Hike Dingleberry Peak Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, NM

Nov 17, 2019 — A year ago, I attempted Wildcat Peak and failed. I returned this year with a wonderful group and Dingleberry follows basically the same route as Wildcat Peak well into Wildcat Gully, but diverges to the south to follow another gully in order to summit Dingleberry Peak. I joined forces with a great group of Organ Mountains locals: Kevin, Marta, Joe, and Robert. Kevin and I had been talking online for a long time and we were excited to finally able to meet up. Marta has hiked/climbed everything here and has established a million routes. I was happy to meet everyone, and also to hear about all the fun stuff to do in the area. More for my never-ending to do list, I suppose.

Rather than repeating the beta from my Wildcat Peak trip report, in summary, we followed the old bumpy road by foot to Wholt's Welt and into Wildcat Gully. We took Wildcat Gully for a few hundred feet, then headed south over a ridge to enter a gully to the south. We took a sort of haphazard route to avoid a sea of cacti and other desert unpleasantries. It still required a fair amount of not-so-fun bushwhacking, and the ascent gully we chose was steep and loose. We continued toward the ridgeline, a saddle just south of Dingleberry Peak, but did not go all the way. Instead, a minor canyon appeared and became our route choice. Getting up to this small canyon was a chore, but the scrambling was fun once we were within. Some really fun, but thoughtful Class 3 moves took us to the summit of Dingleberry Peak.