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Update: A sudden storm on the Teton Crest Trail last August forced me to rethink my entire approach to route planning.
We got caught in a whiteout above 10,000 feet with only a basic trail map, so now I always check the National Weather Service mountain forecast for any route over 8,000 feet, but what other high-altitude weather sources do you guys trust?
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spencera7727d ago
Learned that lesson the hard way too, staring at a blank gray wall where the trail should be. I got way too comfortable just looking at the general forecast for the nearest town. Now I'm glued to Mountain-Forecast.com for the specific elevation breakdowns, and I'll even check the NOAA point forecast map for that extra layer of paranoid detail. My old method was basically just hoping for the best, which, as it turns out, is not a great plan.
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the_piper27d ago
My friend tried to plan a picnic using the city forecast and got absolutely soaked. It's wild how often we trust the general info when the real details are what matter.
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caseythompson27d ago
Been there, got the t-shirt and the soggy boots. My wake-up call was a summit attempt where the valley said clear skies but the peak was in a cloud. Total whiteout, zero views. Now I cross-reference like three sources minimum. Windy.com is my go-to for the visual wind and cloud layers, it shows you exactly where that moisture is stacking up. I'll even pull up a webcam view from a nearby resort if I can find one, just to see the real-time conditions. Blind trust in a single forecast is a quick way to ruin a good day.
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the_rowan27d ago
Just hoping for the best was your plan?
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