another question - re: rain gear

[Donald Schell]

Dear friends,

I notice that our various weather accounts vary a great deal not just from
season to season but from year to year.

2001 was a wet, cool spring in Europe.  Crossing the Pyrenees in early May,
I was very glad I'd added a last-minute windbreaker to our gear.  And we
used our ponchos and our ski underwear.  Friends who crossed this May a
couple of days behind us regretted not having gloves because it was so cold.
While that's all early May and in the Pyrenees - cold and rain can come
unexpectedly further on and later in the year.

In late July of 1998 Maria and I climbed up to Cruz de Ferro in bitter cold
with a fierce wind blowing.   It wasn't raining but overcast.  We had
lightened our packs in Leon by mailing gear ahead, and after several hot
days, Maria had mailed her light thermal fleece shirt/jacket liner ahead and
was very cold on this climb.  At Manjarin the hospitalero told us that two
days before the air had hung dead still and the beating sun made the
mountain oppressively hot.  He didn't consider either hot or cold weather
unusual for the mountain even in July.

Further on that year we found the climb from Vianfranca to O'Cebreiro hot
and a little muggy, but when we awoke in O'Cebreiro the dense fog we saw
outside turned out to be a heavy drizzle which turned occasionally to real
rain, and again, with a strong wind blowing it was quite cold for the first
three hours of our walk.  I'm glad we were carrying big, lightweight ponchos
and rain isn't the only weather challenge.  Cloudy days can be cool enough
that a strong wind makes it cold, and that cold in the damp is really
chilling.

Donald Schell


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