Can anyone give me advice on hiking Humphreys in Arizona? I plan on being there on December 29th. Do I need any special tools, crampons, etc...? What is the best route for a day hike? Is the Snow bowl road open? If it is closed how do I get to Humphreys? Is the mountain full of snow? I have lots of questions.

Jessicahiker wrote:Can anyone give me advice on hiking Humphreys in Arizona? I plan on being there on December 29th. Do I need any special tools, crampons, etc...? What is the best route for a day hike? Is the Snow bowl road open? If it is closed how do I get to Humphreys? Is the mountain full of snow? I have lots of questions.

It doesn't look like there is anything sticking to the southern slopes based on the webcam image at noa.gov. If there is snow, you might need snowshoes and possibly crampons depending on how old the snow is, recent weather patterns...etc. The road to the Snowbowl is plowed, so you'll always be able to get up there.

One thing that is very common no matter how much snow is on the ground is the wind. It is often very windy up there, so plan for some cold if nothing else. The hike up from the Snowbowl is pretty straightforward.

Jessicahiker wrote:Can anyone give me advice on hiking Humphreys in Arizona? I plan on being there on December 29th. Do I need any special tools, crampons, etc...? What is the best route for a day hike? Is the Snow bowl road open? If it is closed how do I get to Humphreys? Is the mountain full of snow? I have lots of questions.

The locals will chime in soon... but keep track of the snow levels via the web cams:
http://24.121.15.116/ (you are really seeing Agassiz here)

Snow is hard to predict a month ahead (looks dry right now). If they get a dumping, and you are lucky, someone from Flagstaff will have already broken the trail. I haven't been there in winter, but those who have tell me that finding the trail is the biggest issue.

What tools you need... well, depends on the conditions. There's very little snow so far and you wouldn't need anything at this point; however, you'll certainly want to check closer to the 29th. If there's significant snow by then you'd need at least snowshoes and maybe an axe (probably not crampons though, unless you're breaking new gear in). Likewise, the route depends on the conditions - if no snow, the standard route from SNowbowl up the west face is fine; if snow, I'd recommend cutting north from Snowbowl to the big couloir on the west face and following that to the summit ridge (then north over a false summit or two, to the actual summit). So far the road's open and if it snows it'll probably be open as well, for traffic to the ski area. I'd go up with you if I wasn't working!

jhodlof wrote:I recommend this route:
http://www.summitpost.org/route/479566/ ... Ridge.html

Nice work on the route page dude. I've been that way a bunch of times and it's a great winter route. However, you might want to mention that it's not legal to go that way unless the route up high (11,400+) is covered with snow.

Isn't it true that if the Snowbowl road is open the road is plowed? It has been getting very very cold up there. Even if there isn't alot of snow, be prepared for freezing conditions.

nebben wrote:The road to the Snowbowl is plowed, so you'll always be able to get up there.

I'm quite sure that "always" is not the correct word, unless something has changed in the last several years. I was there the day after a snowstorm, and the Snowbowl road and ski area were closed. (Imagine a ski area closed the day after fresh snow. Haha!)

The date was 04 January 2004, between 08:50 and 09:00 local time (MST). The weather was cold and sunny, as the cold front and storm had passed the day before. Of course the Snowbowl road goes up to the trailhead at 9300 feet, but the gate was closed just off of US180, at elevation 7350 feet. US Highway 180 was open through to Valle, over its summit at 8050 feet.

It has been several years since this observation. But, again, if nothing has changed, you can't expect to have any luck at Snowbowl after a storm.

For some reason, the "El Nino" that they're talking about on the California thread doesn't seem
to be "kicking in" for AZ yet.

Central AZ is so dry that firefighters had to quell a wildfire that happened earlier in the week.

Please keep abreast of weather conditions coming in December. You'll definitely need to dress
in layers with an appropriate "outer shell" to protect yourself from cruel winds on Humphreys!

Have a great one out there!

Jessicahiker wrote:Can anyone give me advice on hiking Humphreys in Arizona? I plan on being there on December 29th. Do I need any special tools, crampons, etc...? What is the best route for a day hike? Is the Snow bowl road open? If it is closed how do I get to Humphreys? Is the mountain full of snow? I have lots of questions.

I hiked Humphreys last weekend from the Snow Bowl. This is the shortest route to the summit, as the Weatherford Trail is a few miles longer. There were only a few inches of snow on the ground, and it's a very gradual climb over 4.5 miles, though I suspect there will be more at the end of December.

Once we above the treeline on the saddle between Humphreys and Agassiz, it became noticeably chillier and windier. As we hiked higher and higher the winds really picked up, and the last 100 feet feet were the fiercest winds of my life. I still can't believe how ferocious they were. Luckily there's a 3 ft high rock wall built at the top to protect you from the winds, and once you crouch below the wall the temperature increases dramatically. There were only a few inches of snow at the summit; I suspect most of it was blown toward the leeward side of the mountain.

Some of the hikers I encountered at the top had crampons, and they said they helped. I didn't use them or need them. But they'll probably aid you when you hike in December because there will be more ice. Maybe a pair of hiking poles. But that should suffice. It's a great hike.

Please feel free to lemme know when Agassiz is snow-covered too!

You may luck out... apparently there's a storm coming. Until then, jhodlof's beta is solid.

Just was up there last up there the 16th-17th. A snow report doesn't really matter much now cause now the San Francisco Peaks are probably under five feet of new snow. There was enough snow on Agassiz to climb it legally, so we did.

Woodzy wrote:Just was up there last up there the 16th-17th. A snow report doesn't really matter much now cause now the San Francisco Peaks are probably under five feet of new snow. There was enough snow on Agassiz to climb it legally, so we did.

No, there was not. Not only was I up on Humphreys a day or two before, but your own pictures shows the lack of snow on the peak.



That's a very nice shot, but you ought to think about having a little more respect, if not for the law, then maybe for the environment. There are good reasons why Agassiz is off limits.

I was at the Lake Mary Ranger Station and was talking to the ranger there about Agassiz. I asked him if it is alright to climb it even though it isn't completely with snow? He told me that it would be alright to hike it the way it was when we climbed. I still wasn't fully convinced, but I had a friend tell me that there had to be a foot of snow all over Agassiz to hike it and I asked the ranger that, but he assured me that that wasn't true. Sure, you have to have more then just a little bit of snow to climb it, but even though it didn't look like much, we were easily able to stay on snow (even some post-holing) the whole way past the "off limits sign". The only part that didn't have snow was on the actual summit. We stayed on the north side or right on the ridge the whole time. I do respect the laws and the environment. As far as I know, I did nothing wrong.

Woodzy wrote:I was at the Lake Mary Ranger Station and was talking to the ranger there about Agassiz. I asked him if it is alright to climb it even though it isn't completely with snow? He told me that it would be alright to hike it the way it was when we climbed. I still wasn't fully convinced, but I had a friend tell me that there had to be a foot of snow all over Agassiz to hike it and I asked the ranger that, but he assured me that that wasn't true. Sure, you have to have more then just a little bit of snow to climb it, but even though it didn't look like much, we were easily able to stay on snow (even some post-holing) the whole way past the "off limits sign". The only part that didn't have snow was on the actual summit. We stayed on the north side or right on the ridge the whole time. I do respect the laws and the environment. As far as I know, I did nothing wrong.

Well, if a ranger told you that, then I suppose it's not your fault. But I'd be interested in knowing the name of the ranger; they ought to know better. Most local climbers and hikers know about the Agassiz closure.

jhodlof wrote:Not to turn this into a Agassiz Peak discussion thread, but the legal reason is one thing, and the ecological reason is something else. If trampling of vegetation and the sencio spp. is the main reason to not hike this if there is less than a foot of snow, then there really isn't any senecio on Agassiz so it isn't much of concern. If simply protecting a "rare plant" was the reason behind the closure, then the Wetherford trail above Fremont Saddle needs closing, since senecio is growing right along the trail in areas it could be trampled. We also need to close the Humphrey Summit trail because there is some on that as well.

There's plenty of it on Agassiz... I don't know who told you there isn't, or if you somehow missed it. The argument (if that's what it is) about closing the trails is silly. Hiking an existing trail which doesn't have vegetation on it due to heavy traffic is one thing. Stomping around off trail when there's not enough snow cover (or none at all) is another thing entirely. The plant is the reason for the legal closure, so it's kind of ridiculous to argue that it's okay to stomp on it just because there are already trails where it's "growing right along the trail."