Uintas Conditions 2015

Nick said:
That doesn't ring a bell but I just might not have the dots all connected, where exactly is it?
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You pass tungsten lake and North Star lake and the next pass is porcupine followed by red nob
 
Ah, okay. I know of Porcupine Pass, didn't know of Porcupine Meadows. The only time I've spent over that way was coming over Wilson Pass from Red Castle then heading west and then up over Squaw Pass.
 
The high meadows between porcupine pass and the forest where you drop in to the drainage and then head northwest to Red Knob I think are called Lambert meadows. One of my favorite places in the Uintas. That is where I got air dropped in for the SAR for the missing Australian just after I finished the crossing.
 
When I crossed through there it was badly torn up by over 2000' head of sheep. I know the number because we met the Ecuadoran shepherds and spoke to them. That part was depressing.
 
Lambert meadows it is! It was awesome! That day we did Anderson pass, summited king, did tungsten pass and porcupine in one day. We can down porcupine exhausted and hiked down a few miles on on the south side and found some old trapper cashe cabins. You see those langutah?
 
Was that the last place that Australian was seen or something?
 
Mullet said:
Lambert meadows it is! It was awesome! That day we did Anderson pass, summited king, did tungsten pass and porcupine in one day. We can down porcupine exhausted and hiked down a few miles on on the south side and found some old trapper cashe cabins. You see those langutah?
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Yes I think I saw the remains of the cabins. South of the center of the main drainage in a sparse tree stand just below treeline (going left off the trail as you travel west)? I'd kind of forgotten them until you mentioned it. Did you see sheep or the overgrazed, dung heap remains? Might have been too early in the season.
 
Mullet said:
Was that the last place that Australian was seen or something?
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Well it is a long story documented here somewhere. Shortening... we became aware he was lost during our traverse. We happened upon his friends looking for him near Red Knob. I came out and rested two days and then drove to the Moon Lake SAR informal heliport area and helped the sheriff's SAR guys with the search grid since I had just walked the whole thing. They were appreciative because their folks were used to looking for lost boy scouts near the trailhead and had little knowledge of the ground above treeline. Once we got the rest of their teams flown in I told them I was ready to fly in for a few days and search because I had resupplied and rested and was ready to help. They declined my offer because I was solo. I told them Lambert Meadows (in the forested areas) was the place where the trail and the signage was in the worst shape, partially due to the sheep, and that it needed further recon instead of just flyovers. When they declined I told them I was walking in and that it was stupid since I would waste a day in and a day out and have only one of my three days to search. They begrudgingly flew me in with two deputies ostensibly since I was now "accompanied". They dropped the three of us and we walked around for an hour waiting on their ride back. They were amazed that I would stay in there by myself. Scared of bears and ??? I told them there was nothing to be afraid of and they should come back. They tried talking me out of it but ultimately ended up flying back out leaving me to look for sign myself for a few days. No joy. Amazingly, I ran into a few friends on my long, tired trudge out who got flown in that day and were ultra-running on thier own volunteer SAR. The community of us Uinta-ers really rose up to look for that guy.
 
langutah said:
Yes I think I saw the remains of the cabins. South of the center of the main drainage in a sparse tree stand just below treeline (going left off the trail as you travel west)? I'd kind of forgotten them until you mentioned it. Did you see sheep or the overgrazed, dung heap remains? Might have been too early in the season.
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Ya that's it. Nope, no sheep, glad too. That's crazy about that guy. I wonder where he ended up
 
JoshuaDyal said:
I was there; it's not free of snow. It looked passable without too much trouble, but there was still a fair bit of snow visible on the pass last week.
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We passed it last week and there was only one section that we had to pass some snow up to our knees. The tricky thing was that it was so warm and wet that it was a mud slide and a little scary going up
 
Exactly why I didn't climb too high up it. I was with my noobie 13 year old son, and we didn't have ice axes, crampons, or any other gear for snow. My initial plan was to go over Red Knob Pass and see Crater Lake, and then also go over Dead Horse Pass to see NE Rock Creek Basin. I ended up bailing on both in favor of lazing away an afternoon at camp and coming back out of the mountains a little earlier so we could go see Fantasy Canyon and the 4th in Vernal.
 
langutah said:
Yes I think I saw the remains of the cabins. South of the center of the main drainage in a sparse tree stand just below treeline (going left off the trail as you travel west)? I'd kind of forgotten them until you mentioned it. Did you see sheep or the overgrazed, dung heap remains? Might have been too early in the season.
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Has anybody seen sheep in any of the basins yet? Nothing in upper Lake Fork (between porkie pass and Lambert Meadow), East Fork Blacks Fork, Henrys Fork, or anywhere else that I know of. Anybody been up in Middle Basin?

Lake Fork is a lot nicer without a lot of bahhhhh-ing around you!

K1CLB55.jpg
 
Fortunately high pressure building for the weekend so chin up and go out. :twothumbs:
 
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Just got back late last night - I've got a few stories to tell in regards to monsoon season . . . :help:
 
Nick said:
Does that mean you finally got some rain in the Uintas?
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The ironic thing is we almost got as much hail/snow as rain, but yes we did! Don't want to give away too much
before submitting TR, but we had what I consider my scariest mountain experience on Kings Wednesday afternoon.
 
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