MadRiver
New member
Since it is a slow day at work and the campus is filled with visiting parents and potential students, my mind is harkening northward towards the peaks of the White Mountains, so I thought I would ask a simple question. As someone who tends to over pack in anticipation of a worse case scenario, I have often wondered what others do in similar situations. To make it easy, let us use Mt. Washington as our example.
Whenever I decide to venture out and hike to the summit, I carry enough gear that will sustain me if the weather takes a turn for the worse. Obviously, I do not bring a sleeping bag, snowshoes, crampons, or an ice axe on a lovely summer day, for the chances of a freak blizzard in August is negligible. I do, however, bring foul weather gear, extra gloves/mittens, extra fleece, and a few odds and ends that would make a quick shelter if the need arises. I have it down to a science so I do not think twice about what I am carrying.
Inevitable, I will encounter along the way a legion of hikers ill prepared for even the slightest change in the weather as they head to the summit in their finest summer attire unaware that a swift change in the weather could spell disaster. Yet, 9 times out of 10, these ill prepared hikers will make it to the summit and back not needing anything other than their cashmere sweaters that hang stylishly around their necks. I, myself, have had to use my complete foul weather gear only twice in all the times I have hiked Washington. Occasionally I will put on an extra layer or a pair of gloves or lend a child my gloves because the parent didn’t think he or she needed gloves since the weather at the base was in the 80’s. But only twice have I had to hunker down and wait out a storm.
An evil part of me wishes that just once I could encounter a group of ill prepared hikers heading to the summit just as the weather takes a turn for the worse. I’m not talking severe weather, just a stray lighting bolt in the distance, or a sudden gust of wind coupled with a 20 degree temperature change. Nothing apocalyptic, just a slap up side the head to get their attention. I know this is evil, petty, vindictive, and childish, but what the Hell, it’s Friday and I am bored.
Whenever I decide to venture out and hike to the summit, I carry enough gear that will sustain me if the weather takes a turn for the worse. Obviously, I do not bring a sleeping bag, snowshoes, crampons, or an ice axe on a lovely summer day, for the chances of a freak blizzard in August is negligible. I do, however, bring foul weather gear, extra gloves/mittens, extra fleece, and a few odds and ends that would make a quick shelter if the need arises. I have it down to a science so I do not think twice about what I am carrying.
Inevitable, I will encounter along the way a legion of hikers ill prepared for even the slightest change in the weather as they head to the summit in their finest summer attire unaware that a swift change in the weather could spell disaster. Yet, 9 times out of 10, these ill prepared hikers will make it to the summit and back not needing anything other than their cashmere sweaters that hang stylishly around their necks. I, myself, have had to use my complete foul weather gear only twice in all the times I have hiked Washington. Occasionally I will put on an extra layer or a pair of gloves or lend a child my gloves because the parent didn’t think he or she needed gloves since the weather at the base was in the 80’s. But only twice have I had to hunker down and wait out a storm.
An evil part of me wishes that just once I could encounter a group of ill prepared hikers heading to the summit just as the weather takes a turn for the worse. I’m not talking severe weather, just a stray lighting bolt in the distance, or a sudden gust of wind coupled with a 20 degree temperature change. Nothing apocalyptic, just a slap up side the head to get their attention. I know this is evil, petty, vindictive, and childish, but what the Hell, it’s Friday and I am bored.
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