I’m going to start this blog by drawing some skepticism to the fact that 12-18″ of snow fell in an hour just outside of Salt Lake City, but I guess it isn’t impossible for that much snow to fall in such little time. Most I’ve ever seen was 5-6″ in one hour. I can’t imagine how scary it would be to be caught in a storm dumping over a foot an hour…
NBC News reported that more than 80 ultra-marathoners had to be rescued in Davis County, Utah on Saturday after 12-18″ of snow fell on the Wasatch Mountains in an hour.
The runners were competing in the DC Peaks 50, an ultra-marathon that takes pits runners against 12,000 vertical feet of ascent across a 50 mile course. Here’s a map of the course for reference:
The Davis County Sherriff’s reported that everybody was rescued by 2:45PM on Saturday, and that only a few runners were treated for hypothermia and minor injuries.
I don’t know what would possess anybody to run 50 miles across 12,000′ of vertical in any conditions. I’m even more dumbfounded that these runners wanted to start the race knowing it was going to snow! I’m sure they didn’t expect it to absolutely dump like it did, but still! These ultra-marathoners are absolutely crazy, and I’m just glad that everybody was okay.
Check out these videos from the race. Absolutely bonkers.
Video from Davis County Sherriff’s Office of Search & Rescue Crews:
