Agreed with previous poster. Acclimation was logistically not an option due to a combination of work and weddings to attend. We flew down Tuesday night, drove up Wednesday morning and started hiking. 4 of us were fine with elevation and two were not.
As far as warm gear half of us were prepared for rain half were not. The real issue was the timing. We definitely felt that if we got there 10 minutes earlier we would have been fine. We got to trail camp and opened our bags or unpack at almost the exact moment the storm hit. It was a combination of maybe a slight deficit in appropriate gear and very poor timing.
I was exhausted when I posted my report and haven't read it since. I hope I didn't make it sound like conditions were impossible to deal with. It seems the average person on here asking questions is not experienced (or about the same experience level as we are) so my intention was to encourage people to be prepared, not to cancel their trips. I hope that is the message received.
I had a typo in my original post and can't figure out how to edit from my phone. As soon as we removed water resistant layers from bags/humans weather took a turn for the worse, not better. I want to emphasize the timing of the weather was our downfall not the weather itself. Good luck summitteers and congrats to those who made it!
