Uintas Conditions 2019

Jackson said:
How were the mosquitoes up there, @Perry? Still recovering from the trauma of my last backpacking trip.
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You know... they have been pretty variable. This most recent trip they were not very bad. Numbers seemed low and they weren’t particularly aggressive. They were also different in different areas. Two weeks ago they were hungrier. Not sure I would say they are getting better just yet. All of my recent forays have had me moving pretty much all day long so they do bother me less. When I stopped by a water source for lunch Saturday they were only mildly bothersome.

I really hate wearing insect repellent and sun screen so I wear long sleeved shirts and long pants, gloves while I’m hiking. This helps keep my exposure quite low.

Play it safe and get a head net. I thought I would hate wearing one but it made things much nicer when they are bad.
 
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Good to know. I'll just go for it and hope for the best. Hopefully the continually warm weather we're having will keep drying things up and driving the bugs out!

I think I'd die in gloves and long sleeves, but I totally understand the sentiment. I'm really pale and have to wear sunscreen all the time. I only wear pants to hike so I don't have to put sunscreen on my legs, and I wear a hat with an attachment that covers my neck and shades my face pretty well, so my face only needs minimal suncreen. Arms and hands though, I have to hit those multiple times a day or else I get pretty good sunburns. Every summer, I usually end up with lines across my hands from the straps of my trekking poles.
 
Did my first backpack post-surgery to Island Lake west of the Crystal Lake/Trial Lake trailhead. It went pretty well but I am still way behind normal conditioning. The wildflowers were superb. I describe the bugs as "moderate". Not too bad really. The gnats and the flies were as bad as the mozzies. Bug juice on my hat made it unnecessary on my face and neck. A fine weekend in the mountains but very crowded.
 
Artemus said:
Did my first backpack post-surgery to Island Lake west of the Crystal Lake/Trial Lake trailhead. It went pretty well but I am still way behind normal conditioning. The wildflowers were superb. I describe the bugs as "moderate". Not too bad really. The gnats and the flies were as bad as the mozzies. Bug juice on my hat made it unnecessary on my face and neck. A fine weekend in the mountains but very crowded.
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So glad to hear you’re back at it!
 
I'm curious if anyone has ever been over any of the passes immediately south of either Amethyst Lake, Priord Lake, or Allsop Lake. Anyone have any experience doing that or heard of someone who has? Thanks to anyone with info!
 
Recent post on the High Uinta Lovers facebook page said that Dead Horse pass trail is free of snow.
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I'll give a brief update:
I started at the highline trailhead at 191 on 7/5. Meadows and parks were soaked, and water was somewhat scarce for the first couple days. I couldn't find the trail in the 2 miles leading to the Leidy Peak trailhead -- the cairns were either hidden by fast-growing trees or missing.

Leidy peak had some soft snowfields.
Gabbro Pass had a 100' hard snow crest. Looked worse than it was, but an ice axe felt more secure. microspikes and poles would have worked.

North pole pass had hip deep mashed potato snow that went on for a couple hundred yards. Incredibly slow and frustrating.

Anderson had a number of snow fields on the east side. Kings peak was mostly done on rocks; snow was pretty soft and most people did it without ice axes.

West side of Anderson had a number of frozen hard snow couloirs over the trail -- slip on one and you go down 60 feet to a cliff. I chopped steps. Eventually I glissaded down and found myself in a mostly non-melted-out basin walking about 50% time in thigh deep suncupped snow fields; the remainder was on wet muddy meadows.

Porcupine had similar issues -- a couple of coulouirs over cliffs. If I'd had a partner and a rope, I might have been able to go faster, but I thought it imprudent since I only saw people on the trail at Kings Peak.

After that, I exited at Moon Lake -- got sick of having my feet wet and cold all of the time, and I'd already walked nearly 100 miles -- didn't see the point of trying to hack my way across Red Knob / Dead Horse.

All in all, great hike, but I wish I'd done it slightly later or in a lower snow year.
 
nyhiker said:
I'll give a brief update:
I started at the highline trailhead at 191 on 7/5. Meadows and parks were soaked, and water was somewhat scarce for the first couple days. I couldn't find the trail in the 2 miles leading to the Leidy Peak trailhead -- the cairns were either hidden by fast-growing trees or missing.

Leidy peak had some soft snowfields.
Gabbro Pass had a 100' hard snow crest. Looked worse than it was, but an ice axe felt more secure. microspikes and poles would have worked.

North pole pass had hip deep mashed potato snow that went on for a couple hundred yards. Incredibly slow and frustrating.

Anderson had a number of snow fields on the east side. Kings peak was mostly done on rocks; snow was pretty soft and most people did it without ice axes.

West side of Anderson had a number of frozen hard snow couloirs over the trail -- slip on one and you go down 60 feet to a cliff. I chopped steps. Eventually I glissaded down and found myself in a mostly non-melted-out basin walking about 50% time in thigh deep suncupped snow fields; the remainder was on wet muddy meadows.

Porcupine had similar issues -- a couple of coulouirs over cliffs. If I'd had a partner and a rope, I might have been able to go faster, but I thought it imprudent since I only saw people on the trail at Kings Peak.

After that, I exited at Moon Lake -- got sick of having my feet wet and cold all of the time, and I'd already walked nearly 100 miles -- didn't see the point of trying to hack my way across Red Knob / Dead Horse.

All in all, great hike, but I wish I'd done it slightly later or in a lower snow year.
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Been quite the year! Thanks for the update.
 
FYI, I hiked over Dead Horse Pass over the weekend, and you do cross small snowfields 3 times. One of them makes the trail a little difficult to follow/see ahead of you. But there are some cairns and you can spot the trail far enough ahead to keep you on track.
 
I'd appreciate seeing some actual temps w/altitude or location as we head into September.
My fall trip, which had already been shortened and limited to the 3rd week of September, may get pushed into October, as recovery from a SI joint injury has been taking longer than I'd hoped.
Definitely ok with lower temps(much preferred!), really just curious about when snow might become an issue.
 
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