The first day, we hiked up the familiar Pine Creek trail and found a decent campsite about midway between Pine Lake and Upper Pine Lake just before sprinkles fell in roughly 15 minute intervals. We entered beautiful Granite Park the following day and set up camp at Lake 11575 just before a light shower which lasted about 20 minutes. From our campsite, we had pretty good views of Italy Pass and snowy Granite Bear Pass.
The next morning, we hiked to the top of Italy Pass, enjoyed the views and continued to Dancing Bear Pass while cumulous clouds gathered overhead, growing darker.
As we started to work our way up the pass, light rain began to fall so we paused to put on rain gear and continued on. Simultaneously, thunder rumbled, echoing loudly off the granite walls surrounding us, and the rain intensified so we returned to the base of the pass to wait out the storm, expecting it to pass in about 20 minutes as in previous days. After waiting over an hour in heavy rain and occasional pea-sized hail, the rain finally diminished and thunder calmed so we resumed our climb. About 120’ vertical from the top, hail and heavy rain began to fall again. Thunder followed lightning by 1-2 seconds. Again, we waited until the thunder subsided and finally made a dash to the top, crossing the plateau as quickly as we could. The views into Bear Lakes Basin was exquisite but my hands were too cold and wet to bother with photos and I wanted to get below as soon as possible. I did manage to take a few quick phone photos.
Top of Dancing Bear Pass
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