Weather on the Continental Divide Trail

Disclaimer: NOBO Bias

Weather conditions are pretty important to any hike, long or short, section or thru. Weather on the CDT can be especially problematic. The high elevations, general lack of tree cover and remoteness of the trail makes many weather events more challenging than they would otherwise be, and they will "be"........meaning that you are definitely going to catch some weather at one point or another (read: many points), it's pretty much guaranteed.

You have to handle whatever Mother Nature is gonna throw at you, and you need to be able to handle it with what's on your back and what's in your brain. Be ready for anything; sometimes you're expecting a curveball and get chin music instead.

SNOWPACK

You're gonna hit snow in Colorado. There's not a whole lot you can do about it. If you think you can't handle it, you can flip-flop up to the border and southbound from there if Montana had a low snow year.  You can also put on some neoprene socks, toss a few extra jars of Nutella in your food bag and saddle up. If there's one skill everybody should learn from thruhiking, it's to correctly assess personal risk-benefit tradeoffs and follow through with the consequent decision. Which means make up your own mind about stuff and then see it through, no matter what anybody else thinks about it. It's your hike, it's your vacation, do what you want.

Having said all that, there are many difficulties associated with trying to thruhike in snowpack. Mileage will suffer. Feet will be gross. Pictures will be overexposed. Sunglasses will be lost. You will wander around off-trail, sometimes unintentionally. You'll also run into obstacles that will take some extra finagling to handle.

Self Arrest- You should have the ability to slow your roll in snowy, alpine environments. I have always used my trekking poles as self-arrest/climbing assist devices. If you are going to use your trekking poles in a mountaineering-esque situation, remove the snow-baskets from the tips, all they do is limit the pole's penetration. If you use an ice axe, use it. It does you no good attached to your backpack (Although it does make you look like a professional grade hiker) and it can be tricky to anticipate when you are going to start slipping down a steep, snowy incline.

Traction Control- Many people use snowshoes or crampons, depending on conditions. Many hikers swore by their snowshoes in 2015. I hated mine, and just postholed through the snowy sections. I also hit the snow much later in the season than most hikers did. Crampons could be in order depending on conditions. I usually try to hit steep climbs/passes in the afternoon, as the snow will be softer and the ensuing climb and descent will be less technical.

Foot Care This is one of the trickiest parts of hiking in the snow. Your feet are basically cold and wet all day. I find that wearing neoprene socks in my normal trail runners works the best (I do size up in the trail runners) for keeping your feet warm. As for dry, I take several breaks a day to air my feet out, but there's really no way to fight the wetness. I used Goretex footwear and Goretex gaitors for about half the snow I faced on the CDT, I found that the waterproofness was not compromised under normal use. It became compromised when I stepped into rivers or had to take my gaitors off due to overheating. Once the waterproofness becomes compromised, the shoe takes longer to dry than a nonwaterproof version would. I went back to my neoprene socks and normal trail runners happily.

I developed deep, painful cracks on the soles of my feet during the snowy sections, and found that carrying a small tub of O'Keefe's handcream helped replenish the oils that the constant dampness robs from you.

Sun Protection You can really go snowblind quickly and snowburns hurt worse than regular sunburn for some reason. I use longsleeves rather than sunscreen and am constantly checking to make sure I haven't lost my sunglasses. If you do lose your sunglasses, you can make a pair of Inuit snow goggles out of duct tape or something.

Firemaking I make small cooking fires on the majority of my trips. I find them extremely useful in snowpack environments. Not only do they provide a secondary source of heat for drying and being cozy, they lend the campsite a welcoming, civilized air and make you feel like you have a handle on things. There's techniques for having open fires in the backcountry safely, I've written about them in a separate blog post that I'll link to here when I'm done. In a nutshell, make them small and put them hour several hours before you leave the area.

RIVER CROSSINGS

This section won't read smoothly because of this next piece of advice and I don't care. It comes first because it's important.

Unbuckle your hipbelt and sternum strap when crossing rivers. Loosen your backpack straps as well. If you fall in with your belt still buckled, your pack will act as a buoy and try to float. The hipbelt will cantilever your center of gravity so that you will be facedown in the water, struggling to remove your straps. It has happened to me and isn't exactly a bundle of laughs. In addition to this, if you were to be swept downstream, you could hit a strainer and have webbing or fabric hook onto the obstacle. It's better to be able to just let the pack float away than be attached to it underwater. Back to the rest of the post.

In 2015, river crossings were a big challenge for Northbounders on the CDT, due to the uncharacteristic amount of snowpack and fast melting conditions. My main technique for dealing with crossings is largely comprised of avoiding them altogether when possible. Many hikers took Jonathan Ley's "low" routes through the San Juans to avoid hairy conditions at elevation, but at the same time subjecting themselves to more frequent and dangerous fords. The high routes were not easy, but I find that I always prefer the drier route, especially during spring thaws. I've been in far more dangerous situations in water than I ever have on mountains. At least you won't drown up there.

If you must cross a river or stream, don't get all attached to the trail. Sure it's comforting to know where you are, but the intersection between trail and water is not necessarily the best place to cross the stream. For instance, if the trail is doubletrack, off road vehicles can really wallow out a crossing. I always scout a few hundred feet upstream and downstream of the crossing if the water level is dangerous. You would be surprised at some of the problems I've avoided by simply looking for alternatives. As a rule of thumb, the further upstream you go, the narrow the bed gets and you get a higher chance of being able to rockhop or shimmy across a log to the opposite bank. You will also run into more whitewater. Downstream, the bank can widen out and give you a much more relaxed crossing, but it's typically a deeper trek.

If a river crossing still looks like bad news, check your watch. Snowmelt flow hits an apex at the hottest part of the day and takes a big hit during the cool night. That means that if a crossing looks bad at 5pm, set up camp and wait till 6 the next morning, the crossing might well look alot easier then.

I usually swim rivers that are too high or dangerous looking to wade across. Remember the classic PC game Oregon Trail? You can either ford or caulk the wagons and float when you hit a river. I take several precautions when I cross water that may be deep, fast moving or both.

1. Scout out the route.
2. Move upstream of my intended landing point so that I can just ferry across without going too far down the current.
3. Waterproof all essential items (sleeping bag, clothing, firestarter etc. Seriously, trashbag-nation, not just a catchy blog name.) Empty waterbottles and screw cap back on to add to buoyancy.
4. Remove pack. I typically hold onto it with one hand and let it bob next to me as I do my thing. Because I know that I might have to let the pack go in an emergency, typically I put a waterproof firestarter on my person along with a knife.
5. Remove clothing. Nothing keeps you warm when it's saturated, unless it's neoprene. I try to keep my clothes dry so the only thing my body has to dry off is skin and once I reach the other side, I can just redress and get moving to warm up again.
6. Get after her. A stick is a good thing to have, but by far the most important part of swimming a river or creek is keeping your toes above the water level. If you drag your feet along the bottom of the bed, you drastically improve your chances of entrapment, a situation that drastically improves your chances of drowning or suffering severe injury. Keep those little piggies sticking out of the water.

Your MMV. Again, do what you think is safe for you.

LIGHTNING

Lightning was a real hassle in Colorado in 2015. Several hikers in the state actually died, and I personally know a few thruhikers who had an uncomfortably close encounter early in the season.

This is one of those times that constantly paying attention to CDT will pay off. Try to notice the weather before it hits you. Anticipation is really the best way to deal with electrical situations.

Having said that, there's really nothing you can do if an electrical storm pops up and catches you above treeline. My advice is to bail out or take cover. One nice thing about the CDT is that there are plenty of "bad weather" routes and usually there's a way to descend to safety, safely.

Personally I have gotten caught in a few lightning storms on the divide itself. Faced with bad bailout options, I just put my head down, made my peace with the world and crossed my fingers that if I did get hit, I'd at least develop a few superpowers. When the strikes got really close, I assumed the postion (balls of feet, heels lifted, trekking poles thrown away). until stuff petered off, then I just boogied northbound hoping that a moving target was harder for Zeus to hit. Dunno what I did to piss that guy off, but I'm sorry regardless.

RAIN/PRECIP

In my hiking experience, rain is the quickest and easiest way to get hypothermic. The water on your skin transfers heat away from your body way faster than air alone does, and dealing effectively with wet conditions, especially at high elevations, can be extremely crucial to survival. I get more nervous about rain than any other obstacle on this list, because I've been hypothermic several times in my life and the number 1 cause has been cold, wet rain. Being 12,000 plus feet in the air only complicates things.

Technique is going to trump gear as the most effective method in dealing with situations like this. If you know a storm is coming, consider pitching your shelter before the weather hits and consider avoiding exposed areas for the duration of the storm.

Generally, I hike on until my daily mileage quota has been reached or I start to get hungry/cranky. I am however, on constant high alert for hypothermia symptoms (My body seems to get hypothermic easier and quicker as I've aged, dunno why). I use a number of tests, but my go-to metric is the hand opening/closing thing.  The reason I'm so careful about this is that being hypothermic tends to mess with your head, and suddenly the quality of your decisions takes a dive. Anticipation and prevention is so much easier to deal with then trying to fix a problem after it occurs. If it starts taking me 1-2 minutes to button a button, I know I'm in trouble and have to warm up immediately.

I also use synthetic insulation (sleeping bag/jacket) because of superior warmth in wet conditions. Many hikers have no trouble keeping more delicate materials (down) dry, I find that I do. Your MMV. I have my clothing in a drysack and my sleeping bag in some sort of waterproof stuffsack or trashbag.

Gearwise, my number one tip for rain is to buy an umbrella. I began using cheap travel umbrellas to see if it would fit into my backpacking system. It made rain so much more bearable that I swore on the first day that I'd never so much as dayhike without one again. I have since switched to a nicer model from Euroschirm. You stay so much drier and, by default, so much warmer with a canopy above you. I cannot believe it took me 6  years to finally listen to everyone and get one. Of course, the main issue with umbrellas is that they are bad in the wind. This is true. If you are going to have the umbrella deployed, keep the canopy pointing into the wind. Not rocket science.

In addition to the umbrella, I used a durable rainjacket and, for the first time ever, rainpants. I used both enough times that I couldn't recommend anyone hiking without them. The CDT isn't the AT, it is not going to be 70 degrees and humid every day. The CDT isn't the PCT.  It's cold and wet and I would not step foot on the this trail without rainpants and a good rainjacket. I used Frogg Togg pants for most of the trail, switched over to a slighter more durable option later on.

Insulation-Fleece is much better insulation for wet conditions. Even synthetic puffies are not as effective in situations where you know you'll be getting wet. Fleece is hydrophobic, which means it naturally doesn't want to get saturated and even if it does, all you really have to do is wring it out once and you're back in business. Out of Helena, MT, I knew there was going to be a few days of cold rain and I picked up a light fleece layer in town before leaving to bolster my synthetic puffy. I was patting myself on the back by the end of day 2, as I huddled in a outhouse trying to warm up while a wintery mix slushed down on the roof. Wore every layer I had and could have used a few more.

WIND

High winds were a factor a few times on my CDT hike. In the section above this one, I said that my personal number 1 cause of hypothermia was cold rain. My number 2 cause is wind. I've gotten hypothermic from high winds alone 2 times to date. Once was in 60 degree weather on the PCT, once in winter in Wyoming.

Windchill is often dismissed by people because it's not the actual thermometer reading of temperature. This is true. Windchill is actually the effective thermometer reading, meaning that it's basically how cold you're going to be. Not feel. Be. Windchill is basically based on the ability of your body to retain heat. If it's 40 degrees outside and you are soaking wet, you're in trouble. Even though the temperature is not extremely low, the ability of your body to retain heat has been compromised. Also, if you ever had a place without AC, and managed to get an oscillating fan going, you know how effective a breeze can be in cooling your body down.

High winds are pretty easy to deal with however. Dress in windproof/waterproof clothing, top to bottom....one of the times I got hypothermic was because I had a windproof layer on my torso and shorts on my legs. By the time I got my core temperature back to normal, I felt like a gigantic idiot. I basically gambled with my life in order to save the hassle of changing clothes, in addition to playing into this straight-up-stupid theme of thruhikers hiking in shorts at all times that people get into.

In addition to the good old fashioned "shell" layer, it's worthwhile to note that puffy insulation is generally a poor choice in windy environments. To understand why, you have to understand loft and fill power. Basically, the poofier the jacket, the warmer it is.If you don't let the poof "poof", it won't be warm. So, say you squeeze the poof out of a jacket or sleeping bag by, for instance, sitting on it. It won't be warm. This is why people use quilts instead of sleeping bags, because the insulation that you crush with your body weight is completely useless to thermal efficiency.

High winds  put pressure on insulated jackets, effectively squeezing the poof out of the jacket and making it colder, even when they are layered under a shell. Fleece is less susceptible to the squishing. It still needs to be covered with a windproof layer to be effective though.

If the wind is strong enough to blow you over, I suggest unfolding your tarp or shelter and tying it around your shoulders. Then stretch both arms out, grab some material with each hand and see if you can't "sky-blaze" some of the trail away. Cuben Fiber used to be used in sailboats, so you know if can corral some wind. Walking is for suckers anyway, right?

FIRE
What are you, stupid?  You think you're fireproof? Fuck. Reroute, with as many burger stops on the way as possible.

I hit a bunch of smoke from several large forest fires in 2015. Pretty scary couple of days, I was hiking near G-Funk, a triple crowner from Austria. We split up for a day or so and neither of us had a working phone, and imagine our mutual surprise when one day we separately woke up and were faced with a thickening haze of smoke. I only had Jonathan Ley's maps, which do not show much of the surrounding area, so bailout options were a big question mark. I couldn't check where the smoke was coming from, and didn't know what direction was the best one to avoid problems. Thankfully, I'd spent the last 2 years driving and hiking around the part of Montana I was hiking through, and knew that a large interstate was some 15 XC miles west of my position, and a paved road was ~10 miles east. I caught up with Gfunk later that day. He had a GPS so we finalized bailout options, but couldn't figure out where the smoke was coming from.

Anyway, there was no immediate danger to us, but if there had been, my plan was to go East to the divide for 3 reasons,

1. The wind was blowing towards the south east, meaning that the smoke was coming from the northwest. Where there's smoke there's fire I guess.
2. There's less stuff to burn on the divide
3. It seemed less smoky up there, improving air quality and visibility
4. To signal any passing aircraft NOT including UFO's (I'd rather burn on my feet than get probed on my knees)

I don't know if this is the right thing to do or not, I was just using common sense.  Again, your MMV. I do know that having a good, "zoomed out" idea of your position at all times is a good idea.

Forest fires were a big deal in 2015, on both the CDT and the PCT. I managed to get lucky enough to have a clear path through freshly burned sections of trail (4 days of rain+snow immediately before I hit the danger areas), but if you don't get so lucky, you can either try to wait it out or just reroute. You're not fireproof.