[pct-l] Prepared for weather

[Gary Wright]

On May 2, 2010, at 5:15 PM, Eric Lee wrote:
> 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.

Assuming that two or three years worth of data is sufficient to draw conclusions
regarding weather is really a bad idea.  I know that in 2006 there was a snow/
ice storm in late April in the Lagunas and I believe in 2005 thru-hikers ran
into cold rain in this area and 2005 was the year that John Donovan lost his
life on San Jacinto in a snow storm. Last year there was snow around Memorial
day that hit lots of hikers in the Big Bear and Wrightwood parts of the trail.
If I remember correctly in 2003 there were bad storms around San Jacinto during
thru-hiker season.

So 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2010 all had bad weather events in SoCal for
thru-hikers based on my memory alone.  I bet Weather Carrot could give us 
a more authoritative opinion but I don't think he is on PCT-L.

It seems to me that people are basing their gear decisions on incomplete data
or wishful thinking.

It would still be helpful to know if hikers are aware of this weather
history and choosing to ignore it or they are simply ignorant of the history
and so the information needs to be better disseminated.

The most alarming thing I've heard this year is that people shipped their
bad-weather gear ahead.  I can understand that some tents/gear might not
hold up well to a night of rain and snow and 50 MPH winds but that is better
than not having the gear at all!

Radar