TR: Humphrey's Peak - Jan 27th 2007

**thalweg** · 01-29-2007, 03:39 PM

Here's a "skiing" TR from last Saturday in the San Fransisco Peaks to make you all feel better about the snow conditions wherever you are. Enjoy.

We drove 4 hours to ski this?!?

People are skiing that?!?

Snow looks great

Looking back down the summit ridge

The top

Most of the water was frozen, the the summit PBRs were quite handy

Sunset crater

The Grand Canyon... if you squint hard enough, maybe.

Wish we had enough time to head down in here...

Time to put the skis on

Our destination

Hard windblown snow and rocks in the open, a harsh crust and fallen logs in the trees: about 10 nice turns in 2,500' feet of skiing

Great times were had, but more of a hike than a ski.

To make you all even more jealous, I might do a Mount Lemmon TR sometime if I get around to it. Be warned.

**skimoore** · 01-29-2007, 03:46 PM

Massive dedication. Damn classy TR...

forest · 01-29-2007, 03:52 PM

Damn, thats some hard work for not much. I bet Ullr will be watching effort like that and reward at some point.

**thalweg** · 01-29-2007, 04:11 PM

Maybe to clarify, we did get about 2,500' of skiing in, its just that a lot of it was questionable in quality. The rocky photos are of very exposed or south-facing slopes. Good enough for an Arizona snow fix!

**altasnob** · 01-29-2007, 10:06 PM

Cool to see a TR from the Desert SW.

**KillingCokes** · 01-30-2007, 02:19 AM

I skied Humphrey's back in like 94 or somethin'. Thanks for the memories

**Trackhead** · 01-30-2007, 08:43 AM

I lived in Flag for five years. 2 winters were good, one was marginal, and 2 were nearly unskiable. The 2 good winters were quite a bit of fun.

**gravitylover** · 01-30-2007, 08:50 AM

I haven't been up there for 20 years

You're right about wanting time to ski the inner crater, it's good stuff for sure! What a great place for a spring fling, do some camping by the old telescope and have a couple thousand acres above you to play with and then have one of the greatest sky watching opportunities anywhere all night long.

**HobieTony** · 01-30-2007, 09:51 AM

Got into Flagstaff Saturday night for the Roger Clyne show, and went to Snowbowl on Sunday to pick up my pass and see what the area was like - For as little snow as they had, the areas with snow were surprisingly good. Strong telemark crew at that mountain, lots of fun. Saw a couple of sets of tracks coming back into the area, facing the lift - was that you? Looked a bit dicey the last 80% or so... Patrol had some hope for a storm this week, they sure need it.

T

**TyWebb** · 01-30-2007, 11:06 AM

Good senics..nice shots.

**brettf** · 01-30-2007, 12:01 PM

werd. nice AZ stuff.

**Joey Bag O' Donuts** · 01-30-2007, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by Trackhead

I lived in Flag for five years. 2 winters were good, one was marginal, and 2 were nearly unskiable. The 2 good winters were quite a bit of fun.

I remember those two good seasons, Inner basin sure does bring back memories

**thalweg** · 01-30-2007, 07:15 PM

We saw those tracks above Snowbowl on the way in as well, and kept that in mind as a backup. The original plan was to ski off the NW side of the mountain and snowshoe/skin back to the trailhead, but we got a late start and ran a bit short of time. So, we headed back to that Snowbowl face, which actually looked pretty ugly from above, with ~50% boulders on a 45 degree slope where we were looking at it. Plan C ended up being skiing down the ridge and coming out on the cat track just above Hart Prairie, a route which was OK but patchy in places.

Ended up being a super last minute trip, or I could have contacted you Tony; are you into hiking as well or mostly just downhill?