Cold Weather

[balance]

Since I grew up in Michigan, dealing with cold and snow is something I'm comfortable with. I use a high R-value sleeping pad with a light weight bag, and supplement that with clothes as needed. The thing that bothers me is cold, windy rain up above tree line.

Sometimes I will take a layer that I wind up not using. That turned out to be fortunate last summer when my trusty old tent catastrophically failed on a cold rainy night. I was bundled up in everything I had, with a steady rain most of the time, sitting on a log and walking around all night.

It turned out to be not that bad. I actually dozed off a couple times sitting on that log. The thin little gold "tin foil" emergency blanket I carried around for years and never used made a big difference. I wore a Marmot Speed Light Shell, Smart wool top and bottom, light weight top, hooded synthetic fill jacket. Also, I wore my Patagonia rain pants, another item that rarely gets used and I often question why I carry it. Question answered.

I will miss my good old MSR Hubba. Good excuse to get that Zpacks Duplex I've been thinking about. By the way, if you lovely HST folks want to chip in together and donate $614 (includes the heavier Spruce Green cuben fiber) for the purchase of this tent, I will write a very, very nice gear review. I'll be waiting to hear from you!

[bobby49]

The thing that bothers me is cold, windy rain up above tree line.

Forty years ago when I first started taking outdoors first aid classes, they used to show a film that was named "By Nature's Ways." It depicted a small group of backpackers getting started at a trailhead. The sky was clear, and the birds were chirping. By the time they got halfway along, the sky was cloudy and the wind was coming up. By the time they got up high, the weather had really deteriorated and was now windy and rainy. The leader was very stubborn, though, so he kept leading the group higher and farther. Eventually, it was the leader who succombed to the bad weather and hypothermia. He had to be shoved into a tent to be warmed up in order to survive. What the leader did not recognize was that when you get hypothermic, good judgment is one of the first things to be lost.

It was a strong message back then forty years ago, and it still applies today.