Ascent of Humphreys Peak on 2015-10-18Others in Party: | Casper Goal
| Date: | Sunday, October 18, 2015 | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | Motorized Transport to Trailhead: | Carpool | Peak: | Humphreys Peak | Location: | USA-Arizona | Elevation: | 12633 ft / 3850 m |
Ascent Trip Report.We used the standard snowbowl route The mountains were shrouded in clouds, and there was a 50% chance of rain. Beautiful fall colors in the aspen, this is really an excellent time of year to climb (Oct). The climb began with my GPS going into some sort of weird diagnostic mode that took much random button pressing to finally get the watch to reset. We gradually ascended, taking frequent rest breaks and only encountered one person coming down, who said that it was pretty windy up above and was glad that he was going down. Above tree-line we were climbing in clouds, but it was not too thick, and occasionally cleared briefly. At the top it was quite windy, almost couldn't stand up with the temperature right at freezing, but luckily no rain/snow. Coming down we ran into a few people still going up, including some women in shorts(!), who moved extremely fast (probably because they were cold, but also because they were extremely fit). Also saw another woman who was wearing sandals (it was 32 degrees with about 35-40 mph wind!). It hailed briefly on the way down. On the way down we met a couple for the second time and passed them, but were pretty sure they would be passing us again (because we are old and slow). Sat down for a snack break, and as we were getting up to continue (the couple had not caught up to us), we kind of thought we heard a cry for help. I kind of dismissed it, but my partner heard it again as we resumed our descent, so we called back and eventually found the source of the sound. It was the couple we had passed. They had gotten disoriented in the fog (they apparently slid down some mud) and had lost the trail. Needless to say, they were quite relieved to find us (and I was quite relieved to see that they weren't hurt!). Headed down mountain without further incident.
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Summary Total Data | Elevation Gain: | 3353 ft / 1022 m | Distance: | 9.6 mi / 15.4 km | Route: | Snowbowl | Trailhead: | Snowbowl 9280 ft / 2828 m | Route Conditions: | Maintained Trail, Snow on Ground | Weather: | Drizzle, Cool, Very Windy, White-out foggy, windy and cold | Ascent Statistics | Time Up: | 3 Hours 2 Minutes | Descent Statistics | Time Down: | 3 Hours 15 Minutes |
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