Humphrey's Peak - April 2019

Summary

Humphrey’s Peak is the tallest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet. Knowing we would be hiking the Arizona Trail, we decided to add a summit attempt to our list. Little did we know this summit attempt would test our mountaineering skills, or lack thereof!

AllTrails - keep in mind this is only one option, of multiple.

Where

Humphrey’s Peak is located outside of Flagstaff, Arizona and is part of the San Francisco Peaks.

Logistics

We stayed in Flagstaff, Arizona and could drive to the base of Humphrey’s peak at the Arizona Snowbowl. There is more than one route when attempting to summit Humphrey’s Peak, but given the time of year we were hiking and the unexpected snow conditions, we were advised by the Forest Rangers to follow the more popular route starting at the Snowbowl. The Snowbowl is a Ski Resort, so parking and route identification was very straightforward for this day hike.

Hiking

This was a day hike that we had been looking forward to for months. Over the past few years our group of friends have started to collect fair-weather mountain hiking experiences. All members of the group had gone into this hike with experience at altitude above 15,000 feet. One obstacle that none of us had foreseen, was the amount of snow remaining on Humphrey’s Peak in early April! This presented it’s own set of unique challenges. We received back-and-forth guidance when asking locals, REI workers, and Forest Rangers when it came to whether or not a summit attempt was a great idea. Ultimately we agreed we would attempt a summit, with an understanding if we felt we were outside of our comfort zone, we would retreat back to the base. Armed with the local’s debrief on the hike and more winter mountaineering gear than we knew what to do with, we anxiously awaited the morning when we would start our hike!

In order to provide as much daylight and safety as we could to our summit attempt, we started our hike very early in the morning. We ended up arriving at the Snowbowl about an hour after sunrise. We strapped our snow shoes and crampons or micrspikes to our day packs and started the slow ascent from the Snowbowl to Humphrey’s Peak. Fortunately for us, the snow had hardened substantially overnight and hiking was relatively straightforward as we were able to hike on the top of the heavily accumulated snow. The only challenge we were faced with the adjusting to the climbing altitude and steep switchbacks. Throughout the early part of the hike, we were lucky to have good views and relatively decent coverage from trees to avoid any early sun exposure. This quickly changed as we got about 70% up the mountain and soon we were exposed to both the sun and the gradient of the mountain.

I don’t think anyone in our group would say the last 30% of the hike to the summit was something they fearlessly conquered. We had all hiked at altitude and hiked up mountains before, but making our own route and seeing a steep descent below us brought fear to the forefront of my mind! Thankfully we took it slow, kept within earshot of each other and made our way to the “saddle”. This was a major breakthrough for us, as it signified the end of our most dangerous aspect of the ascent. We took some time to take in the breathtaking views from the saddle, but we all had our minds set on reaching the summit, so we quickly proceeded to the peak. Once at the peak, a wave of accomplishment engulfed all of us, and it remains a moment that I will never forget. We did see one other person at the ascent, and we were sure to sign in to the hiker’s box at the top. We enjoyed a snack break at the top, but due to the altitude, we quickly realized we would need to descend back to the base.

Descent seemed like it would be a “walk in the park” after the effort we had to produce to arrive at the summit, however we quickly realized that would not be the case. The clear skies that generated perfect views for us at the summit, also worked against us by warming up the exposed snow, softening it enough that we would start to post hole. For anyone that doesn’t know what post holing is, it’s breaking through the surface of the accumulated snow and reaching a point somewhere further down. Not exactly a pleasant surprise! This warranted us to regain the focus we required on our ascent and apply the same focus on the descent. To make matter’s worse, we quickly lost the route we took up for that last 30% of the ascent!

After more time than any of us could have imagined, we found our way back down into the less exposed zone of the hike. We thought we could breathe a sigh of relief at this point, however our reference point (Alltrails) was our only guide and reading a 2D map when you are hiking a steep ascent/descent can be problematic. We needed to sharpen our navigation skills and rely on contour lines to discern where we potentially were relative to the trail we were supposed to be on. At one point, our whole group was discouraged. We spent too much time looking for our trail, hiked more than we needed to, and had post holed ourselves into snow crevices up to our hips! After a quick huddle we decided we would bushwack our way to the base relying on an ever-famous principle (what goes up, must come down). Thankfully shortly after applying this decision and only about a half mile of random hiking, we ran into the trail! This was a major breakthrough at a time when morale was at it’s lowest. From here, our minds could finally rest and we could enjoy the remaining miles, discussing the experiences we built along the way.

Photos

All photos were taken with my Google Pixel 3.