Wind River Range Mid October

[Allen Butts]

A friend and I are planning a 5-day hike in the northern Winds from 10/9-10/16.  We’ll be hiking predominantly above treeline north of Gannett Peak. What exactly should we expect weather wise? Temps? Snow?

[Charles Jennings]

I’d keep a super close eye on the weather forecast. It could dump 3 feet of snow that time of year at that elevation.

[nunatak]

Lots of wind, lows in the low 20’s, light dusting of fresh.

Let me know if I was close when you get bak.

[Lester Moore]

Have a backup plan at a lower elevation in case the weather is bad or iffy. If you’re lucky, you could get dry weather for 5 days with moderate winds, but at best plan on the 20s or even the teens at night with consistent strong winds at high elevations. You could just as easily get blizzard conditions for days in October with lots of snowfall that won’t melt until next summer. And if you do the trip as planned, factor in the risk of hiking on talus covered in 2 feet of new snow to get back out –  slow, tedious and dangerous.

[Allen Butts]

Perfect guys, this is exactly what I was looking for.  Lester, we’re going to keep a veeeery close eye on the weather beforehand and do a trip in the San Juans in CO if the weather looks iffy. Nunatak guys, I’ll let you know what I find up there and probably write up a little trip report. My friend and I have extensive off-trail experience, and we want this trip to be a “comfortable” challenge, but we’re fully prepared to bail if the risk gets too high, like walking across 2-3 feet of fresh on talus.

Sounds like this will be a good test for the Duplex ;)

I’d love to hear more as well, the more info and past experience the merrier!

 

[Greg Mihalik]

If one of you has an inReach, use the Weather Forecast utility to keep an eye on things. Our forecast going in was perfect. On day 7 we woke to a sideways snow squall.  And that was 4 weeks ago, just north of Big Sandy.

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