Got caught in a nasty hailstorm on the Highline Trail in Glacier

I was about 8 miles into the Highline Trail near Logan Pass last August when the sky just turned this weird green color out of nowhere. Before I could even pull out my rain jacket, these marble-sized hail pieces started hammering down on me. My ultralight tent wasn't going to cut it and there were no trees up there for shelter, so I threw my pack over my head and ran for a rocky overhang I spotted about 200 feet ahead. I huddled under there for 45 minutes while the hail piled up around my ankles and soaked through my boots completely. When it finally stopped, the trail was a slippery mess of mud and ice chunks, and I had to shuffle down sideways for the next 3 miles to avoid falling. Has anyone else gotten caught in sudden weather like that with no good backup plan?

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jenniferb534mo ago

Got caught in a similar storm on a ridge in Colorado and had to dig a snow cave with my hands.

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david7394mo ago

That bare hands part is what gets me. People don't realize how fast your heat gets sucked out once your gloves are wet and you're digging into frozen snow.

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christopher4024mo ago

Laid into digging a snow cave with my bare hands once too, @jenniferb53, but it was more of a sad little hole than a cave. My fingers were so numb I could barely feel the ice, and I ended up with a pile of snow that looked like a half-baked igloo built by a toddler. Definitely not my finest moment, but hey, at least I didn't freeze my butt off waiting for rescue.

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