A day to myself-a day to remember

You ever need a day to yourself-to be in your own mind? Well I do, and I had the urge to get up at 3am and go for a glacier ski in the park. Great sunrise, alright turns, but I needed to be alone, think, and get my hike on!

I was back at my car by 10:30am, but as I was hiking down, bumped into some hikers that said there was a missing woman on the Middle Teton (which i was skiing under and saw the helis out) (seeing helis in the park is NEVER good). I kept hiking and a storm started brewing...when i say storm, i mean a barreling thunder/lightning storm that was shaking the ground. I was at my car before the rain hit me, but man it took over the entire park! As I drove back to town, I see people pulled over watching the lightning storm show.

There were 16 people trying to summit the Grand (different parties) when the storm came. They were not paying attention to the weather and thought that it would pass them. A: this angers me b/c-it never passes the Tetons. Those peaks are magnets for bad weather. B: They obviously didn't do their research weather prior to entering park-bad form for any mountaineer.

(the most important trait for a mountaineer-humbleness and humility
-humbleness for letting those mountains win every time-they are bigger and will gobble up anyone they so choose if they aren't respectful
-humility to not summit something. Just because you are more than half way doesn't mean you should push through and summit-bad feeling=TURN AROUND. Live to summit another day...shit it took me 3 tries to summit the Grand in a summer!

that's my rant!!

Anyway...the storm hit and search and rescue stopped searching for lost woman on Middle to rescue the groups on Grand. All were rescued except for one boy...who was shot with lightning while on rope and the rope exploded and he fell to his death. Others were electrocuted but maintained until they were helicoptered off===the Biggest Rescue in TETON HISTORY!!

Please don't worry about me-I'm confident in my skills, guts and FEAR!! Fear keeps me alive! My guts make the final decisions and my skills allow me to execute the moves required to stay safe and move efficiently!