Humboldt Peak Trip Report 12/30/2015

Peak(s):	Humboldt Peak - 14,068 feet
Date Posted:	12/30/2015
Date Climbed:	12/29/2015
Author:	jclark217

East Ridge on 12/29
Made an (Unsuccessful) run at Humboldt via the East Ridge on December 29. Went with my brother, and we carried light crampons, ice axes, helmets, and snowshoes, and were happy to have all of them. The helmets were completely precautionary, we brought them with the intention to wear them on the upper ridge in the event of a slip. We parked at the 2WD trailhead after briefly contemplating following the deep tracks down the road. Neither of us wanted to dig the 4Runner out of the snow, so we parked it there and started down the road at 6:15. About 100' later the tire tracks ended in what looked like a mess of pushing and pulling expensive BF Goodrich tires out of 18 inches of snow, validating our decision. After that, the road was packed enough to not need the snowshoes all the way to the very obvious turnoff to Rainbow trail. That's where we donned out snowshoes and found ourselves breaking trail after about 30'. We followed our GPS to the turnoff up towards the East Ridge, and broke trail slowly through the messy forest. There was a lot more fluffy snow than we expected, but it wasn't too bad to sluff through. Would be awful/impossible without snowshoes. At some point we found the faint remnants of what we think was Misi197's tracks from the 24th. Here's where we went wrong, and hopefully where we can help you. We followed these tracks up and found Misi197's DESCENT tracks, not their correct ascent tracks, and soon found ourselves on a hellaciously steep slope through the trees at around 10,500'. There was about 24" of light, loose snow on this slope, and we were sliding all over the place and burning way too much energy to make very little progress. I pulled out my compass for the inclinometer and found that it exceeded 35 degrees. 2 feet of loose snow on a 35+ slope triggered alarm bells and we gingerly bailed back down, happy to have the ice axes for several slips. Once at the bottom we were wet and exhausted and our timeline had been blown, so we played it safe and went home to watch some bowl games. If you're planning on making a run at Humboldt in the next few days and you find our snowshoe tracks, I think we were on track where we cut off of Rainbow trail and followed the lower toe of the ridge, however, I believe that we did not go far enough to the Southwest (climber's left) of the nasty slope to stay on a more proper ridge. Once back at the road, we looked up and saw where we should have gone. So don't follow our tracks straight up that slope (If you're wondering if you are on it, you probably aren't) and stay to the left a bit more. Most humble apologies for the mis-leading trench. Also shout out to the guys we saw at the parking lot going back for a 3-day excursion up the Ellingwood Arete on The Needle. I hope you guys are doing well and staying safe. Thanks for reminding us that we're far from the coolest people in the mountains. If you have climbed Humboldt via the East Ridge, I'm happy for any advice you might have for us for getting clear of the trees and staying true to the ridge above 10,000". Thanks all.

East Ridge on 12/29

Made an (Unsuccessful) run at Humboldt via the East Ridge on December 29. Went with my brother, and we carried light crampons, ice axes, helmets, and snowshoes, and were happy to have all of them. The helmets were completely precautionary, we brought them with the intention to wear them on the upper ridge in the event of a slip.
We parked at the 2WD trailhead after briefly contemplating following the deep tracks down the road. Neither of us wanted to dig the 4Runner out of the snow, so we parked it there and started down the road at 6:15. About 100' later the tire tracks ended in what looked like a mess of pushing and pulling expensive BF Goodrich tires out of 18 inches of snow, validating our decision. After that, the road was packed enough to not need the snowshoes all the way to the very obvious turnoff to Rainbow trail. That's where we donned out snowshoes and found ourselves breaking trail after about 30'.
We followed our GPS to the turnoff up towards the East Ridge, and broke trail slowly through the messy forest. There was a lot more fluffy snow than we expected, but it wasn't too bad to sluff through. Would be awful/impossible without snowshoes. At some point we found the faint remnants of what we think was Misi197's tracks from the 24th. Here's where we went wrong, and hopefully where we can help you. We followed these tracks up and found Misi197's DESCENT tracks, not their correct ascent tracks, and soon found ourselves on a hellaciously steep slope through the trees at around 10,500'. There was about 24" of light, loose snow on this slope, and we were sliding all over the place and burning way too much energy to make very little progress. I pulled out my compass for the inclinometer and found that it exceeded 35 degrees. 2 feet of loose snow on a 35+ slope triggered alarm bells and we gingerly bailed back down, happy to have the ice axes for several slips. Once at the bottom we were wet and exhausted and our timeline had been blown, so we played it safe and went home to watch some bowl games.
If you're planning on making a run at Humboldt in the next few days and you find our snowshoe tracks, I think we were on track where we cut off of Rainbow trail and followed the lower toe of the ridge, however, I believe that we did not go far enough to the Southwest (climber's left) of the nasty slope to stay on a more proper ridge. Once back at the road, we looked up and saw where we should have gone. So don't follow our tracks straight up that slope (If you're wondering if you are on it, you probably aren't) and stay to the left a bit more. Most humble apologies for the mis-leading trench.
Also shout out to the guys we saw at the parking lot going back for a 3-day excursion up the Ellingwood Arete on The Needle. I hope you guys are doing well and staying safe. Thanks for reminding us that we're far from the coolest people in the mountains.
If you have climbed Humboldt via the East Ridge, I'm happy for any advice you might have for us for getting clear of the trees and staying true to the ridge above 10,000". Thanks all.

Comments or Questions

ralph	Humboldt 12/31/2015 8:44am nice report....doing this on Sunday. Did you turn left in to the trees from the bridge about 0.2 miles as deccribed in 14’ers, and just did not stay s/w. Also do you think a Rover with a full set of chains can make it up? Just wondering how far I can go, and if its worth the extra time putting them on at the lower TH. Thanks Ralph
jclark217	Re: Ralph 12/31/2015 5:30pm Yes, I think we turned off of rainbow at around the correct time. We followed a decently gentle ridge for the start, though the forest was somewhat messy. That’s correct, we just turned West too soon and tried to bull straight up the big hill that you will be able to see for much of your time after leaving Rainbow. So our trench hopefully isn’t totally useless, but it eventually get’s misleading. As for the Rover with the chains... I really would be hesitant to say. The snow was pretty deep shortly down the road where the tire tracks ended, but after that it was not too deep for the next .5 mile or so. If you’re feeling bold you could give it a shot. I doubt you’d make it much more than a mile back, and we covered the distance to Rainbow in a little over an hour, so it wasn’t too bad. Good luck! Hopefully we see a successful TR on Sunday!
mcklarry	Fallen tree 1/6/2016 12:23pm Hi 1.5 miles up the road toward rainbow trailhead there is a fallen tree across the road you can step around it, but would not be able to drive past that point

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