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If you could have one single mountain walk that you've done over again, what would you choose?
Of course I'd consider my trips abroad: the Andes, Himalayas and Alps. And equally inspiring days closer to home in England, Wales and Scotland.
But for me, the choice would be very simple. My most enjoyable and memorable mountain walk was the day I and my two children (aged 8 and 5 at the time) climbed Humphreys Peak, Arizona (3,851m / 12,633ft).
My daughter described the walk up and down this huge mountain as "like walking over the whole world." see -
http://www.peakware.com/peaks.html?pk=115&view=logs&log=21228 Our trip to the USA started with a flight from Manchester to Las Vegas, which we visited purely for the purpose of hiring a car. We drove out into the extraordinary scenery of Utah and Arizona.
Delicate Arch, Utah at sunset, with the snow-capped La Sal mountain range in the distance.
IMG_0855 by
Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
The river Colorado below Dead Horse Point, Utah
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Landscape Arch, Utah, with a span of 300ft
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Crossing the state line at dawn into Monument Valley, Arizona
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Sunset Crater, Arizona - this volcano was active until the eleventh century AD. The contrast between the two types of volcanic rock, the black basalt and red rhyolite, can be clearly seen.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
The telescope used to discover Pluto (Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona)
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Meteor Crater, Arizona, made by the impact of - well, a meteor.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Obligatory Grand Canyon photo
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
And the Canyon at dawn the next morning
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
A deer at the Canyon's edge
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
It was also very interesting to meet many of the Navajo people who are the majority of the population in this area, and learn a little about their beliefs and traditions which are still very much alive in Northern Arizona. Flagstaff is a wonderfully relaxed and welcoming town set amid forests, canyons and crags at the foot of the Kachina range of peaks, of which Humphreys is the highest (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachina_Peaks_Wilderness).
The Kachinas dominate Flagstaff rather in the way the Skiddaw group dominate Keswick: a cluster of tall cones that seem to loom over every street corner. In this view, the big peak on the left is Agassiz Peak (3,767m / 12,360 ft). Just left of the traffic light in this photo, a lumpy ridge can be seen on the skyline, which looks like a lower part of Agassiz, but is in fact higher and further away: that's Humphreys Peak.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Before the ascent, I had considered the walk very carefully. It starts from a high car park which is a winter ski resort - think Coire Cas in the Cairngorms. So although Humphreys is of Alpine height, the amount of vertical ascent involved, and the overall distance of the walk, are comparable to Ben Nevis from Fort William.
However, the last mile is along a narrow (but not dangerous) summit ridge of big basalt boulders, with some scrambly sections and three false summits. And like Ben Nevis in summer, it could be cold and windy on the top, with a chance of snow. I checked the weather forecast very carefully: a fine day was predicted.
This aerial photo (on Summitpost at
http://www.summitpost.org/humphreys-peak/150241 ) shows the route (in winter conditions, which we didn't have!). Humphreys Peak is on the left and Agassiz Peak on the right. The car park can just about be made out, at the foot of some diagonal ski runs about three-quarters across the photo. Left of the car park is an open area (white splodge on the photo) which is used for general and family skiing.
The trail goes left from the car park, crosses the open area and then zig-zags upwards through the large area of forest in the centre of the photo. It then bends rightwards to slant up to the lowest point of the ridge between Humphreys and Agassiz. From this col, it follows the summit ridge leftwards.
Would the children be up to it? They had previously climbed only Cnicht, Snowdon, and Red Screes, but were very keen to have a go at this giant mountain, which looked such a monster compared to anything back in the UK.
In fact, I felt pretty certain we would not make the summit - we would just walk back down to the car as soon as the children said they were tired. I thought it would be a major triumph if we reached the col between Humphreys and Agassiz. The col is a worthy objective in itself, giving a view down into the hidden caldera (giant crater) at the centre of the Kachina range, and a close look at the remarkable Bristlecone Pines (more about them later).
We took plenty of food and drink, had an early and very ample breakfast at our hotel, and set off.
We left the car park and crossed a broad prairie-like field, which in winter is the skiing area prominent in the aerial photo. Beyond the field we entered a dense forest. The most iconic scenery of the American West normally features deserts and rocks - but in fact Arizona has vast areas of both pine and broadleaved woodlands. A huge pinewood, the Coconino Forest, surrounds Humphreys Peak. Here's a view of the early-morning moon through the trees.
IMG_2109 by
Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Coming from the UK we are used to more "managed" forests. This forest reminded me of my trip to Finland: vast, genuinely wild native woodland, with dozens of fallen trees across the trail, all of which had to be scrambled under or over. Typical forest terrain can be seen in the background of this photo - our first water stop.
IMG_2107 by
Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Despite the obstacles, navigation was easy - the route of the trail was clear, and anyway, there were no other paths! As the morning went on we gained height steadily amid the endless trees. A feeling of wilderness beyond anything in the UK was tangible. I had researched the potential dangers: the Coconino Forest has black bears, but these only attack if provoked. The forest also has a population of pumas (also known as mountain lions or cougars). Pumas have on rare occasions been known to attack unaccompanied children, but not a group including an adult. So I kept the children close to me throughout the forest part of the walk.
Eventually there were a few clearings among the trees, and we could look back down and see how far we'd climbed. In this photo, the field we crossed at the beginning of the walk can be seen as a pale area above the top of the nearby tree on the right.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Higher still, we began to get glimpses through the trees of Humphreys' summit ridge high above us. The highest point visible here is the lowest of the false summits.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Eventually the pines thinned out, and we began to see some specimens of the high-altitude Bristlecone Pine. These hardy trees grow at altitudes of up to 10,000ft on the Kachinas Peaks. They have one of the longest lifespans of any living thing. This specimen is probably around 5,000 years old.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Amid the Bristlecone Pines, we reached the col that divides Humphreys from Agassiz. Time for a sit down and a lunch stop. I had expected this to be the highest point we would reach, but the children were enjoying the walk, with no thought of turning back.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Here's a closer view of the small natural arch that can just about be made out on the skyline in the previous photo. The layers of basalt and rhyolite are visible.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
The view east from the col. This area is a "caldera" - it was occupied by a gigantic volcano which exploded around 2 million years ago to leave Humphreys, Agassiz and the other Kachina peaks as the broken caldera rim. This explains the narrow summit crest of Humphreys, uncharacteristic of volcanoes.
The caldera is the centre of the San Francisco volcanic field (nothing to do with San Francisco, California) - details at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_volcanic_field . As the North American tectonic plate moves over a hotspot deep beneath the crust, eruptions occasionally punch through the plate and create new volcanoes. There are 600 volcanic craters in total - Sunset Crater, pictured earlier in this TR, is the most recent.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
This photo shows Humphreys Peak's summit ridge from the eastern edge of the col. The ridge rises from left to right, over three false summits - the second and third ones can be seen. The summit of the mountain is at the far right-hand end of the crest.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
From the col, the trail climbs steeply - from the foreground of this photo, around the boulders to the left and then a steep scramble up sharp-edged basalt rocks onto the summit ridge.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Amid a jumble of huge boulders, we reached the crest of the ridge. Time for another stop!
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
A bit further along the ridge we reached the first of the false summits, then down a dip on the far side of it. None of the false summits have names, but I think Munro would have called them Tops, and Wainwright would no doubt have given each of them its own chapter.
This is a view back from the dip beyond the first false summit, looking towards Agassiz.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
A slightly higher viewpoint showing the view down into the caldera.
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On the ridge, looking back to the second (centre) and first (left) false summits. The rock type changes abruptly to rhyolite in the foreground, but soon after reverted to basalt.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
A close up of Agassiz from near the third false summit.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Looking eastwards over a basalt boulder field: we are now at around 12,000 ft.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Looking back over Agassiz and the caldera from our last stop before the top. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that this scene is the mirror image of the skyline in the "traffic light photo" early on in this TR.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
The summit! We found this wooden plaque atop the summit cairn, announcing the height as 12,633 feet.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
it was a bit hazy but we could make out the Painted Desert to the north-east, the line of the Grand Canyon to the north-west and the location of Meteor Crater away to the south-east. I pointed out these distant features to the children: however we were mainly just enjoying a sit down and feeling chuffed with ourselves for making it to the top!
The caldera from the summit.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Agassiz Peak in the background. Just to its left are some distant white spots which are buildings in Flagstaff, including the Lowell Observatory.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
There's a log book to fill in for those who reach the summit - a tin contains a school-style exercise book.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
The pages of the book were in fact full, so we wrote our names and ages on the cover. My daughter later checked Peakware and Summitpost, and believes she may be the youngest person ever to walk all the way to the summit without being carried.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
At this point the first person we'd seen all day also arrived at the summit. As well as chatting about the differences between walking in the UK and in the backcountry USA, he kindly took this photo of us.
IMG_2129 by
Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Time to head on down. The ridge seemed every bit as bouldery and long on the way down, and we were very pleased to get off the jagged rocks and onto the col. Here's the caldera from the col again, lit by the late afternoon sun.
IMG_2162 by
Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
Descending from the col was unexpectedly tricky. The volcanic dust that forms the "soil" here had dried out during the day. When we were ascending this section, it had felt reasonably grippy under our boots. Now, with the moisture evaporated, it seemed to have turned into millions of tiny ball bearings and was very slippery. We descended this section in a kind of controlled stagger. All three of us slipped several times during this descent and ended up covered in dust.
Then, it was down through the endless woodland. Wary once more of the pumas, I kept the children close - my son, in particular, had a tendency to run ahead! There seemed to be at least twice as many fallen trees to climb over as there had been on the way up - but we managed them all and finally got back to the open prairie above the car park.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
The sun was setting as we approached the car park. Here's a closer version of the previous picture: a view over one of Humphreys' many subsidiary volcanoes towards the sunset over the distant mountains of the western Mogollon Rim.
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Half Man Half Titanium, on Flickr
It was a day that the children will always remember.
They also slept very well that night.