[pct-l] Prepared for weather

[Eric Lee]

Radar wrote:
>
I would be curious to understand more about how hikers find themselves
unprepared.  Is it because they never got the message about weather in SoCal
this time of year or is because they choose to ignore or discount the
message?
>

To be fair, the spring weather in SoCal over the past several years has been
very kind to people with super-ultralight gear.  Aside from a couple of
freak storms, it's largely worked out fine for everyone.  It's no surprise
that people learned that skimping on gear is ok.

(By "ultralight", I'm not indicting any particular piece of gear but rather
the philosophy that gets people into situations where their skill plus their
equipment is not equal to the conditions.) 

This year is very different.  Frankly, I don't know how my own kit would
have held up out there this year and I'm not ultralight, merely lightweight
(about 14 pounds or so).  For the past several years I've regularly carried
a tarp or a tarptent and I would have felt very comfortable packing that for
SoCal but I wouldn't have expected the kinds of conditions I'm reading
about; 50 mph swirling winds, 30-40 degrees, horizontal rain and snow,
blowing sand and mud, etc.  That's crazy.

I've been thinking for a few years that my homemade tarptent isn't
particularly stormworthy.  Living in Seattle I think about storms a lot.
Earlier this year I decided to upgrade to a pyramid-type shelter which
should do much better in seriously bad weather for not much additional
weight.  Based on what I'm hearing about out there I'm glad I made that
change.

I guess it remains to be seen whether the weather is returning to its
historical normal patterns or whether this is a freak occurrence.

Eric