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Rain/thunderstorns this week
#32060 06/30/13 10:16 PM
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 69
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Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 69
Pretty crummy-looking forecast this week:

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php...75#.UceSaol5mc0

How much should we allow the forecast to alter our plans for a July 4th start? We have no experience in exposed areas above treeline. We're headed to Horseshoe Meadow/Cottonwood Lakes on Tues the 2nd for acclimation, then the Portal on the 3rd. Trail Camp on the 4th & 5th (we were planning to summit on the 5th). In "One Best Hike", Elizabeth Wenk says that since the area between the upper switchbacks & the summit is very exposed & has no real escape route, she recommends avoiding the area if there's any possibility of lightning. Would a good plan be to get to TC early on the 4th, since "a chance of thunderstorms" would probably come in the afternoon? Or should we scrap a summit bid altogether & just cruise around the lower, less-exposed altitudes? Thoughts?

Last edited by NoUglyOneYet; 06/30/13 10:48 PM.
Re: Rain/thunderstorns this week
NoUglyOneYet #32062 06/30/13 10:41 PM
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,261
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There are many more experienced technicians than I when it comes to hiking Whitney, however, I can offer you some basic advice:

1. Welcome to the "season", July begins the thunderstorms followed up by the more serious late July/August 'monsoon' (the usual trough of moist air that comes up from the south.) Any hiking for the next two months brings a higher chance of encountering storms.

2. Conditions are more favourable for storms from 1pm+ so an early summit lessens the chance of an encounter.

3. Thunderstorms higher up can mean flash floods down below, so an early summit does not necessarily get you out of the woods as far as trouble goes.

4. Your most powerful tool is common sense; if the sky is forming up, chances are that a decision should be made early on -- not after the hail begins to fall.

5. A desirable "Plan B" makes it so much easier to bail (rather than obsessing about all the lost time, money, effort, yadda, yadda, yadda)

6. The best "Plan B" I ever implimented -- aborted SF Bay Kayaking trip -- was sitting in a restaurant overlooking the bay and watching the consequences of everyone else's bad decisions (whilst I ate chowder and sipped beverages)





The body betrays and the weather conspires, hopefully, not on the same day.
Re: Rain/thunderstorns this week
Bee #32064 06/30/13 10:52 PM
Joined: Sep 2009
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The extreme heat wave over Calif is the weather pattern that brings thunder and rain to the Sierra. Good luck.

If you are camped at Trail Camp, get up as early as possible, start for the summit at or before 6 AM. Leave the summit by 10 AM.

If thunderheads are forming by the time you reach trail Crest on the way up, it would be wise to turn around.

Many people continue to the summit in the face of hail and thunder. It is amazing more don't die in those conditions.

Re: Rain/thunderstorns this week
Steve C #32065 07/01/13 02:55 AM
Joined: Oct 2009
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Don't forget that the weather to the west is hidden behind the Crest - you might not see it until you reach Trail Crest.


Verum audaces non gerunt indusia alba. - Ipsi dixit MCMLXXII
Re: Rain/thunderstorns this week
wagga #32070 07/01/13 10:32 AM
Joined: Sep 2009
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I never call off a trip for weather but I don't do stupid either.

Many moons ago, we backpacked out to Long Lake with the idea of doing Cirque Peak that day. When we arrived at the Lake, we heard "crack-boom". No summit that day, we were stuck on east side. As we sat around camp during the storm, we saw a guy with shorts and t-shirt running down the trail from High Lake being pelted by hail.

The following day we were up to and off the mountain be 8 AM, and were being rained on as we broke down camp before noon. And there were many big "crack-booms" as we motored through the South Fork Drainage back to Horseshoe Meadow.

You may have to alter your plans to deal with the weather and you may not reach your planned on destination but you will have a worthwhile trip whatever it ends up being...as long as you are prepared for the worst.


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