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Avoiding Lightning at Alta July 4
Storms have been pretty rowdy in the Wasatch for the past few days. Much lightning, thunder and rain with a smattering of hail as well. On July 3, my wife and I went for a quick backpack up at Alta. We stayed right on the Baldy ridge between Snowbird and Alta so we had a view of the valley floor all the way to the Oquirrh Mountains. The sky was clear but around 2am a bolt woke us both up, despite being very far away. One look at the radar on my iphone told us that we should pack up and head down for a less exposed place.
It started raining as we were finishing and as we were hiking down to the Watson Shelter, there was lightning all around. We ended up setting up our tent on the concrete with a nice outside roof over our heads and watched the show for a few hours. It was intense until about 4am and then just rained till about 7am. I was proud of our decision making even though we had gotten caught out there. We knew exactly where we were going in advance because we scoped it on the way up.
I love adventures like this as long as you end up safe. 40% chance of thunderstorms turned into one of the most intense storms the area has seen in months. Incidentally, it looks like the other ranges in the West are seeing similar storms. I was planning to head to the San Juans in CO this weekend but they also had 50% chance of thunderstorms. Stay safe out there and look for your safety spots on the way up.
Superior on the way up.
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Looking down Little Cottonwood Canyon
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Made it down to Watson Shelter where we spent the rest of the night. This is the sky lit up with lightning and I light painted the wall with my headlamp.
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Nice and sunny the next morning
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Breakfast in the clear air
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July 5 at Guardsman Pass - more storms coming. Drove through much rain and lightning on the way down canyon.
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