Humphrey's Peak - The Top of Arizona

Alright, so I am back in civilization now and about to get some much needed rest.

Today we summited Humphrey's Peak the Arizona state highpoint. Total altitude 12,637 feet. We climbed to about 11,000 last night and set up a camp so we can acclimatize. Coming from the California coast and Marbella Spain, my body is used to the oxygen rich air that exists at sea level, but not anymore. I've been punishing it with the thin air of high altitude.

So, how did the hike go?
Thanks for asking, it was rather extraordinary. We ran into thunder, lightning, hail, sun, torrential rains, blue skies, wind and cool 50 degree breezes. It was sort of like Mother Nature took all of her possible weather variables and put them in a Yatzee dice cup then rolled it every hour. One minute I'd be layering up with a long sleeve fleece and gloves the next I'd be stripping down to a t-shirt and shorts and putting on sun block.
We had intended to summit early by like 10am, but it started raining early in the day and once we hit the saddle of the ridge of the mountain we heard thunder so we descended back below the tree line and built a quick shelter with a bivy tarp and our foam mattress pads. The last place you want to be is on an exposed mountain summit during a thunderstorm. We ended up making it to the summit around 12:30pm and the skies cleared up an you could see for miles.
We did lunch on the summit and then started making our way down around 2:15. Yet again we got stuck in a thunderstorm though. This time we raced through the upper part of the tree line to get back to camp and hunker down for a bit until it passed.

This was my first serious altitude summit. Prior to Humphrey's Peak Harney Peak in South Dakota at 7,400 feet was the highest I've climbed.

Needless to say, I was pleased as punch that I made it to the summit of another state highpoint. This is #14 for me (10 on this trip alone). We are heading off to Wheeler Peak in New Mexico now...13,000+

Note: I just broke the 24,000 mile mark for this trip. 500 more miles and I will have traveled the equivalent of the circumference of the earth!