I was acutely aware of the monsoons in CO. We got a late start due to some dummy whose intitals are HJ forgetting to set his alarm to Mountain Time and didn't get on the trail until 6:15 AM. We summited at ~11:50 AM. All the guide books, etc, say "get off the peaks by noon." We departed the peak about 12:10 PM. Within 20 minutes, clouds covered the peak so that we could no longer see it. About 20 minutes after that, it began to hail. About an hour or so after that, the very flood gates of heaven opened up and a deluge enveloped us with hail the size of my thumb nail. I was wearing my big white canvas Tilley hat with a hood up over it, and the hail still stung, yeeouch. The lightning would flash and the ear splitting thunder would resound about the time I could say the "wuh" part of "one" as I counted the seconds from flash to bang, indicating that the storm was right on top of us. Fortunately we were below tree line by the time the storm began in earnest.
On a side note, this was a good test for my new Big Agnes Sunnyside 2 tent. Our down (useless or worse when wet) sleeping bags were still dry inside the tent.
I got seriously depressed after my accident. I had been doing a lot of leading for the Sierra Club and had done some really interesting hikes that year including a big loop around the Mammoth Lakes basin from Duck Pass to just before Mammoth Pass as well as Mt. Whitney. Going up Whitney with those big 18" to 24" stone "steps," was no problem even with a heavy pack (it was October and about 17'F at night and snowing on and off). A short while later, I couldn't even walk. It took me about a year before I could walk again more or less normally, and the complications, mainly plantar fasciatis and tendinitis, only allowed me to hike intermittantly until early 2006. In 2006, it was a real joy to hike regularly and to do my first backpack since breaking my leg. In all, I did five backpacks last year, and I've already done four this year. Pent up demand, I guess.