2015 Road Trip: Part 21 (Humphrey's Revamped)

Humphrey's Peak Again!
Day 34
5.17.15

Noah and I were taking a few days off after our fun jaunt in the southern half of Utah, and what turns up on the Flagstaff hiking club meetup online?  Hike up Humphrey's Peak on Sunday.  You know I can't say no to that.  It was my new favorite mountain!  I'm not sure who talked who into it, since Noah asked me about it, but I agreed and told him we should do it.  So it just was us and a guy from the hiking club going up. However, the last few days had resulted in about another foot of snow on the peak, which did end up making things interesting.

The view of the San Francisco Peaks from town.

We began a bit late, but that's how it goes - Dan from the hiking club wanted to meet at Walmart at 9am, and so it was.  He did not have snowshoes with him, and when he saw us with ours, he was worried about not having any, so we stopped by one of the many outfitters in town, and the lucky duck got a pair for the off-season price of $60. Clearly May is the time to buy winter gear if you can find it.

We arrived at the trailhead at the AZ Snow Bowl once again, though this time the field was snow covered.  In only 11 days, the conditions had changed immensely.

Noah licked a sign this time.  Not me...I wouldn't do such a thing.

We began up the trail, which was all covered in snow, and the trail was broken, which surprised me.  I was thinking that after all the snow, we might be the first people out, but I was wrong.  Also, with our late start, others had been up before us, as the register confirmed.  (The register is over a mile in along the trail, which seems like a horrible idea if you ask me.  I doubt anyone checks it.)

I had a horribly devious plan in my mind the whole day, which was that I wanted to ascend along the ravine again, even though we now knew where the trail went.  I didn't say anything for awhile, but eventually, when we stopped for a food break, I broke my idea to everyone.  We decided that I would go that way, and since I knew the way, the chance of me getting lost was low.  Whoever made it to the peak first would wait for the other, and I was pretty set on now going down the ravine glissading like before due to the snow conditions.  It was too deep and too sticky to get any kind of slide going.

Shortly after I departed from the trail-goers, I started ascending the scree field (#1, since there are two, the second one being the major ravine).  I was instantly gifted with no trail broken, or even footsteps to follow.  But I did see a man in orange who I thought was going to follow me.  He sadly didn't come up behind me, however he is visible in the distance of this image:

The "trail" from here veers to the left, and following some occasional pink flagging tape that I remember seeing before, I was able to make my way in the right general direction.

My view ahead for most of this segment of the journey.

Soon, the trees opened up, and I was presented with the view that made me want to go this way in the first place.  I think this is one of the most gorgeous views I've seen when hiking.  It's better than a summit in my mind, because you can get the view looking up, as well as looking down over the valley if you turn around.

A bit closer...

I arrived in the ravine, this time already in the snowshoes, since I couldn't have made it up this far without them.  Deep sticky snow...  I reapplied sunscreen, and since both Noah and I neglected to do so last time, we wanted to be sure not to get burnt this time.

You can see the trails of little snow bits that fell down the hill.  I thought this was cool, but I was a bit too preoccupied with breaking trail up this steep slope, and I now have full respect for the exhaustion that Noah experienced on the last hike up here.  With the added effort of breaking trail, I think I was taking breaks much more frequently.  I just remember wanting to take a nap after every step.

The signature view along the ravine.  I was looking over at that rainstorm in the distance periodically for an hour, happy that it wasn't on me. Schadenfreude I believe this is called.

I took a chocolate eating break at nearly the same spot as before.  I wanted to eat earlier, but getting to that spot was my only motivation at that point.  I allowed myself to sit down in the snow, but only after every 5 steps.  Otherwise, I figured no progress would be made.  At one point, I saw a few people hiking down along the ridge, and I could almost hear exactly what they were saying, despite I could hardly see them.  Sound carries far in the mountains - if the wind is on your side, that is.

After what seemed like an eternity, I reached the ridge.  It lost a portion of its magic since last time, since I'd seen it before, but it was still beautiful as ever, and much clearer skies this time.

I left my snowshoes and poles behind here, since I didn't need them for the final summit push.  Also, weight savings, so why carry them?  In the photo below, you can just see two guys heading up - they were from a fire crew, I learned later from Noah.

I arrived at the top and just sat, because that's all I wanted to do.  I also shouted for joy, but that took some breathing preparation at 12k.  Soon the fire crew people arrived, and kindly took my picture in front of the sign.  They offered me some BBQ kettle chips, which made my day. They are now one of my favorite hiking snacks.  What I like about them is that I forget quite what they taste like every time I stop eating them, so every new chip-eating session is like the first time all over again.  Try them if you haven't - but also make sure you have funds to continue buying them forever, because you'll need to.

After hardly 30 minutes at the top, Sir Noah arrived, though he was solo, and I was confused by this.  He made it to the top, and we enjoyed our hot beverages in thermoses.  He brought coffee, and I brought hot chocolate, though mine was oddly cold at this point, and that made it not so great, considering I had melted butter it in, which was now congealed. Somewhere before the steep part on the trail, Dan from the hiking club decided that he was probably not going to make the summit any time soon, due to breaking so often.  It was then that Noah shared some of his food with him and said to either wait there or head back down the the car.  His wife would be able to pick him up if he returned to the trailhead before us.  We agreed to go down the trail to make sure he wasn't still waiting along it somewhere.

It had taken me 6 hours to make the summit, even with 1.2 fewer miles to hike.  This proves once again that straight up is not necessarily the fastest route up, at least not by much.  Because of our late start, the sun was lower by this time, and we could better see the shadows hitting the far wall of the Grand Canyon, making it stand out.  Also, along the cornice of the ridge, the late sun shadows were filling up the valley of the San Francisco peaks.

Staying back from the edge a bit for safety.

Noah seizing the mountain air

Noah led the way down, since we chose to take the trail back.  I learned that he had actually taken a slightly longer route up than expected, since the end of the trail before the ridge consisted of many failed attempts, so all that was there was people giving up and hiking directly up the slope. This brought him up further toward Agassiz Peak, to the south, making him hike along the rim for a bit longer.  On our way down, we found to correct way down, which was at the saddle (or col).  Getting there was challenging with the length of my snowshoes, since we had to maneuver around pointy rocks.  I got frustrated with my poles and threw them down so I could use my hands.

Once down the steep part, the benches of trail proved to be a much easier way down, and with the sun setting, the slush that made everything soaking wet in the morning had hardened up into a crust that was easier to snowshoe on.

We once again met up with my departure point, scree field number one, and I had to go out and look at the sun and the evening sky.

Soon after, the sun was just going below the horizon, and created an awesome gradient along the clear sky.

Sunset on Humphrey's

The clouds in the distance glowed bright with the sunlight even after the sun had set.

We had to bring out the headlamps for the last few miles, but it was completely worth seeing the sunset from this vantage point.  There were a few campers toward the base of the trail, who managed to be having a small campfire even in wet, snowy ground with wet, snowy wood that was around.  Wizards, they must have been.

Ten hours after T-0, we arrived at the good old Blue Burro, very ready to come back to a house.  (Blue Burro is Noah's van for those not in the know.)

What I am most impressed with is that one two hikes up the same mountain within two weeks, the experience was completely different. I've very glad to have done it twice during my time in the Flagstaff area. These experiences will never die; they will be remembered, at least in their insanity.