FKT: Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau - Mount Humphreys (CA) - 2021-07-09

Humphreys is one of my favorite eastern Sierra peaks to run up! I set out later than planned but nevertheless under blue skies. My goal was to run a comfortable pace and set up this route, but still try to shoot for under four hours (sub three hours is definitely possible). At 13,400 feet it started drizzling and I heard thunder on the horizon. I took shelter under a great ledge and decided to wait it out. The storm was soon directly above me and bombarding the mountain with pea-sized hail. After about 75 minutes, the storm moved away (or so it seemed). With the sun coming out and only a light drizzle, I decided to go for the summit. The route is only class 4 and I had done it previously, so I wasn’t worried about the wet rock. I easily made it to the summit, but as I started descending the sky darkened again, and soon unleashed buckets of rain and hail. By this time I was off the mountain, made my way back to the trail (now a creek!), and splashed back down to the trailhead. With my time goal out the window, the whole ascent and descent after the start of the rain were done pretty leisurely. My “moving time” was about 4.5 hours, but the elapsed time closer to 6.  Lots of great potential on this mountain!