Moving to Colombia: Gear Considerations

Something I expect my kids to know in grade school is:

The adiabatic expansion of air results in air being 3.5F cooler for every 1000 feet higher up you go.

If you're in town at 1,000 foot elevation and it is 70F, then you go up to 7,000 feet, it is 6 x 3.5 = 21F colder up there, or 49F. This provides you with a very good estimate of air temps in the mountains above populated areas.

Based on their elevations: Bogotá at 2,640 meters (8,660 ft) would get you noticeably better acclimatized to the higher Andes than Medellin at 1,495 meters (4,905 ft) but either would a big improvement to going high from a sea-level home.

Edited to add: It looks like your BPing to date has been fairly low in elevation. While living at elevation will help avoid a lot of the risk and pain of high-altitude trips, there are other issues: UV exposure is many times what it is at sea level and until you get a substantial base tan (and even then), you'll need clothes, hat, roof and great sunscreen to protect yourself. With much less insulating air between you and the sun / deep space, temperatures will vary much more day to night. Solar heating will be more of a factor and over-night cooling will be more extreme.

Bullet proof vest.

Hello there,

This is my first post too and I could not resist the tentation of replying your questions (at least some of them). I have been living in Colombia (Bogotá) for 11 years, and I think I have some knowledge and experience regarding outdoors matters in this country.

First of all, bear in mind that there ara not seasons in Colombia (even when local people talk about them). In the case of Bogotá, there are two seasons: rain season and non rain season. And both can take place in the same day depending in which part of the city you are located. Also it is very common to have different weathers in small distances due to the geography of the country. For example if you move just one hour by car from Bogota you can stay in a really warm place or in a typical rain forest enviroment. These are called "pisos térmicos".

Anyway, my advice regarding jackets for 3 or 4 "seasons", might be the regular 3 layer system. I may recommend to carry with you a rain jacket or a hardshell, but this one shall be breathe well or at least have pit zips because rain here is very usual and humidity can be very high. Also it is recommendable to have a good windshirt or a double weave softshell. These resist winds and transpirate quite well. Try to avoid laminate softshells.

Regarding down or insulated jackets, I do not wear them mainly because I was born and grew up in Spain and in my opinion Colombia is not a very cold country (excepting los macizos, old volcanos with glaciers such as macizo del cocuy, etc). So, generally I wear a good base layer and a thin fleece layer (equivalent to polartec 100 but not higher than 200).

In any case, an additional advice is that you buy your outdoor clothes in the US because here in Colombia they are expensive, unless you buy Paramo clothes because they are made here in Colombia.

As an example here is a list of clothes I have and use for hiking or trekking:

Base layer: Patagonia cap 3, Rab Al Pullon, Altus Saona, F-lite megalight shirt (70 and 140) and in some cases I use Paramo cambia shirts.

Fleece Jacket: Craghoppers light fleece (cheap one), Milo Pepe and Sherpa Tchimi Hoody.

Windshirt: Montane trail star, Jack Wolfskin wind (model name is something similar to spyder) and Vaude (do not remember model name).

Softshell: Berghaus Pordoi, Marmot Leadville and Ternua cleady.

hardshell: Ternua Kinross (Goretex paclite 2 layer) and Montane Air jacket (event 3 layer).

And 3 Paramo Jackets which work well as a softshell and hardshell (they have resisted rain downpours quite well and breathability is superberb): Quito, Pasco and Velez Adventure Light Smock. Of these three I choose the Quito jacket because of its lightness anc versatility.

Finally, here are some links to local web sites regarding places to visit and expedition companies. I recommend you to organise some walks with well recognised local companies, they are serious and really professionals:

http://www.caminantesdelretorno.com
http://www.parquesnacionales.gov.co
http://www.monodedo.com
http://www.14ochomiles.com

If you have any additional questions, please let me know.

thanks for your help so far guys. Let me know if you see a vest on gearswap.

David: thanks for the formula, I had no idea. I haven't needed to think about altitude much in my life until now.

Margarita: you are the exact person I need to talk to it seems! Hmm, it's going to be a huge mindset change about season. In canada it feels like everything has to be considered seasonally. Historical weather i've looked at confirms what you're saying. Good to know my layering system over here should transfer over well, but I am a little concerned about rain in the wet season; I don't deal with that much rain here. Since you say an insulation layer is often not necessary I don't think I'll trade my down jacket for a synthetic one. I look forward to using my umbrella a lot, and finally checking out some Paramo stuff in person (though I've read that paramo is best suited for colder temperatures)

I have some more kinda specific questions :)

-what kind of stove do you use? Are canisters easy and reliable to buy?

-WILDLIFE! I don't know what to expect but I know it will be crazy different. What I'm actually asking is: What kind of food protection do you take with you? Here I have been hanging my food most of the time because there are black bears and rodents to deal with. What is the protocol down there?
Also: how heavy are the bugs? like mosquitoes, biting flies and the like. There might also be more ground dwelling insects to worry about than here?

EDIT: forgot to ask maybe the most important question: What are the coldest nights you could possibly have to deal with at night in these mountains?