Organ Mountains?

We are planning on climbing/camping in Southern New Mexico around Sept-Oct. We're primarily thinking about the Organ Mountains, specificly the Rabbit Ears. Can anybody suggest a good guide book for the area? The local REI here in Houston has a guide for NM but it didn't look like it had much in it regarding the Organs and pretty much nothing on the Rabbit Ears. Also, what kind of weather and temperature extremes should we expect that time of year? Does New Mexico have a monsoon season like AZ?

There are a few routes listed here on MP - query Rabbit ears...
Also RC.com has an extensive description in their posts of the Organ Mountains...sorry if this is obvious but who knows..

Yeah, I saw the beta in the MP route database. There is some good info there. I also did a search of forum posts but it didn't come up with much. I didn't think to check out RC.com. I don't usually bother with that site, but that's a good idea. I'll check it out. Thanks.

Some good info here: web.nmsu.edu/~amato/ingraha…

Warning, what he calls class 4 is probably what most of us would consider low 5th class, sometimes with significant exposure. Aaron Hobson has climbed many of the routes and is trying to correlate the ratings in Ingraham's guide to modern ratings. Rather than give out his blog address, I'll suggest that you send him a PM.

As already suggested by others, read the route descriptions here in MP, some of them were written by Aaron.

there isn't really a good guide-book for the area, but that can be half the fun/charm of climbing in the Organs. You can find some beta on this site, and the old Ingraham guide, definitely enough to keep you busy for a while, but the information is still pretty sparse. What kind of camping were you looking for? Aguirre springs is a developed camp-ground but even it doesn't have water. If you bring a serious high-clearance 4x4, you can car-camp on the Modoc Mine Rd or Topp Hut rd. A few nice back-packing camps are out there too; one at the entrance to rabbit ears canyon, and one in a cave near the East slabs of Sugarloaf, both of which I've stayed at and are pretty sweet. Water is the biggest hurdle to long-term camping, but sometimes you get lucky. There usedf to a be a good water stash at the Sugarloaf camp spot. And if there are some decent monsoon season rains, rabbit ears canyon could get some water as well.

Have fun on your trip. If you climb any cool new/un-posted routes, I'd love to hear about them.

Thanks for the feedback. Between the beta on MP, the Ingraham guide, and Summitpost.com I think I've got reasonable beta to get started. Still haven't looked at RC.com. I just don't like that site. But I'll see what's there. Anyway, we're probably only going to spend a few days in the Organs. I think we may check out some other areas as well. Checkerboard looks pretty cool.

In the Organs we're expecting very primitive isolated camping and long approaches. We were hoping to camp and approach from Topp Hut. I have a 4WD Jeep Liberty but I'm not sure if that passes for a "serious high-clearance 4x4." Hopefully it will get us there, but if not we'll camp at Aguirre Springs. It would be nice to get the Jeep as close as possible and have it stocked with water and supplies.

We have been climbing trad for a couple years now but never in a mountainous backcountry environment. Accordingly, our biggest concerns are navigation, route finding, descents, and weather. We are thinking about the Normal (South Corner) Route on Middle Rabbit Ear if we can find it. That route is attractive because the descent is almost the same as the ascent and we can probably bail pretty easily if needed. It seems like there is A LOT of quality rock out there so I'm sure we can find stuff within our ability. Thanks again.