Monroe 2/17/2014 Holy Wind!!

[marysgirl]

We left the parking lot late, 11:00am, the weather report said the wind and temp would be better after lunch. The ammo trail was a dream!! It was packed down beautifully, at the start of the steep trail we ran into a nice woman who said she made it to the hut, just barely, without getting blown away. She said it was too much for her so she left. We figured she was light and that the summit weather had said it would calm 10mph after lunch so we would be good. We made it to just about where the trees were getting sparce and ran into two Canadians who had full suits and goggles and masks and said the wind was too much for them that they tried but were getting blown sideways. We still kept going, I guess we had to see for ourselves!! As we were getting more exposed it was getting quite obvious what they were talking about, we went to the hut anyway and the last couple of steps to the building were sideways, we tucked around the corner out of the wind (but not out of the cold) and put on another layer and quickly decided to NOT try to go any further. We did not pass anyone on the way down, if we tried to warn them they probably would have went on just like we did anyway!!

 

[Ed Poyer]

Hi:
That trail packing was done by my group of 4 from the Narragansett Chapter on Saturday. We slept very well...
Ed

 

[Driver8]

We left the parking lot late, 11:00am, the weather report said the wind and temp would be better after lunch. The ammo trail was a dream!! It was packed down beautifully, at the start of the steep trail we ran into a nice woman who said she made it to the hut, just barely, without getting blown away. She said it was too much for her so she left. We figured she was light and that the summit weather had said it would calm 10mph after lunch so we would be good. We made it to just about where the trees were getting sparce and ran into two Canadians who had full suits and goggles and masks and said the wind was too much for them that they tried but were getting blown sideways. We still kept going, I guess we had to see for ourselves!! As we were getting more exposed it was getting quite obvious what they were talking about, we went to the hut anyway and the last couple of steps to the building were sideways, we tucked around the corner out of the wind (but not out of the cold) and put on another layer and quickly decided to NOT try to go any further. We did not pass anyone on the way down, if we tried to warn them they probably would have went on just like we did anyway!!

I had a similar experience with the Ammo Ravine on 5/12/12 - Obs forecast was for medium winds, 40-ish gust at the summit in the pm, and they turned out to be about double that at 4 pm at the Lakes Hut, which I hid behind for a bit before bidding the hasty retreat most everyone ahead of me had done. A bracing introduction to the weather's mercurial character there. ... Beautiful place.