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| Hiking | 12.91 Miles |
4,246 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.91 Miles | 9 Hrs 11 Mns | | 1.63 mph |
| 4,246 ft AEG | 1 Hour 15 Mns Break | | | |
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none
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| no partners | | Agassiz/Humphreys combo. I've summitted Rees, Abineau, Doyle, Fremont, and Humphreys previously, but not Agassiz.
Wanted to do this the prior weekend, but couldn't get the logistics to work out.
Bumped a week and hoped for the best. We left Phoenix around 12:30 am Saturday and were on the trail at 3:15 a.m. Immediately startled a group of around 10 deer grazing on the meadow.
We decided to ditch the lower switchbacks and hike up to the corner of the 4th switchback. As we approached, we overshot and got a little off track, necessitating a little backtracking and bushwhacking.
After connecting with the trail, we made good time. Put the spikes on around 10.8K. Later in the day, we crossed several hikers without spikes, struggling with the climb, but more important, dreading the slip-sliding, butt-scooting descent that would be necessitated by the lack of traction on the way down.
Hoped to watch the sunrise from the saddle, but didn't leave ourselves enough time. That said, as we approached the saddle, the early morning light cast a long shadow of the peaks across the miles below to the west, creating an impressive horizontal outline of Arizona's two 12K peaks.
At the saddle, we headed towards Agassiz. Although most of the snow from the most recent storm had melted, there was still a sliver of deeper "old" snow creating a ribbon along the ridgeline that we followed up to the summit.
The summit offers great views, but even more than the summit, the ridgeline leading up and back is beautiful, and provides a nice perspective back on the Humphreys ridge.
Back at the saddle, we encountered our first company and we tagged teamed with a couple of other hikers on the way to the Humphreys summit. We shared the summit briefly with two other hikers, but they soon left and we had it to ourselves.
Quite windy on top, but on the bright side--no bugs.
The descent was uneventful. Again, very glad to have our spikes. Crossed paths with many on the ascent.
A very satisfactory day in the AZ mountains. |
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