Monsoon Backpackers

SKLund

SKLund

Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2016
Messages
459
How do you feel about hiking in rainy season. I hate it and am trying to get used to it. I'm from CA where the Sierra's are the go to location and wild, wet weather is not a daily thing like it is in the Rocky's. I got chased out of the Wimenuche this month when my gear got completely soaked by an instant downpour. One minute sun, the next deluge.

Do you do it or sit it out til September?
 
I carry a tarp and sit under it with all my gear until the deluge is gone, if it's just a short storm. If it lasts a day or so, I'll pitch my tent and hunker down. If it lasts longer, I call my Hopi friend and have him do a reverse rain dance for me. If I wait long enough, it always works.

But I can't tell you all the times I packed into the San Juans and ended up slogging home in wet waterproof boots crying uncle. The nice thing is you get to see waterfalls where they don't normally exist.
 
Like Rockskipper I always carry a tarp. Most of the time it is for shade but it shelters against rain too, that and a good rain poncho.

But in monsoon weather we stay away from the mountains unless there is a multi day lull. Been through that too much over the decades, horrendous lightening and copious rain. Once we were caught up in it for 3 and a half days and nights. We mostly do long dayhikes into wilderness in the summer months, get up early for that to beat the heat.
 
For me, the amount of multi-day or overnight backpacking goes down and I just opt for long day-hikes that I start very early. I have the equipment to sit out rain storms, but the idea of camping in rain just is not that thrilling.
 
Most excellent responses. I started carrying a poncho as well as full rain gear. Unfortunately the rain soaked through my 9 year old rain jacket. I just sprayed a dose of ReviveX on it so we'll see. My partner on the trip wanted to keep going. He is an extremely hard core dude at 64 years old.

My biggest hassle with all of this is my coffin of a one man tent which gets very tiresome being bound in for hours and then again at night. Hence the poncho to sit out the storm in.

Another hassle which I forgot to mention is that it is a bad idea to camp high and that greatly limits your choices.
 
It sucks and I can't wait for it to be over. That said, while there's been clouds we've had no afternoon storms for about a week now so I'm hoping it's winding down.
 
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As a student, it's when I have the most time to get out, so I just go headlong into it and enjoy it. Even if I weren't in school, I don't think it would be worth it to me to wait until September and October. That cuts the mountain backpacking season pretty much in half.

In most of my experiences, the storms have come sometime between early afternoon and dusk, so I make a point of covering most of my mileage earlier in the day. If the weather is good by the time 1 or 2 p.m. rolls around, I can go farther. I may have just gotten lucky with weather up to this point though. I'm not sure.
 
I have pretty good luck starting early each day and getting camp setup before the afternoon storms. I plan my trips around this cycle and it has worked out well for me.
 
slc_dan said:
I rather enjoy sitting in my pyramid style tent in a big rainstorm.
Click to expand...

Agreed. A nice roomy mid is a great place to enjoy a storm. Tiny cramped tent, on the other hand, is definitely a bummer.

Jackson said:
As a student, it's when I have the most time to get out, so I just go headlong into it and enjoy it. Even if I weren't in school, I don't think it would be worth it to me to wait until September and October. That cuts the mountain backpacking season pretty much in half.

In most of my experiences, the storms have come sometime between early afternoon and dusk, so I make a point of covering most of my mileage earlier in the day. If the weather is good by the time 1 or 2 p.m. rolls around, I can go farther. I may have just gotten lucky with weather up to this point though. I'm not sure.
Click to expand...

Agreed again. I get out when I can year round and roll with whatever, though I'll admit I've spent most of my summer backpacking in the desert over the past couple years and there's few joys in life as good as a canyon country deluge in August.

Photographin' is usually better with some spicy weather as well...
 
I just got back from a two day trip to Latir Wilderness way up North in NM. I had a chance to learn more monsoon lessons in spades.:cold: This time time we were hit by a one hour hail and rain deluge before we had a chance to reach our campsite or find shelter other than standing under the trees in our rain gear. We were slowly going hypothermic (i know I was) After about 45 minutes we moved to find a camp site the trip organizer knew about but could not find. We found it around the time the rain let up and were able to stagger around setting up our tents finally. A few of us had all their clothing soaked through. One guy was on the verge of calling it quits.

Of course the next day everything dried out by the afternoon and we were able to make our peak climb. This whole experience gave me an opportunity to examine the circumstances that keep you out of trouble. It is a procedure and it's how I will do it during Monsoon Season:

-Rain pants on from the get go with a pair of long underwear under that. Pants in the pack.
-If you are starting late, keep an eye out for campsites that you can set up and shelter in place if rain hits. Do this even if you take down and move on later when it clears.
-Get up good and early to get the day's agenda done before afternoon.
-Take extra clothing in case the main set gets soaked.
-Don't stand around in the rain unless you are fully covered and layered. Hypothermia starts sooner goes faster in wet conditions.
 
This isn't a backpacking story, but rather MTBing, but illustrates what SKLund writes above. It was April and I was riding the White Rim with some friends. Got to Potato Bottom, where we had a reservation for the night, when it started pouring. We quickly set up our tents then hopped into our support vehicle (an old Jeep Cherokee) to try to sit it out. My friends were geologists, except one, who was a nurse, and they all started drinking beer, which I've been told is restorative for geology types, as they're an alcohol-based life form. But I'm not much of a drinker and got tired of sitting there and hiked to the top of a nearby mesa and found a whole field of Moki Marbles, but that's another story.

It was getting on to dusk (and much colder) when we saw a vehicle sliding its way down the big hill there. By the time we'd set up a betting pool on whether they would make it down or go off the edge, they came driving into camp. It was a ranger there to inform us they were shutting down the road and to stay at this camp until further notice, even though we had reservations for the next two nights at Murphy's Hogback and Gooseberry. By then it was lightly snowing and darn cold. The White Rim is very sandy but also has a lot of clay in places where one can sink up to their axles, especially along the Green.

We hunkered down in the Jeep for a bit longer, then hunger overcame us, so we built a small fire and started making spaghetti. The nice thing about mountain biking with support is it's kind of like rafting - you can bring all kinds of good food and junk (like cases of beer, if you're into geology). We finally went to bed, tired.

We spent the next day again hunkered down as it poured rain, though it had started out like it was going to clear off. FInally, it was almost totally dark when we saw a half-dozen Tolkeinesque forms coming in the gloaming and pushing what appeared to be bike-shaped mud things with gummed-up wheels.

It was the group riding the opposite way from us who had reserved Potato Bottom for that night. I have no idea why they had continued after the ranger said not to, but here they came. Their support vehicle was nowhere to be found. These poor people were in various stages of hypothermia, chattering teeth and all that, most wearing shorts and pathetic nylon wind jackets and soaking wet. We got the remainder of the wood we'd brought and built a big fire (probably illegal), got them next to it, while our nurse friend made them drink hot tea. We put them in the Jeep for awhile with the heater on, but worried about running out of gas, as we'd already sat in it a bunch with the engine running.

Well, finally it stopped snowing/raining, we got them into our extra dry clothes, everyone warmed up, and we all doubled up with what supplies we had and made it through the night, though it was pretty uncomfortable. We bid them farewell the next day, when a different ranger returned and told us we could continue.

We had to stay on schedule, which meant riding all the way to Gooseberry, but we were just glad we were there for those other riders, as there's no way they would've made it through the night. We passed their support vehicle stuck in the mud and managed to pull him out. Ironically, the group we'd helped told us while sitting around the fire that they actually had all kinds of rain and cold-weather gear, but it was in their support vehicle. :D

TL-DR: Helped people with hypothermia.
 
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