Summited Humboldt Peak (an elevation of 14,070 ft) yesterday, it lies in the Sangre de Cristo Range of southern Colorado. Ended up sleeping in the car that evening since I was unable drive or backpack to a camping spot in time. In the morning the temperature was in somewhere in the 30ies when I got up and headed out for the peak. I walked up the road about a mile when some fellow hikers offered me a ride to the river crossing. The road was very much a AWD/4x4 road, at one point we had to all disembark and it took three attempts just to get over one section in the road. The road itself had several nice car camping spots which all seemed to be be taken by hunters; Co 120 road is closed right before the river crossing and had 20ish parking spots. While the weather forecast was clear, there was 10-20 mile winds expected in the area. When approaching the false summit/ridgeline the wind really became a factor. I'm guessing it was close to 50mph plus gusts sounding like a waterfall was nearby the whole time; the wind was strong enough it would knock you over or you'd would fall down when it eased up. Combined with windchill, several (more than half) of the hikers turned back to tackle Humboldt another day. Coming down from the peak it was nice to get out of the wind and was able to shed layers and enjoy the wilderness again. I encountered several backpacking groups before crossing the river and ended up hiking all the way back to the car before heading home around 2 p.m.
