Huge fire Las Conchas, NM

A huge fire started at 1PM MST in Jemez Mountains, NM. Early reports are the fire started near the Las Conchas climbing area. Almost all the Santa Fe NF was closed since Monday. The Cattle Call Wall was open. This is a very popular area for summer weekends. After 3 hours at least 5 square miles are a blaze. Smoke is up to 30,000 ft and smoke is reaching 20 miles away. NF has EXTREME fire conditions posted. The fire started near Route 4 mile marker 35. There is another small climbing area called Area 37 near mile marker 37. Also the East Fork climbing area is less than a mile away.

major bummer, there is not going to be much to climb around NM this summer with all the fires/dangers.

sad

Hi Larry! Really sad... and it's threatening Los Alamos all over again.
More info here: nmfireinfo.wordpress.com/20…

Larry,

Do you know if the fire has spread west into the climbing area, or are the winds pushing everything east?

Thinking about all our friends in Los Alamos and Jemez, climbers, mountainbikers, hikers, skier's, Bandelier employees/aficionados, Cochiti and Santa Clara pueblos and all of those that recognize what a special and magical place those mountains are. Predictions are for 100,000 acres involved by this morning, the largest fire in NM history, and only 3% contained. Correct me but Cochiti Mesa, Eagle Canyon, Dungeon, Las Conchas, Area 37 and upper East Fork are likely affected and definitely closed for some time. Stage 3 restictions for Carson National Forest shuts down most of the high alpine climbing and hiking in Taos. The Gorge climbing is largely BLM and is Stage II and therefore open but no fires/smoking. Depending on the wind, the smoke is reminiscent of a mid-week rush-hour Houston, TX afternoon, but the cliffs are open in the low lands. LA friends please contact me if you need a place, gear or help up in Taos.

Here is a link where you can view the areas impacted by the fire. geomac.gov/viewer/viewer.shtml It looks like all the areas around Cochiti Mesa have been affected. I heard reports that the fire did not burn very hot in these areas though.

this site is doing a pretty good job of centralizing information about the Las Conchas fire: storify.com/santafecom/sant…

From the look of it Las Conchas and East fork were spared but the Dungeon was burned. Is mile marker 35 really next to cattle call wall?

An International Space Station crew member took this photo of the Las Conchas fire near Los Alamos, N.M., on Monday, June 27, the fire's second day. The green mountains to the left (west) are the Jemez Mountains, a large volcano featuring a sunken ring-shaped caldera left from its last massive eruption 1.1 million years ago. The city of Los Alamos is just above the edge of the smoke where the green Jemez forests fade to a more arid brown. The Rio Grande flows from near the upper right corner to the lower left.
(Credit: NASA)

Read more: news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-…

geomac.gov/viewer/viewer.shtml

Mike that is an incredible photo, thank you for sharing.

I know that the Los Alamos airport had a decent rain shower this afternoon and that several divisions of the fire received some amount of precipitation today. It wasn't enough to put the fire out, but should slow things down particularly if this moist monsoonal flow continues.

It has been a rough season for the residents and firefighters in AZ / NM with fire behavior never before experienced.