>FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A New York City man who needed to be rescued twice on consecutive days while hiking in a northern Arizona mountain range is urging others to pay more attention to winter weather than he did.
>“Warning: Unless you are an experienced alpine mountaineer, DO NOT attempt Humphreys Peak in the winter. There is so much snow that it’s difficult to follow the trail and very easy to fall off of it. Moreover, the wind is absolutely brutal,” Phillip Vasto said in an online post.
>The 28-year-old Brooklyn man first called 911 last Wednesday at about 7 p.m. to say he got lost while hiking on Humphreys Trail in the San Francisco Peaks overlooking Flagstaff, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
>The statement didn’t identify Vasto by name but he spoke to the Arizona Daily Sun, telling the newspaper in a story published Tuesday that he was an experienced hiker but had underestimated the difficult conditions.
>“I was thinking if I start early in the morning, I’ll have all the time in the world to reach the summit,” Vasto said of his second attempt.
>The trail runs through some 5.5 miles (8.9 kilometers) of steep, rocky terrain between the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort and Humphreys Peak, the state’s highest point with an elevation of 12,633 feet (3,851 meters).
>During the first rescue, tracked vehicles from the ski resort that travel on snow drove Vasto off the mountain and he declined medical attention.
