I was cold as hell at about 55 degrees. Woke up at 5 and made a fire to stay warm.
I was cold as hell at about 55 degrees. Woke up at 5 and made a fire to stay warm.
Seems to me that us low landers can easily forget how cool the mountains can be while we're roasting at home.
*Heaven best have trees, because I plan to lounge for eternity.
Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement. - Mark Twain
Trail name: Radar
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Dale Gribble: I'm thinking, "new hammock." For me, laying and swaying in a hammock is like a steady morphine drip without the risk of renal failure.
Randy : yea but just remember yer roots and where ya come from....you got Hennessy in yer blood son......
I feel your pain.
I went out last winter with too thin of a top quilt - spent a miserable night.
Mike
"Life is a Project!"
We do not learn by our successes, only by our failures.
Took a road trip last summer, expecting blistering heat the majority of the trip. I think I was wearing every article of clothing I had brought, including the crazy pink hat I found during the trip and froze my butt off in my summer sleeping bag with no underquilt when it dropped to near freezing at night in Tuolumne Meadows. Exhaustion was working with me to help me sleep through the night, but man will I never make that mistake again.
Been there and done that! I finally learned to- most of the time I remember anyway- be prepared for that 3.5-5*F per thousand feet dif, assuming both mountain and valley under the same weather system. The 3.5F per thousand for when it is precipitating, the 5F per thousand for those clear nights.
Course, this is not bomb proof, because there are other weather variables The mountains seem to make their own weather. And a front can be on either side of the mountain, with huge temp difs on each side of the front. And then there are the inversions. One night when I lived in Flagstaff, AZ it was minus 23F. I called the Snowbowl Ski resort 2500 feet higher up the mountain, just trying to imagine what the temps were. But to my amazement, it was only minus 16! Inversion, heavy cold air sinking! There were reports of minus 40 in some deep valley- but still high elevation- neighborhoods outside of town. I arrived in Phoenix in Oct 1970, and was very surprised to need a blanket that night. The following Jan 7th, AZ set her official all time low temp of minus 41 at Hawley Lake at a mere 8180 feet. I remember it was pretty darn cold in Phoenix, well below freezing, but I can't remember exact temps. Still, it is obvious here that there was AT least a 60F dif with a 7000 ft dif in elevation, so 8.5F per thousand feet or more. Maybe the "urban heat sink" effect or a front accounted for the extreme difference.
Still, on average, over a long time of comparing my temps in Flagstaff to Phoenix(~ 150 miles away) or the Snowbowl Ski resort(~ 15 miles away?), the above formula was dead on more often than not. So a low of 70 in 1100 ft Phoenix could mean a low of 49 for those Flagstaff campers at 7000 ft if it was raining, or a low of 40 on clear nights. Or a low of 50 in the lowlands meant 20 in Flagstaff. Course, if you are up at 9500 or 11000 feet, adjust accordingly!
Last edited by BillyBob58; 08-09-2011 at 16:30.
Last Aug. 18th,,snowed on us in Yellowstone,,then Oct 15th or so,,snowed 4 inches or more in Smokies from a elevation of about 2500' and up..the higher you went,,the deeper the snow..be prepared and take it all with you. In the mountains,,anything goes!
This reminds me of my first, innocently ignorant hammock camping days. September on the Olympic Peninsula, before I was even aware of the idea of something under me besides my bag. 20 degree rated sleeping bag, no UQ or pad, in the 40s with a HH Ultralight Expedition Asym. There's nothing like cold hammock discomfort. Now looking to get back into some cool weather camping, shopping TQs and UQs. The more you know. Thanks HF!
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