Was I being excessively cautious? So me and a mate of mine…
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Was I being excessively cautious?
So me and a mate of mine were hiking in the Caucuses. I had done most of the planning for the route, campsites etc, and come up with a few detours in case of bad conditions etc.
Towards the end of the trek we had one more campsite planned on a high pass. The day pior to that intended ascent, we had also camped down in a rather wild valley next to a glacier, and so the trail to the base of the ascent involved a fair bit more bushwacking, which also also making the approach to that ascent a bit longer and tiring than expected. Anyways, that morning we had woken up unusually later than expected (both overslept) so that by the time we bushwhacked from from the glacier to the start of the trail up to the high-pass it was 4pm. My friend was very keen on camping up on the ridge as we had planned for that day, and initially so was I, but given the time, I started having second thoughts. I argued the following points:
1. Firstly, it was a steep and exhausting 1000m ascent over a poorly marked (and reportedly slippery) up to the ridge. The slog, in my opinion would not have been not have been enjoyable and would have likely taken us around 3-4 hours with fully loaded packs and water. If it took longer we'd risk hiking in the dark.
2. Even though it was relatively warm in the valley, the day was generally colder than the past few, and temps would have been close to zero (C) up there, and very windy on the ridge so perhaps a -5 or -10 wind chill, and given we were already so close to evening, I just didn't see any reason to even go up. We'd mostly be confined to our tents since (as was the case in with the previous warmer high pass we camped) the setting sun would have already caused the wind to pickup. The only pleasure would be perhaps that brief 30min in the morning between waking up up and packing up. If we had started a few hours earlier at least would have had a few hours to enjoy the ridge..
3. My friend's bag was also a bit under-specced for those conditions (4+ comfort, -2 limit), which was also in the back of my mind a bit..
4. We also didn't have a reliable weather forecast at the time. There were some cumulus clouds in the distance, and my other fear was that this wasn't a high pass that you could sprint down if a storm came. The descent over the ridge was also reportedly steep and bushwhacky so getting off quickly would be dangerous in bad weather.
With these reasons I suggested to my friend that we camp via an alternate route. He was disappointed and said I was psyching my self out and still thought we'd be fine. He's done fewer multi-day hikes than I have and this was his first long trek in a high alpine area. Though I admit sometimes I think I can extrapolate too far and be overly cautious.
What are you thoughts? Was I being too careful and psyched myself out for no reason? Or did I make a sensible decision on behalf of us both? :)
#activity #hiking
source
So me and a mate of mine were hiking in the Caucuses. I had done most of the planning for the route, campsites etc, and come up with a few detours in case of bad conditions etc.
Towards the end of the trek we had one more campsite planned on a high pass. The day pior to that intended ascent, we had also camped down in a rather wild valley next to a glacier, and so the trail to the base of the ascent involved a fair bit more bushwacking, which also also making the approach to that ascent a bit longer and tiring than expected. Anyways, that morning we had woken up unusually later than expected (both overslept) so that by the time we bushwhacked from from the glacier to the start of the trail up to the high-pass it was 4pm. My friend was very keen on camping up on the ridge as we had planned for that day, and initially so was I, but given the time, I started having second thoughts. I argued the following points:
1. Firstly, it was a steep and exhausting 1000m ascent over a poorly marked (and reportedly slippery) up to the ridge. The slog, in my opinion would not have been not have been enjoyable and would have likely taken us around 3-4 hours with fully loaded packs and water. If it took longer we'd risk hiking in the dark.
2. Even though it was relatively warm in the valley, the day was generally colder than the past few, and temps would have been close to zero (C) up there, and very windy on the ridge so perhaps a -5 or -10 wind chill, and given we were already so close to evening, I just didn't see any reason to even go up. We'd mostly be confined to our tents since (as was the case in with the previous warmer high pass we camped) the setting sun would have already caused the wind to pickup. The only pleasure would be perhaps that brief 30min in the morning between waking up up and packing up. If we had started a few hours earlier at least would have had a few hours to enjoy the ridge..
3. My friend's bag was also a bit under-specced for those conditions (4+ comfort, -2 limit), which was also in the back of my mind a bit..
4. We also didn't have a reliable weather forecast at the time. There were some cumulus clouds in the distance, and my other fear was that this wasn't a high pass that you could sprint down if a storm came. The descent over the ridge was also reportedly steep and bushwhacky so getting off quickly would be dangerous in bad weather.
With these reasons I suggested to my friend that we camp via an alternate route. He was disappointed and said I was psyching my self out and still thought we'd be fine. He's done fewer multi-day hikes than I have and this was his first long trek in a high alpine area. Though I admit sometimes I think I can extrapolate too far and be overly cautious.
What are you thoughts? Was I being too careful and psyched myself out for no reason? Or did I make a sensible decision on behalf of us both? :)
#activity #hiking
source
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