Extreme Weather: To Bail or Not to Bail? Part One

As a general rule the advice is to abort your adventure if you encounter extreme weather conditions, but just where should the line be drawn on this? There are many reasons why an adventure should be aborted in such conditions; however, there are almost as many reasons to continue. Extreme weather can manifest itself in many different ways, extreme heat, extreme cold, high winds, torrential rain, heavy snow, blizzards, avalanches, whiteouts and landslides are only a few. If you've planned your adventure, none of the above should really catch you unaware, as the chances of these phenomena arriving without some form of advanced warning are extremely rare. When travelling in remote areas, especially mountainous areas, the risk of extreme weather is one that's always lurking in the background, whatever the time of year. So! Are the warnings all hype in an effort to keep us out of the mountains while these 'extreme' conditions persist? No, not really; what we have to remember here is that there's an incredibly vast skill spectrum, and not only that, there's also an equally vast gear spectrum! Let's look a little deeper in order to find out if these 'extreme' weather conditions should really instil fear.

Planning

All adventures consist of at least some form of planning, even if it's only a flask and sandwiches! We all consider the weather before we venture out and then spend time choosing our clothing, along with our equipment to suit the conditions that we expect to encounter. The only difference with extreme weather is that your clothing and equipment need to be up to the job in terms of quality and performance; extreme weather conditions will undoubtedly sort out the wheat from the chaff in your treasured gear stash! Continuing on, every aspect of your adventure that may be affected by the weather needs to be assessed. Single day adventures are much easier to deal with, whereas multi-day adventures have many more things that have to be considered. If we disregard genuine accidents that have absolutely nothing to do with extreme weather, the additional risks imposed upon us may be managed to incorporate the required safety margin. Always plan with a small reserve; don't go mad, but a little leeway is always a comfort.

Is Good Gear Enough?

No! It most definitely isn't. Good gear makes the job much easier, but more importantly, you need to know how to use it! Lone adventurers need an extensive skill base in order to deal with anything that Mother Nature is likely to throw at them. Their biggest asset is being able to deal with these things psychologically, and this will only come through experience; the gear is what they use to make their life as easy as possible during these troubled times. There will be an overwhelming urge to take more gear; you need to fight this urge otherwise your rucksack will be much heavier than it needs to be, this, in turn, will slow you down, reduce your agility, increase your instability and eat away at your safety margin. Generally, extreme weather conditions don't require more gear, they require the right gear, but surely, that's the same on any adventure? The only difference in extreme weather situations is that any incorrect choices can have extremely serious consequences.

Skills

The harsher the conditions, the higher your skill level needs to be in order to deal with those conditions. Knowledge of how your body will react to these extreme conditions is paramount here, along with being able to recognise all the signs and symptoms that indicate that there may be a problem approaching. Experience in being out in extreme weather is also important; once you know what to expect you can deal with the situation much more easily, long before that situation becomes a problem.

Single Day Adventures

If your adventure is planned for a single day, providing that you have all the correct gear and know how to use it, there is almost no reason at all that you should need to abort. A fit, healthy hiker should be able to continue in extremely challenging conditions for upwards of 20 hours with few problems. Extreme weather for single day adventures should, at worst, result in an extended day.

Multi-Day Adventures

This is where things get a little more serious. The fact that it's a multi-day trip suggests that you're likely to be much further from safety, meaning that a continuous hike out is off the cards; it also means that you have overnight stays to consider, and it's these that often cause the most problems. We all like the comfort of a tent; it's our home and offers respite from the rigours of the day. In high winds, erecting a tent on your own can be somewhat troublesome to say the least. Modern, lightweight designs are extremely robust when correctly pitched; however, in getting to the 'correctly pitched' point they're often extremely vulnerable to damage. This, on occasion, results in an unusable shelter, not to mention the risk of being dragged across a very lumpy mountain before having to let what's left of it go! Wind-chill plays another part in this 'end of day' ordeal, resulting in a lower body temperature when finally managing to get your head down.

Managing Situations

As we've already said, extreme weather rarely, if ever, turns up unannounced. If you expect high winds don't take a tent! Take a single or double hooped bivvy, it's far better; it's not as palatial but it will protect you in all conditions, even if the poles break you still have a bivvy bag! Remember, the lower you are to the floor the slower the wind speed will be, this is to do with something called 'frictional drag' and is due to the air 'rubbing' over the ground if you like, reducing the wind's speed. Certain terrain can also change the direction of the wind; using this knowledge to your advantage may secure a more comfortable night. To reduce the time from stopping to getting into your sleeping bag, find a more sheltered spot a couple of hours beforehand and have your meal; if you have a flask that's the time to fill it so that it can be used later in the bivvy. That last couple of hours of movement before you stop for the night will warm you up again and also give your body time to start breaking down certain parts of your meal; by the time you get into your sleeping bag your body will be starting to produce heat from that meal in order to keep you warmer throughout the night. I know this next bit sounds really basic but I've seen it time and time again! Don't be tempted to find shelter in high winds behind dry stone walls or close to trees! Although, on the upside, having 4 tonnes of dry stone wall or a 3 tonne tree on top of you while in your shelter does bring with it a certain degree of increased stability!

No Shelter?

There's always shelter! As long as you know where to look or how to manufacture it. The footprint of a bivvy is much smaller than that of a tent and this is another reason why the bivvy is vastly superior in high winds. There are a set of rules that have to be adhered to when using a bivvy or the experience will not be a pleasant one; hopefully, time permitting, I'll cover these rules in a future article just on the bivvy and how to get the best out of it.

Navigation

Being an excellent navigator will assist you immensely in dealing with extreme weather conditions. Not only will it enable you to continue safely in almost zero visibility hour after hour, it will also indicate where the best place may be to shelter that also offers everything else that you may require. Being out in extreme weather may be more challenging on a number of fronts but the reason to abort should never need to be a navigational one.

Experience

Experiencing extreme weather will teach you more about dealing with it than you could ever gain by reading about it! The secret here is not to get yourself killed while trying to gain the experience! Learning from someone who is willing to take you out in such conditions is by far the best way in getting to a level where you're able to deal with it on your own, albeit in a less polished fashion. Things will go wrong, and to say that you'll be uncomfortable from time to time is an understatement; the important thing here is that you'll be safe and capable of dealing with it on your own. Due to the level of misery, mistakes are rarely made twice and this results in progress being made in leaps and bounds.

It's Relative!

Just what is extreme weather? You may say that it's any weather that's outside of the ordinary, but that still doesn't narrow it down much. Extreme weather to one person may be the norm and nothing to write home about to another; it's all relative to what a person is used to. In a previous article I referred to the lone adventurer as 'A jack of all trades and master of most!' They have to be able to deal with any situation that may present itself without any outside assistance whatsoever; their incredibly positive, 'can-do' attitude plays an important role in achieving this.

More People, More Safety?

This is a difficult one. If I'm undertaking something that I consider really serious I always prefer to go alone, that way I'm responsible for all the decisions, whether they be right or wrong. There is no need to compromise, no pressure to enter into a situation that I'm not 100% happy with, and no restrictions other than those I place upon myself. The downside of this is that I'm fully reliant on my own knowledge and skill base. In a group, the downside is that there has to be a leader, someone that will coordinate the proceedings in order to prevent the whole thing descending into a free for all. The upside is that each member of the group, in addition to their normal talents, usually has a 'speciality' of some sort; this may be navigation, climbing, survival, ropework etc. and this can be used to push the envelope further while maintaining a healthy safety margin. The leader's 'speciality' may not be a physical one; he/she may just be a 'natural' at bringing everything together so that it all works in harmony. There are times when 'going it alone' just isn't possible and proceeding as a group is by far the best way of completing the task in hand. On the subject of 'going it alone', there's something else at play here; it's the feeling of self-reliance that can only be gained by going it alone. Years ago in a previous life we used to say 'Those that can operate alone will always fit into a group well, but those that have only ever been part of a group can rarely operate alone.' and over the years this has proved true in the vast majority of situations.

The Last Word

Strangely, before any adventure, I ask my myself if I've done everything I can to eliminate having to call out the 'Rescue Services'. These guys really do go above and beyond so that we may enjoy the mountains with a safety backdrop. In my 45 years or so of 'wandering' so to speak, I've never had to call on them for assistance, either for myself or anyone in my charge; their invisible presence in the background is akin to a warm blanket on a cold night. So! Is it foolhardy to go out in extreme weather? No, I don't feel that it is, providing that your skill base, gear, knowledge and experience are to a level that will allow you to be out in those conditions relatively safely. People often ask why anyone would want to be out in those conditions anyway. The answer to that is personal advancement; it's how it affects your general outlook on life. When you can deal with things like this, everyday problems that fluster others don't even register on your scale! It produces a 'can-do' attitude that will be one of your greatest assets and will open doors that others can't even see! The warnings that are given out are intended to reduce, as much as possible, the pressure on our Rescue Services from people that are poorly equipped and unaware of the level of danger. Build your experience bit by bit maintaining the required safety margin; you'll be surprised at just how quickly it'll grow. In the second part we'll take a look at what can be done in order to assist us in our quest to 'push on' in relative safety.