The Chile Challenge is put on by the Las Cruces Four Wheel Drive Club and the Southwest Four Wheel Drive Association every February and is held in the hills just outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
While most of the rest of the country is still snow-, ice-, and "wind chill"-bound, Las Cruces is enjoying average daytime temperatures in the 60s while at night it normally doesn't drop below freezing. For our dollar, this is the way to spend a winter vacation.
Normally we focus on the 50-foot-high waterfalls and Jeeps wearing a minimum of 44-inch tires. We do that because no wheeling picture ever looks as extreme as the situation was in real life. So after so many years of focusing on the hardest trails at the Challenge, we'd simply forgotten that there are trails for all kinds of Jeeps there, from mild to wild. Mind you, we didn't say stock Jeeps.
Most, if not all, of the trails run along dry riverbeds cut into the mountains over the years, and this results in plenty of exposed rocks, dry waterfalls, and a lot of sandy soil. Also, many of the trails intersect or are visible from one another, so that even if you are out there to do some easier, stress-free wheeling, you can likely see what the big dogs are up to.
Mind you, if you are a big dog, the Chile Challenge still has plenty to keep you entertained. So if you want to get out of the frozen tundra you call home and you have some vacation time coming to you, maybe checking out the 2009 Chile Challenge is the winter vacation destination for you.
One small caveat, though: The four-wheel-drive clubs who put this event on work closely with the BLM and the BLM opens otherwise closed trails for the event. Patzacuaro's Revenge, for example, is not a trail that is normally open to the public, but is open for this event. Also, to try to alleviate environmental impact, total attendance for the event is limited to only a few hundred registered vehicles, so if you are thinking of going, get your registration in sooner rather than later. For more information about the Chile Challenge, go tolascrucesfourwheeldriveclub.com.
 |  Ted Weins from Las Vegas,...  Ted Weins from Las Vegas, Nevada, enjoys challenging himself and his Jeep when he is out wheeling. That usually resulted in one of two things: Either Ted would cruise right through where others struggled, or Ted would take a more difficult line and often "get it" to get up the obstacle. Either way, it was never boring when Ted pulled up to the next rock. |  Nemesis and its bypass are...  Nemesis and its bypass are the gatekeepers of Patzacuaro's Revenge. If you can handle this bypass, or can manage to navigate the huge, Jeep-swallowing crack that is Nemesis, you might have what it takes to get to the end of the trail. |
 Patzacuaro's Revenge is full...  Patzacuaro's Revenge is full of all kinds of cool climbs. On this climb, either straddle the notch and risk sliding in or flopping, or ride the driver-side tires up along the wall for some real off-camber, wheel-up action. Doug McBurnie took the notch route in his narrowed and boat-sided YJ and made it look easy. |  |  Just around the corner is...  Just around the corner is Nemesis 2. The stretched, 44-inch TSL-shod CJ-7 in the top picture is attempting to drive it. There is a winch point at the top, so if you aren't feeling so brave, you can hook it and then try. The CJ-5 in the bottom picture is navigating the bypass, which is a slightly easier climb, but also a little off-camber, and still really tall. As a bonus, the "easy" line has no winch anchor and no good way to get a Jeep up top. |
 We ran into this CJ-7 our...  We ran into this CJ-7 our first day out. With a spring-under suspension, 33-inch tires, and rock rails, it wasn't one of the full-on gonzo Jeeps we've come to associate with the Challenge. As it turns out, there are plenty of trails that closer-to-stock Jeeps can handle with just a bit of driver skill and body tub armor. |  We've all heard the saying,...  We've all heard the saying, "Drive it like you stole it!" We never thought that this pristine TJ would be a victim of a driving style like that, though. The driver was less concerned about the Jeep than the spectators were. The Jeep sustained some fender flare paint damage, but thanks to the six onlookers, the hardtop and body came out of this largely unscathed. |  |
 Jason Chandler and his low-slung...  Jason Chandler and his low-slung Rockwell-axled TJ had a bad habit of making everything look too easy. The 44-inch tires and driving experience didn't hurt, either. |  This Scrambler, with its off-the-shelf...  This Scrambler, with its off-the-shelf spring-under suspension, open front differential, and 35-inch tires, made a lot of other Jeeps look bad. This is Patzacuaro's Revenge, a trail where it is accepted that you need front and rear lockers, a fancy gee-gaw loaded coil suspension, and monster tires to get through. Sure, there was a lot of tire spinning, and multiple attempts at some obstacles, but the winch didn't come out any more for this "under-built" CJ-8 than it did for the big dogs. |  |
 Two pictures of the same obstacle,...  Two pictures of the same obstacle, from two different angles: The bypass wasn't much better. And if that wasn't enough, the first guy up had no choice but to drive it. There was a lot of throttle used on this one by just about everyone who tried to drive it. |  |  We didn't only check out the...  We didn't only check out the gnarly trails, we did some tamer ones, too. This playground is found on Broad Canyon and, as you can see, has something for everyone. From simply built rigs to show queens to full-on thrashers, everyone found something to play on in this area. |