Last summer, I climbed Mt. Humphreys for what I figured would be the last time. I was 72 and starting to scale back. Then I started getting hints from people wanting to do it again. I’ve been climbing with Ed since 1990, and he wanted to give his wife, Sue, a chance to climb it. Ben, who posts here as BFR, was also interested. I’ve climbed with Paul since about 1999, and he was all in.

Aadi, who posts here as climby_climber, posted a question and then a trip report on his Humphreys attempt. A spirited discussion followed. I didn’t know Aadi, but he struck me as a sensible guy with lots of enthusiasm and not much experience. That was me 35 years ago. I just had to invite him.

Ed and Sue wanted to backpack, so they booked a permit for July 1. Everything was set until it wasn’t. Ed, Aadi, and I all proposed additions to the cast. Jason, who posts as JR, joined the climb. Ed and Aadi’s friends couldn’t make it, and Ben had to drop out. (Ben needs to realize that climbing is more important than family gatherings.)

Now for the actual trip report. On July 1, Ed and Sue hiked over Piute pass and camped on the way to Humphreys. On July 2, Aadi, Paul, Jason, and I left the parking lot at 5:00 AM. We met Ed and Sue as planned, and we all trudged up to the big notch north of the summit.

There is a nice alcove just before the first class 4 section. We all put on harnesses, and those of us with rock shoes put them on. I had brought a thin, relative light, 70M rope. It’s fine for rappelling or belaying a second, but it won’t protect a leader fall by itself. I had free-soloed this climb before, so I trailed the rope behind me as if I were free soloing. No belay. I soloed up the first section and set up a belay. Aadi and Jason both soloed up behind me. I belayed the others up, one at a time.

The second class 4 section is longer. It seems hard at first, but it’s not too bad if you take your time and look for every potential hold. I soloed up and around a corner, trailing the rope as before. I set up a belay station, and began belaying everybody else up. I had each climber tie into the middle of the rope. They would untie when they got to me, and continue up class 3 rock to the summit. The remaining climbers could pull the rope back down so the next climber could tie in. Once everybody was above the last class 4 section, I just soloed up to the summit.

By this time, it was getting windy and cold. Aadi realized that he should have brought more clothes. Important lesson learned. We all scrambled back down to the second belay station. After a brief discussion, I had Paul rappel down the single 70M rope as far as he could go. It reached WAY down the rock. We might have been better off doubling the rope, but we weren’t sure how far it would reach.

Aadi was next. He had been very upfront about not knowing how to rappel, and I knew what I wanted to do. I put him on belay and lowered him down the rock. He did fine. The other three climbers rappelled down. Everybody had been at least reasonably efficient, but it takes bleepin’ forever for a large group to belay/rappel up and down one at a time. We were FINALLY done screwing around with the rope! I threw down the rope, took down the belay station, and downclimbed the route. We were all back together 15 minutes later.

By this time, we were mostly out of the wind, and feeling pretty proud of ourselves. We got strung out on the way down, with me and Jason first. Jason stopped for a break, and I stopped 100 yards further. The next thing I knew, I had spent 20 minutes eating, peeing, stuffing snow into my hydration kit, and waiting for everybody else. Everybody seemed to be wandering around aimlessly, with nobody heading towards Piute pass. We regrouped, got more-or-less on the correct route, and continued down. Ed and Sue peeled off to their camp, and the rest of us walked down the trail, getting to the cars at 9:30 PM. Ed and Sue hiked out Sunday morning.

16½ hours was more than I planned, but I should have remembered just how long it takes a large group to get up or down a rope, one at a time. Lesson learned.

We got it done. Everybody made the summit. Nobody got hurt. Nobody whined about anything. Everybody worked together as a team. I’ve been climbing with Ed, Sue, and Paul forever. I know that everything should go smoothly with them. Jason is relatively inexperienced, and I’ve only been climbing with him for a few months. He learns fast, and he is a bleepin’ animal. Aadi is also inexperienced, and none of us had even met him. I just had a good feeling about Aadi, and he did not disappoint. Thanks to all of you. That was an epic day!