Humphreys-7/24/04

[highpointersclub]

[Ed: Imported from Americas Roof ‘Summit Trip Reports’ forum]

[By: Kevin Baker on July 26 2004 at 11:58 PM]

[Link: http://www.network54.com/Forum/198362/message/1090900697/Humphreys-7-24-04]

Trip Report-Humphreys Peak, AZ- 12633’
Highest point in AZ
7/24/04
9.0 miles, 3500’ gain via standard route
3hr 31 min up
2hr 27 min down

I had a personal vendetta to settle with this mountain. In ’00, my cousin Jeremy and I came to Flagstaff with hopes of climbing Humphreys in late March. We arrived the night before with no snow visible on the mountain. We drove his VW Vanagan up nearby Elden Mtn with hopes of doing some bouldering to acclimate. We slept in his car and were engulfed in about 15” of snow overnight. It snowed the rest of our visit. The next year we were dumb enough to come back, this time with my wife Jenni. We got a hotel and wouldn’t you know, the same thing happened again. It snowed overnight and then throughout our visit. We settled for the Grand Canyon.

Three years later, Jenni and I are back again but this time we would have no part of the weather. We stayed at a Motel 6, the same place we stayed 3 years ago. Déjà vu? Hope not. I rustled Jenni out of bed at 4am. I told her I was messing around this time. We made our way up the familiar Snowbowl road to the ski resort and found the sign to the trailhead. We were surprised to see 3 cars in the parking lot at such an early hour. We were off at 5:37am and made our way across the ski slopes and under the lifts. From there, the trail ducked into the woods and begins the pleasant climb. The trailhead register is quite a ways up the trail. We noted that 7 people were already ahead of us. Jenni felt a little sluggish, probably from staying in LA for three days, so we made plenty of water stops and nature calls. The trail is well protected and very pleasant to walk on below the saddle, with plenty of pine needles to cushion the walk.

We met a couple guys who were highpointers from the Denver area on our way up. They were also attempting Whitney and Boundary on the same trip. We made it to the 11750’ Agassiz/Humphries saddle, where it looked to be a relatively easy traverse on or below the south ridge to the summit with a couple false summits. We made our way up the volcanic rock, hiking behind another highpointer couple from TX. At 9:08am, I topped out with Jenni soon to follow. The guys from Denver were still up there, and one of them had met me at the highpointers convention in OK back in ’02. Small world indeed. As expected, the clouds began to build, so we only spent 30 minutes or so on the summit.

As we made our way back down the ridge, we passed quite a few people making their way up. It seemed every couple minutes, we came across somebody, comparable to a popular 14’er on a summer weekend. At around 11am, we heard the first claps of thunder. We were safely well below treeline by this time, but people blindly continued to climb. I counted 121 people who signed the trailhead register, and probably 90% of them were still high on the mountain with a nasty storm imminent. It began to rain lightly with as we crossed the meadow to our car, then it unleashed with hail and heavy rain as we descended the Snowbowl road. It is safe to say anybody who started after 10am probably did not make it. Redemption is complete on Humphreys as we completed the year with #’s 35 and 33.

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