Uintas Conditions 2015

[Mike K]

@Nanda

Yeah, I'd go for it as well. As mentioned above, weather is warm and when lakes melt, they usually go fast. We were at Amethyst in early June in 2012 and it had a bunch of ice one day and it was mostly gone the next. Wind was a major factor, though. Blew it right off!

@JoshuaDyal

I think you'll be good to go. Fingers crossed for ya! Always good to have a backup plan though. =)

 

[JoshuaDyal]

My biggest concern is the big passes I'm hoping to cross, with a rookie 13 year old and no ice axes or crampons.

My second biggest concern is post-holing or crossing big snowfields.

My third biggest concern is out of control water and mosquitoes. But again; I'll attempt my original plan, but have a plan B just in case any of the above end up being more than I want to deal with. My planned route has me going over the Bald Mountain ridge into Red Castle, over Smiths Fork Pass, over Tungsten Pass, over Porcupine Pass, over to Crater Lake, over Red Knob Pass, over Dead Horse Pass to Reconnaissance Lake, back over Dead Horse, back over Red Knob and via over... whatever pass it is between Wasatch and Lovenia, and then some off-trail rambling in the cirque between Tokewanna and Wasatch, and then back to the EFBF TH again. It's a big loop, with a number of challenging days with regards to miles, challenging days with regards to route-finding, off trail rambling, camping over tree-line, etc. It's a serious route. Ideally, I'd do it in early August instead, but this is when I'm available, so it's what I've got. So the back-up plan is a good idea; you never know, even if conditions are great, I may decide that it's too ambitious and I'd rather scale back.

 

[Mike K]

Valid concerns! =)

 

[WasatchWill]

@JoshuaDyal If your trip is still another week and a half out, I too bet you'll be fine for your trip. My pics of Naturalist Basin would probably look a lot different if I were to have gone out next week with the warmer weather system we are now in. If it helps, here's an album of a Kings Peak trip back in June of 2013. Many of my image dates are a day off, but the actual trip took place on June 19-21 of that year, hitting the summit on the 20th. Of course, conditions can be different from year to year, but again, I'll think you'll be fine.

 

[JoshuaDyal]

And with any luck, as the trip goes on, conditions will improve too. I'll take three passes early, but the gnarliest passes like Red Knob and Dead Horse are late in the trip. I think I'll be fine too, but I'm certainly watching on the ground conditions with an eagle eye this next week or so.

 

[mike mcgrath]

And with any luck, as the trip goes on, conditions will improve too. I'll take three passes early, but the gnarliest passes like Red Knob and Dead Horse are late in the trip. I think I'll be fine too, but I'm certainly watching on the ground conditions with an eagle eye this next week or so.

 

[mike mcgrath]

I was at Amethyst Lake last Thursday 6/18/15 and it's still frozen over. No ground dry enough to camp. We slept on big rock at near side of lake. Pretty cool. There is a small thawed edge at shoreline that is giving up the Brookies predictably. They took a scud pattern dropped off a Stimulator every time. Very wet all the way up, lots of snow the last 1/4 mile, lost trail.

 

[Nick]

For the peak baggers...

 

[Dave]

Pretty much everything in the Crystal Lake TH region is in business. This is from Saturday at the Middle Fork of the Weber headwaters above Long Lake.

Middle Fork of the Weber Headwaters by Dave Cawley, on Flickr

 

[DrNed]

Reading these conditions has me slightly concerned, especially for my 13 yo daughter. Will two weeks of hot and sun
produce signifiicantly better conditions? I'm hoping to be on King's July 8, coming up from Henry's Fork.

 

[Nick]

Reading these conditions has me slightly concerned, especially for my 13 yo daughter. Will two weeks of hot and sun
produce signifiicantly better conditions? I'm hoping to be on King's July 8, coming up from Henry's Fork.

Two weeks of hot weather is a long time up there. I personally wouldn't be worried, especially considering how unusually hot the forecast is. You can follow that page here if you want to watch for more updates: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Kings-Peak/169001923120140?fref=ts

 

[JoshuaDyal]

I'm much more concerned now about mud, mosquitoes and bogginess in a week or two than I am about snow. It looks like the snow has melted out considerably in the last few weeks, and with the forecast we've got now, that will only escalate. I hope it's warm enough to dry it out a bit too, because hiking in bogs and on flooded trails isn't very fun.

 

[WasatchWill]

Reading these conditions has me slightly concerned, especially for my 13 yo daughter. Will two weeks of hot and sun
produce signifiicantly better conditions? I'm hoping to be on King's July 8, coming up from Henry's Fork.

I have to echo what @Nick said. Based on pics from @Skiwi and another on facebook I saw who did Naturalist Basin this last weekend, it looked like a different world in just TWO DAYS after I was up there. TWO WEEKS of this hot, dry, sunny weather will be an eternity. I'm sure you'll have dry trails with only an occasional patch of isolated mud and no snow barriers.

 

[DrNed]

You can follow that page here if you want to watch for more updates: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Kings-Peak/169001923120140?fref=ts

Did it, thanks! What do you think of river crossings? That one doesn't concern me as much, but would like to be prepared if a serious ford is in store.

TWO WEEKS of this hot, dry, sunny weather will be an eternity. I'm sure you'll have dry trails with only an occasional patch of isolated mud and no snow barriers.

I checked the 10 day forecast and at least here in the valleys were going to hit hundreds all of next week. As others have said I kind of like a little bit of snow and I do want a challenge, just not one to exceed the ability of my teen agers.

 

[Devo]

I spent the night at Ruth lake with my kids last weekend and was surprised by the decent amount of mosquitoes already out. I bet this weekend will be full force.

 

[Parma]

place your bets, place your bets...I'm headed up to Grandaddy Basin this week (Wed-Sat).
What do you think...will it rain?
I'm thinking this will be my first multi-day Uintas trip without rain!
so rain or no rain?

 

[Nick]

place your bets, place your bets...I'm headed up to Grandaddy Basin this week (Wed-Sat).
What do you think...will it rain?
I'm thinking this will be my first multi-day Uintas trip without rain!
so rain or no rain?

Monsoon hasn't started yet. Clear forecast. No rain.

 

[DrNed]

place your bets, place your bets...I'm headed up to Grandaddy Basin this week (Wed-Sat).
What do you think...will it rain?
I'm thinking this will be my first multi-day Uintas trip without rain!
so rain or no rain?

Funny - I've been trying to get rained on. One of the first pieces of BP gear I bought was really nice Mountain Hardware shell - I think I'm around 17 nights in the Uintas and I've used it once.

 

[Nick]

Funny - I've been trying to get rained on. One of the first pieces of BP gear I bought was really nice Mountain Hardware shell - I think I'm around 17 nights in the Uintas and I've used it once.

Now you're asking for it! Have you seen the seasonal precip outlook?

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=1

 

[DrNed]

Now you're asking for it! Have you seen the seasonal precip outlook?

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=1

View attachment 31307

Ha! I just need clear, sunny weather on July 8, past that I can deal with it.