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| no partners | | My friend texted me a week before this hike and told me he and his friend were going to summit Humphreys. I mentioned that I would like to go and after hastily buying all the gear I would need I met up with him the next Friday. We drove up to Flagstaff Friday and spent the day relaxing. It was such a strange thing to leave 65 degree weather in Phoenix and drive two hours north and have it drop to 20 degrees. There was snow everywhere! I never see snow so I was stoked to see how much was everywhere! But it would make for a difficult hike. Saturday we woke up early and headed to the mountain a little too late. This was my first time in snowshoes but they turned out to be easy enough to use. We headed to where we thought the trailhead was before I realized that they didn't actually have a route planned. I whipped out Route Scout and downloaded this route and after some wandering around we finally connected with the trail and signed the registry. But as we continued up the snow got deeper and the trail disappeared.
The hike was now becoming frustrating. We decided to just cut out the switchbacks and head straight up the mountain since the trail was too covered in snow to see it. The snow was so deep and trying to cut through it was difficult but we managed to get to about 11,800 feet just below the treeline before we had to turn around. It was frustrating being so close to breaking the treeline but we were running out of daylight. With an earlier start we probably could have made it to the summit which I plan to do next year with an earlier time. Coming back down the mountain was a lot more fun than trying to climb up. It was steep and I kept falling so eventually I just sat on my butt and pushed myself down. And might have rolled down a few really steep parts. That part was a lot of fun. So was all the snow that ended up in my pants. It took us nine hours to hit the treeline but only three to go back down and I have no idea of our actual mileage. But next year I will kick Humphreys' pumpkin and make it to the summit.
Note to self: If there was a really big snow storm the week before, you need 12+ hours to summit and some balls of steel. But hey at least I met the man of my dreams so it all worked out. |
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