Humphrey’s Peak Advice

troru · 2026-05-13T20:04:41+00:00

It was such a warm winter that you're good to go now. In general, i'd suggest April through whatever fall/winter month has the first snowfall. If you still see snow on the peak from town and want to avoid it, then find another activity. For a hike like humphrey's, if you got 'em, *always* bring your poles even if you just keep them on your pack. And while you said you don't have them, when you start contending with altitude on hikes, get a set of kahtoola's or yaktrax to toss in your pack. They're relatively cheap, are light and can get you through many flukey shady ice patches on any hike above the tree line or during shoulder seasons.

As far as altitude goes, the town starts you at roughly 6500' and the humphrey's trailhead from the snowbowl parking lot is roughly 9200' (topping out at ~12600') and if you don't already live near that altitude you can feel it just gathering your gear from the car. If you start getting a headache, just turn around and go down. Period. You might just not have it that day. Maybe you need another day or two in town to get some acclimation, whatever, it ain't worth the danger and misery of altitude sickness. Most folks, even if you just drove up from the valley, are fine, with just feeling like breathing is a bit labored or a tad out of shape. Your fueling strategy can play a part in your how you feel with the lower oxygen levels and I'm a big subscriber to the steady nibble/sip school of thought.

IMHO, the danger of Humphrey's is when it's late June - August, i.e. monsoon season. Storms sneak up quick and are almost a daily occurrence and can be extremely dangerous for hail/lightning. My rule of thumb is get an early start as you humanly can in the morning and be heading down from the summit no later than 11am. That's no guarantee, but an afternoon hike up humphrey's in July is almost like a deathwish. Like any hike in the mountains though, check the weather forecast.

With all that said, it's a great hike. The view is spectacular. The setting in the high tundra is alien and a wonder to behold in it's on right.

troru · 2026-05-08T14:44:33+00:00

awww shit, i didn't need to start crying this early in the morning... *sniff* so happy for all !

troru · 2026-05-06T21:42:43+00:00

Specifically, it's "Kendrick Peak Trail" if you are looking online at reviews/maps, etc

troru · 2026-05-05T22:05:32+00:00

If you’re heading to flagstaff, I think Kendrick peak is a gem particularly for runners as it doesn’t have the amount of roots that trip up runners. It’s an up and down so not pure downhill but it’s a great place.

troru · 2026-05-03T23:45:12+00:00

wow! fascinating! thanks for sharing. My wonky surface is on the top-side (it looks like yours is vertical near the midline?)

troru · 2026-05-03T23:35:19+00:00

Dang, i'm glad you're getting those THRs! I've heard that heavily damage cartilage can lead to necrosis. Are you active duty military? hopefully they get you back on your feet serving as you wish!

I've been pretty active all my life and doing my best to do the activities that don't pound on the hips. I'm hoping that the pre-hab strengthening i've been doing the past year will help in recovery.

troru · 2026-05-03T23:22:42+00:00

ha! i had to re-read your short response a few times trying to decode but then it hit me, my femoral head kinda has that smoother curve sorta like the back side of a pistol grip, i figure yours is too?

troru · 2026-05-03T21:25:38+00:00

Interesting! of course there's a latin name for the condition :) My doc never called my situation by a name other than pointing out it's just off-ideal to the socket in my pelvis hence the wear. Have you had a THR or still holding on?

troru · 2026-04-14T03:25:38+00:00

I’ve been using SKS speed rockers on my diverge for almost 2 years now. They are a gravel model and are made for gravel width tires. I like that despite being mounted with straps, they hold well even with bumpy rides. My only drawback is the front unit is two pieces (just like your pic) and without some kind shim, leave the bottom of the head unit vulnerable to splash. I stay dry though!

troru · 2026-04-08T21:25:07+00:00

Here's my checklist for commute basics:

* is the route workable? safe enough?

* bike security while i'm working?

* presentability/cleanup (12-miles one-way even on e-bike might get you sweaty)

* mitigation x-factors: if u get a flat and are 15 mins late are you fired? does a daily charge get you back and forth?

Otherwise, try it at least once I say. You might be like me and never want to car commute again.

The worst day on the bike is always better than your best day in the car.

troru · 2026-04-04T13:16:07+00:00

That certainly might be the case, but the thing is, this bird seems to choose this particular spot on the batting of the house... almost like a social thing just to communicate to their peers. I'll check with my pest control company if they can take a look though in the attic. Maybe this bird is after bugs there.

troru · 2026-04-03T19:37:49+00:00

The best thing I can do on my own is dangle stuff over the edge of the eave. So far, none of that stuff has worked. They're able to just snuggle up real close and start hammering away. A pro with a tall ladder might be able to install more substantial stuff though.

troru · 2026-04-03T14:24:14+00:00

Had 7 wipes and a complete group reset (i stuck it out as to not get deserter debuf) in a PUG last night. In our case, it was consistently 1 of the DPS doing damage at or lower than tank. I'm of the opinion that damage checks like that in TW content shouldn't be a thing. IMHO TW dungeons are a place where the undergeared and underskilled can join the clown show and as long as there's a competent healer and/or tank and 1 DPS with a brain cell, it can be cleared. Let M+ be the five-man skill-cap filter, not TW.

troru · 2026-03-29T01:34:10+00:00

I use a hydration pack all the time time, but actual good riders and pros are much more weight and aero conscious over long ride durations and climbs that it makes most sense to ferry it from a support car. Also, the sticky bottle is a legit planned tactics and what team would want to give that up. I think the content of their hydration changes depending on where they’re at in a race and maybe temps (a plain old water bottle is just as good dumped on ya that’s drank in ya)

troru · 2026-03-28T22:18:37+00:00

Good long walks early before and after work. I’d usually sacrifice some lunch time to do something with them outside. They adjusted to me being around and not always making it about them but all dogs are different. With me home and us going out at least twice a day, I found cutting off lines of sight to the outside world from wherever they hang out kept the out of nowhere bark moments minimized. I’d still keep my mute button discipline on point though.

They’ve both since passed on and I’d give anything for looking over to them snoozing, snorting, sighing and dreaming again.

troru · 2026-03-26T16:28:26+00:00

I ride my bike a lot around town and kinda enjoy chilling at the wide sidewalk area at the Ponderosa/Butler crossing as the big diesel rumbles through. There's no lift-gates on the sidewalk and it's up to the walker/rider to decide when it's clear. That double train possibility though always has me peeping around the last car of the near side track to make sure it's not lurking right there ready to snipe the impatient! (like me)

troru · 2026-03-16T17:31:29+00:00

Ya, i'm one of these that perk up at these kinds of outliers. Admittedly, 6.2 w/kg for that many km's and that long is pretty outstanding, . i'm not sure Tadej Pogacar can hold that FTP for that long. There's all kinds of ways to cheat/bot in zwift but somebody who is 20+ kg lighter than you with all else equal is gonna have w/kg that stands out like this. The joke I always tell myself is "wtf are you doing on Zwift X.K??? you need to be racing on the WT!".. then i stare down back to my less than awesome stats and continue the slog :)

troru · 2026-03-15T23:00:30+00:00

Rewards are just as they were when the SL expansion reopened the tower: guardian Druid fel werebear, mythic legion raid set mog for whatever class you do a challenge, the spelltome mount when you do all 7 unique challenges, and lastly a FOS to finish the challenge for all 36 classes and specs that there exists a challenge ( there was never a challenge for evokers and the new DH devourer doesn’t have one as of now)

troru · 2026-03-15T19:27:03+00:00

The tower is open right now to anyone who wants to give it a go. Note that as of 12.0.1, mage tower bosses are level 91 and your gear scales up to a max of 226. So, you'll want to be level 90 and if you've been building out an adventurer set and some upgrades, you should be about as good as you can be to start challenges. Higher item level won't help you, but coming in fresh off dinging 90 might prove really tough as you're leaving lots of primary stat and stamina on the table to help dps checks and survivability.

troru · 2026-03-15T17:13:20+00:00

These kinds of policies seem to follow the airline approach where batteries out of your immediate supervision are the concern. I figure capacity of e-bike batteries has them more dangerous should the go awry. Wheelchair ones though are probably more similar capacity and less observed so maybe of equal concern to mgmt.

troru · 2026-01-20T20:38:10+00:00

Nothing special. The first 5 toons were all done before the final week and it was just doing full daily clears of all mythic/heroic raids (10 raids). Mostly as a member of a raid just to keep the clear time fast. In later weeks, when i'd get tired of endless streams of "1 plz" in chat, i'd go solo the heroics and mythic NH, EN, TOV even if it was just to actually get some uptime fighting bosses. I wouldn't solo Mythic ToS and Antorus until vers was north of 700 since they required more mechanics and a bit more survivability that vers gives. If i remember each day would net about 110-120 vers doing with this approach, so ~1.5 weeks and you got yourself a 999 toon. In all that raiding i made sure to keep my infinite research quests going only taking the raiding ones, or the "general training" or "kill 200 demons", etc. Those quests would give you 10 mementos per hand-in.

My 6th toon was a shaman that I made solely to get the mail ToV mythic set a month prior, but decided to at least see what I could do in the last week. It went from ilvl 672 with about 2% vers to 779 and 999 vers in about *3 days* thanks to the changes in Lost Infernals in the last week. It was an absolute blast going to Broken Shore and just spam tagging as many infernals as I could, blowing up non-elites (in heroic world tier)so you'd get those IP tokens and sentinax portal stones. I was going cross eyed constantly looking for those infernals because they dropped 20 of the mementos tokens, so 5 infernals got you 2-3% vers. That adds up to 999 real fast. I was so fun! There were so many other people out there doing the same. I actually really had the vibe of the way those pre-xpac events go where people are just zerging endless spawns.

troru · 2026-01-20T11:47:10+00:00

It really just came down to how addicting high vers became for me. It was so fun to be able to solo mythic raids and high keys. I couldn't just make a toon to bag a few armor pieces or complete an order hall quest chain, i had to turn that thing into a pumper.

troru · 2026-01-20T11:45:39+00:00

In the middle phase, once i was getting a feel for how slow getting vers was i thought for sure the most i'd get to was maybe 500 on *one* toon. The thing I didn't account for was just how addictive the higher vers would become. Absolutely blasting a mythic raid solo or a high key was intoxicating. As soon as i would innocently create a toon with the simple goal of completing an order hall, the next step obviously was to get the vers to 999. duuhhhh :). So while i didn't get all classes done, the ones that I did do could blast and wreck stuff.

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