A cautionary tale

[IntrepidXJ]

A little surprised this happened to someone who posts on here quite a bit , and gives advise to a lot folks.

Just remember, the people who post the most are not always the ones you should be listening to...

[cottonmountaineering]

im pretty sure in OPs case he lives out of state which causes no flexibility with the weather

[mtree]

It just goes to show no matter how much you THINK you're prepared, are you really? Your knowledge and preparation is naturally influenced and limited by your real life experiences. Your equipment also isn't fail safe. There are limitations and you best know what they are. Rain gear is a great example. No matter what it is, if you're in the rain long enough, you're gonna get wet. That's a guarantee.

Finally, yes, the advice on this site is highly opinionated and not usually objective. Some is sound. Some is folly. What works for one person may be a total fail for another. There are the alarmist viewpoints and there are the naive ones. And there are also lots of them based on unsound or mythical science. Alot of folks just don't want to be wrong and never back down from an idiotic idea. So pick your poison wisely.

In the end, we all make mistakes. Hopefully we live to tell about them.

[pvnisher]

Camping in the rain is terribly difficult.
I would rather be in cold and snow than cool and rain.
So hard to stay dry, and once you're wet it's quite difficult to get dry, if not impossible.

I've done some rain camping and even with preparation (fly pre attached, large vestibule, camp towels, sandals, bringing dryer lines for inside the tent), it was still just a wet soggy mess after one day and night.

Glad it turned out ok.

[DeTour]

rperth wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 7:42 am
A little surprised this happened to someone who posts on here quite a bit , and gives advise to a lot folks.
Just remember, the people who post the most are not always the ones you should be listening to...

But not at all surprising to have smug superior jerks jump into the postmortem with criticism. Yes, some serious errors made which are obvious in hindsight. And yes they should have been obvious in the moment. But a person can compile some experience in some areas and have holes in their understanding of others - like camping in bad conditions. Maybe the reason OP had this gap in his knowledge was, aside from never experiencing it, he had never encountered anyone telling their story of how bad it can get. So he told his story for the benefit of others who may have the same gap in their knowledge. That's a humble and frankly generous thing to do, no need to pile on.

[Tornadoman]

Sean,

Glad that the trip had a positive outcome, it's scary how quickly wet and cold can become dangerous. I hate backpacking in rain because of how miserable it can be combined with the much slimmer margin for error if something goes wrong. Hope you have better weather and a much more positive experience next time!

-Andrew

[12ersRule]

Sean,

Glad you and your daughter are okay. Sounds like she inherited your toughness. You both kept your head and got out of what could've been a horrible situation.

Someone mentioned it already, but yeah, not the best weekend for ambitious plans. I get it though. You're a goal oriented person and your bandwidth coming from Missouri is limited. But I definitely see some "14er list tunnel vision" in the decision making here. I'm sure in the future, you'll have a better plan B and C.

I probably don't have the best systems to remaining dry either, so thank you for reminding me I need to work on that. I have definitely frozen my ass off in the mountains in July before, having been above treeline on a ridge with zero visibility. Definitely not fun.

[pvnisher]

A little surprised this happened to someone who posts on here quite a bit , and gives advise to a lot folks.

Just remember, the people who post the most are not always the ones you should be listening to...

So you're aware that this whole thread was a "hey I screwed up, here's what I learned, hope it helps you do better" post?
Frankly we could all use a little more sharing bad experiences and decisions instead of burying them and pretending they never happened.

[rijaca]

Sean,

Glad to hear you and your daughter are ok, and thanks for sharing your tale. A number of lessons to be learned here.

Ignore the a**hole comments.

[HikerGuy]

Colorado is an arid environment with generally dry hiking conditions. Those of us lucky to live here can pick and choose the good weather days for hiking and backpacking, out-of-staters are not as fortunate. The monsoon brings challenges that many Colorado hikers are not used to. Some of us have experienced the monsoon over multiple seasons and know how to plan for it. This season will be tricky as we have not had a strong monsoon (or any monsoon) the past few years. OP may have made a bad decision or two, but corrected course and gained valuable experience. This post is a good reminder that the monsoon brings additional risks and less margin for error.

[TomPierce]

Sean,
Glad it was a safe outcome. What's that saying? Experience is gained by surviving a bad decision? Something like that. Yeah, way too many people don't talk about mistakes, glad you posted this. Whenever I have a bad time/event, I critically analyze my own choices and gear. With that in mind here are my well intentioned random thoughts based on decades of bad events:

-Coming to the Colorado high conuntry in July/August? Expect rain. September is my favorite alpine month, fwiw.
-IMO breathable rain gear is a hyped marketing myth. I've used them all: Coated nylon, Gore Tex, eVent, whatever. The problem is that while they are breathable when standing still or with light activity, humping a pack uphill will max out the breathability pretty quickly. The resulting condensation will soak you. I suspect that's why you were soaked when you finished your hike, at least in part. IMO the only thing that works well in such a setting is pit zips, bigger the better. And hike up with a light poly layer underneath, which is changed as soon as you cool off at the end of the hike. On goes the dry long sleeve top.
-Know your tent and know how to set it up super fast and correctly in a rain storm. The only tents I know that you can pre-erect the fly and body simultaneously are Hillebergs, but I'm sure there are others out there. They're also overkill for most summer trips. Fwiw, my cape/tarp is actually a good pick for rainstorms: single pole, good coverage, single layer. But yeah, pitching in a bad spot obviously can't really be fixed except to pick a better, well drained location.

Again, glad it worked out OK. Miserable for sure but a learning experience!

-Tom

[Jorts]

Thanks for sharing. Glad you came out of this shituation wiser and no worse for the wear.

If I'm backcountry camping and anticipate I might be setting up a tent in the rain, I'll often bring a tarp that I can quickly tie off between trees for quick cover. But if you're near or above treeline, all bets are off.