Wilderness will kill you if you make stupid decisions. Wilderness will kill you “just because.”
Wilderness is the danger, that Russian roulette, that makes you cherish being alive when you dodged that bullet. It makes you feel like you cheated death one more time, and it makes your next meal so much sweeter. It makes you feel alive.
What is this life we lead? The lives we lead are lacking. We’re too insulated with our digital technology. We read articles about virtual reality (VR) and the Metaverse where corporations try to build a new world they can charge subscription fees.
What does hiking and being outdoors cost me? Not a lot. An old knapsack and a reusable water bottle, a pair of good hiking boots, and a map if I don’t know the area well. I can find a hiking stick along the trail usually.
My investment on the trails has always been minimal but my rewards have always been astronomical.
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity” ― John Muir
The more I get out, the more I become centered in this crazy world of “man.” We build worlds within worlds when all we need is the one outside our door.
We need sunlight. We need fresh air. We need green and brown. We need bird song and rain. We need all the cycles Nature has for us.
Why? Because this is the very nature of life itself. We need every bit of dust, dirt, pain, hurt, and every brush with death to appreciate our place in this glorious world.
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