Mt Humpreys 2007


An inspireing peak is seen when you drive southwest on 186 from Bishop, it is Mt Humpreys. At 13986 feet is rises above everything else in the vicinity. Or so the pretensious say. Eric Biber gave me a list of fun stuff to do on a three day weekend and unwittingly I selected Humpreys, a little bit of class 4 but mostely class three on a really nice mountain. I managed to take some overexposed photos of the trip.


Hiking and camping in the area was superb. We stayed two nights next to Loch Leven seen on this picture. Piute pass in the background.

Eric following up around the class 3 choke stone. Some delicate exposed moves made me call rope, and Eric was more than willing to not solo this.

Lots of air around us. This is probably up on the last class 3 section to the summit (might be taken from the summit!).

Eric after having signed the summit log, noting that he has a picture of Humpreys in his living room.

No more up. So where is the complementary snow field that takes us down? Melted? Thank God for rappelling.

Thank God for rappelling. Eric going down after having checked the existing anchor.

My new (no longer) boots enjoying a fantastic view. The basin below is huge and ... I guess you have to be there.
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Happily waiting for my turn to rappel. The dihedral in the background had some of the hardest moves on the whole climb, definitly class 5 in my opinion. I was so focused leading it I missed the rapp station 20 feet away.

I did not have to fake much to look as miserable as I do on this picture. Tired, dehydrated, seriously wanting to be down on solid ground.

Eric made clean water, we ate and refilled some before the hike back to camp.

Mount Humpreys in the evening, our route shown in the inset.

It turned out to be the hardest mountaineering climb either of us have ever done. Even though my round-trip to Kaskasapakte was longer time-wise, and much wetter, it was not at noticable altitude and no where near as warm (no dehydration). The long sections of class "2" to ramp that lead to the notch added to the difficulty. I could say more, but I wont.