Conquering Arizona's tallest peak
The epic hike to the summit Humphreys Peak in the summer of 2019
Humphreys Peak is the tallest point in the state of Arizona, USA. At 12,633 feet, you can see The Grand Canyon’s North Rim from there. The mountain is located near Flagstaff, which is approx 3 hours drive from Phoenix. Typically it takes 4 hours to scale up and 2 hours to scale down the 17.2 km out-and-back trail.
TLDR: We scaled the peak and but the hike took 16 hours. We were almost about to be rescued from that mountain.
The plan
Planned this hike for summer when the weather in Flagstaff town is pleasant. Had even bought Traction Cleats to attach to my hiking shoes to get a good grip on the snowy parts of the trail. The plan was to stay overnight at Flagstaff and start the hike in the early morning around 6 AM, finish the hike at 2 PM and then return to Phoenix the same day.
The ascent
Started early from Flagstaff and had a heavy breakfast (sic, mistake, suffered later because of this) at Denny’s. We started the hike around 6:30 AM. My stomach felt a bit bloated (you know why) and that made me get exhausted at regular intervals. The trailhead is at an elevation of 9,200 feet.
After 4 hours of rigorous hiking in the wilderness and struggling out way through the snowy parts of the trail, the goal seems still a long way ahead. We never gave up. At around noon, we reached the saddle point of the hike. The saddle point is where the wilderness ends and you can see some great panoramic views. The summit is just a few more steps ahead, is what we said to ourselves. At 2 PM, we reached the summit.
My stomach had been upset all this time and finally, I puked after reaching the summit point. It felt good soon after. Just look how happy I felt after the fact.
The descent
The descent was also challenging as our knees were paining. We started the descent at 3 PM and were into the wilderness by 7 PM. This is when the sun went down. Luckily, the moon came up and it was a fairly full moon night, so we had some light to help navigate the trail.
We met a guy who was going up around 6 PM, and that guy was a huge help to us. He had an extra headlight band which he gave us when he met us back at around 9 PM as he was on his way back after reaching the saddle. He gave us some company and motivation to pick up our pace going down. There was no cellular network available to inform our other 2 folks who were probably waiting for us at the trailhead.
Totally exhausted, and knees in pain, we reached the trailhead at 11.30 PM that day. The other folks who were waiting for us at the trailhead were about to call for emergency help as we had been in the mountains unreachable for an unexpectedly long time. We had to stay back in Flagstaff for the night, as we were not in a situation to drive then.
"It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves." - Sir Edmund Hillary