Sunday, June 14, 2009

coors LIGHTning JUNE 14th

The Uintas. Unexplored by some, respected by all played host to a gathering that it must not have been ready for. The group consisted of ella, emile, brett, stephan, jake, jon and micah. We arrived after an inspiring, lush, green drive in the Econoline 150 from salt lake to about 40 miles east of park city. The blue bird drive turned into a snowy hike. Graupel seemingly the size of a rocky mountain oysters were periodically falling from the white sky.
The group pushed on. Snow has never stopped any of these skiers from continuing on. If we were lucky it would be free refills each lap.
The weather report this day called for mostly cloudy conditions in the morning and a 70% chance of thunderstorms and rain in the afternoon. Some of the storms expected to produce heavy percipitation. Well it was about 11 so we figured we had some time. Here is Brett checking out hayden peak? from the saddle. A storm was passing to the east over the peak and he soon found out you shouldnt look at lightning strikes through binocs.
Well drop in off the saddle before the thunderstorm hits. Here is Micah milking a few tele turns. The group gathered on the lunch rocks just intime to be right next to a powerful storm. We decided to take shelter and not hike back up with our skis ( lightning rods) on our backs aiming high at the sky until the storm passed. The storm did pass. Out of the protection we went. The sky really seamed to light up and it got calm. It was only about 25 minutes back to the top so why not take another lap.
Well just as everyone completed hiking another round of thunder was blowing in rapidly. The sky was immediately dark and tense. We hustled back to the protected grove lower in elevation.

Looking out just before hunkering down. The storm came and we took shelter from hail and sleet. A few echoing blasts later we decided its probably best to go the opposite way as the storm ( back to the car) As we left, the sleet turned into snowflakes, the ground was coated with a fresh coat of white, unbelieveable. Its mid june and we are seeing intense winterish storms. The thunder stopped and things let up again.
Lots of stuff to ski out here when the weather is right. The buffalo had admited to never skiing in june. Its mid june and it appears there are still a few lines up here to go ski. We all had a blast.