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<TITLE>Re: another question - re: rain gear</TITLE>
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Dear friends,<BR>
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I notice that our various weather accounts vary a great deal not just from season to season but from year to year. <BR>
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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. <BR>
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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. <BR>
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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. <BR>
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Donald Schell <BR>
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