Glacier Mountaineering Society

Fri, Jun 26 2015 - Prairie Reef (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		Ralph Thornton
Participants:		Ralph Thornton, David Endebrock, Stacey Endebrock, Ron Gruber

Write Up:
I picked the hottest three day period of a hot summer for this outing. Temps hit the upper 90s the first two days and were reportedly over 100 during the hike out. Unfortunately this limited participation as there were several last minute drop outs. Fortunately the cold waters of the West Fork of the Sun River provided some relief. We casually hiked in the 11.5 miles to our camp on the West Fork Sun. After setting up camp everyone hit the river for a cool down. We started early the next morning trying to beat the heat and that helped on the ascent. David and Stacey searched for some snow to cool down but they only found one little dirty patch fairly high on the mountain. A nice breeze cooled us as we relaxed on the summit. Looking down from the summit into a big cirque at the head of Prairie Creek we spotted a herd of elk all laying on a big snowfield. They looked hotter than we were. The cows all lazed on the snow while many of the calves danced and froliced about. Go figure. Unfortunately not one of us had the smarts to photograph the elk. The hike down felt like we were in a furnace as the temps really got up there. Once again the West Fork of the Sun River provided some much needed relief.

Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Tim Anderson at twamontana@gmail.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.