JACKSON — On the afternoon of Oct. 15, Jen Fisher set out for a trail run from the Mill Creek Trailhead in Alta, killing time for the hour and 15 minutes her daughter would be at a piano lesson.

The weather looked ominous, but Fisher was obstinate about getting in some exercise.

“I knew the storm was coming and I was resigned to the fact that I might get wet,” Fisher said.

Getting wet would turn out to be the least of her worries.

About a mile and a half into the run, she heard, through her earbuds, something that sounded like a freight train and a large crack. Then came the hail. Then came the downed trees, on the trail and in the road. She could see 100-foot trees snapped in half on the hillside.

“There was a tree that was completely uprooted that was so big I couldn’t get my arms a

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