Humphreys info

[syoung]

Has anyone been up there recently? I am thinking about giving it a go this weekend with my Whitney gear but am curious of trail conditions.

[toddak]

I drove through Flag late Saturday night and it was snowing pretty good. Based on the webcam linked below, there's probably a decent amount of snow up there.
http://www.wrh.noaa.go...

[rcorfman]

Sunday afternoon we drove from Grand Canyon to Phoenix and the snow level was right to the highway in places though it was raining when we passed through. We couldn't see much of Humphrey's due to the cloud cover but it looked like it was getting a bunch of snow.

[Jim]

Just had 10+ inches up there per the NWS, at 9300', but it compresses and melts fast. I want to do Humphrey later this month and have been wondering what conditions are like, but they change so fast this time of year it can be a hard guess to make.

Totals were not impressive this winter, so my expectation, as a complete guess, is that a hard ice or snow layer exists at present, underneath of a layer of new snow. Probably some exposed muddy trail on the SW slopes, near and above the alpine zone, too.

I want to do the IB route, so as to not just keep hiking the Summit Trail, and that will hold snow longer on north aspects. The trail, usually melts faster.

Anyway, what do you mean by Whitney Gear? Snowshoes are typically useless on the trail this late in the season. An ice, maybe nice as a cane, but it's much more. However, it can be used to cut steps in some big intact drifts. Crampons, I never felt necessary, but micro spikes could be in May. It is May, isn't it? Ahh.....

[chumley]

Snowbowl reported 18" new at 11,500 on Sunday. Looked to be at least 2-3" more yesterday above 8,000. Wouldn't be surprised if it was 6"+ on the peak

[syoung]

Anyway, what do you mean by Whitney Gear? .

I want to haul my Whitney overnight gear so I can convince myself to cut a few more ounces.