WEATHER EFFECTS ON AFTERNOON PROGRAM

We were there Aug 5 for our 12 day trek.  Had five programs (plus a few programs on a pass through basis) and were able to get them all in in spite of a lot of rain (again, not just the afternoon thunderstorms, but evenings, some mornings, etc.).  We moved two of our programs to the next morning (mountain biking and pole climbing) as trails / poles were wet the afternoon we got there.

I think the best plan is to get to program as early as possible (means getting up and out of camp before the other crews).  If you can’t get it in, sign up for the next morning.  Going late in the year means more rain but far fewer crews to compete for program.  For rock climbing, we were the only crew there so they let us climb as much as we wanted.  For the majority of our camps, we were the only crew in camp.  Even at Ponil, I think we may have had only three-four crews in camp.  Very nice not fighting other crews for program.

Agree with Terry’s suggestion for the afternoon program. My crew dropped rock climbing totally so we can hike to the next campsite before the rain (well that’s our plan, but it rained hard halfway). Our sister crew decided to stay behind, and was able to enjoy the indoor bouldering experience. They started hiking after the rain was over, but you never knew when it will stop.

If you have Tooth of Time in your program, you need watch the weather condition very closely. We managed to climb it at 3pm from the dry campsite close to the peak. The peak was covered with cloud, so no great view. After about 20-30 minutes, we started to descend. It started to drizzle. The rocks became very slippery.

The other crew in a different itinerary camped below the peak, and decided to climb it to watch sunrise. They left their campsite at 3am, and climbed over the ridge, and started to climb the peak around 4:30am. They gave up half way, as they found the top of the peak has too much cloud. There was waterfall from the peak coming down, it became very dangerous to climb up. Even if they climbed up, there won’t be view either. In the end, they abandoned this plan.

Our trek #14 started on July 26th. The first 3 to 4 days we had thunderstorms off and on through the day. After those days it settled down to late afternoon storms. Some days we got lucky and only saw the storm pass from  a distance. Sometimes we got the storm. Our trek was not one of the high mileage treks but we had plenty of long days. Most of our programs were at trail camps that we passed through and did not stay at. This with the afternoon threat of storm caused us to always feel rushed.  We always tried to get into the program camp before they shut down for lunch. If not then you had to wait for 1pm when they started  back up. If the program lasted an hour and a half then you’re looking at getting out of program  at the earliest by 2:30pm.  We would then still have miles to get done during the prime thunderstorm threat time.