What’s your wind threshold?

[ChadBriggs]

After a handful of peaks and a couple turn arounds I’ve had a wind scare. I’ve talked to a couple great mountaineers on here and Facebook and wondered what everyone thinks is too windy? One very trusted source says his turn around is 50 mph. On Elbert last year we got caught and it was so windy that I felt I was being lifted while sheltering in place. I can’t wait to hear your limit and your stories!

[MonGoose]

The windiest peak I have ever been on was Mt Bross in late February. On that day, we hiked up the East Slopes, which were sheltered from the wind but upon reaching the summit, we were physically unable to advance (even crawling) towards Cameron. It was insane. When planning a trip, I try to limit myself to 25 mph winds with 40mph gusts in summer (less on technical routes) and 20mph winds with 30mph gusts in winter. In summer, it's really question of whether you'll get blown off the mountain. In winter, it becomes a potential frostbite situation with the wind chill and freezing conditions. I like to enjoy my time in the mountains and getting sand blasted for hours and hours just isn't fun for me.

[dpage]

Here's a wind event story for anyone if it helps you make mountaineering decisions

https://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2017/0 ... -in-rocks/

[rdp32]

Here's a wind event story for anyone if it helps you make mountaineering decisions

https://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2017/0 ... -in-rocks/

I remember that day! I was planning on hiking twin sisters as well, but changed my mind at the last minute based on the forecast. Then I saw what happened (I think someone posted the story on 14ers at the time) and was grateful that I erred on the side of caution that day. Moral of the story: Trust your gut, and take the wind forecast seriously.

[TomPierce]

I've been taken briefly airborne by the wind, totally off the ground, done my share of crab walking in brutal wind and I've had frostbite on the face caused in part by the wind. All in years past; I would have tolerated such wind when I was younger but now probably wouldn't. Not so much an aversion to risk (but for sure it does up the risk), rather just a belief that such wind is a royal pain in the ass, no fun. Would rather come back another day.

No set go/no-go limit on wind speed for me. Flat terrain is a higher tolerance to wind. An exposed ridge line with fall potential? Not so much.

-Tom

[jrbren_vt]

For me it's not a constant number. It would a function of wind speed, temperature, and length of time I will be exposed to it. The latter factors in wind direction. If I am climbing a south slope and the wind is out of the north, for example, I will tolerate a much higher wind speed then if I am exposed to it for a long duration. So if I know it is going to be windy, I want to know what direction the prevailing winds are coming from. I would choose my route accordingly. In the east my tolerance was much higher because the duration of time I was above tree line was much less than Colorado high peaks. I have been looking to climb some of the super crowded 14ers this spring before the summer crowds and the parking cluster cusses that they bring, but every weekend the forecast has been either windy, blustery, or breezy, and the blustery or breezy days did not fall on a weekend. So I need to either raise my wind threshold (as from this web site & all trails I can see others were climbing them) or go midweek (spend vacation days on them). Not sure I want to do the latter, too many other great hikes to do in this state.

[mtree]

Most folks are incredible inaccurate when it comes to predicting actual wind speed. Myself included. I know a 70 mph wind is enough to keep me from moving forward and will knock me over fairly easily. How do I know? It was posted while I was outside at the Cliffs of Moher. It was sustained winds on a flat surface. Below that my meter is not very accurate. Many times the wind speed is much lower than what I imagine. And so many factors come into play.

Sustained. Gusts. Direction. Terrain. Precipitation. Gear. The list goes on. Driving in a car with your head out the window is not a good estimate. Airfoil effects and outside wind speed can mess with your mind, not to mention humidity and temps. I can say I've been knocked to my knees while hiking on ridges. What speed was the wind? Dunno. 40-70 mph. I was carrying a pack, jacket, on unstable terrain so can't say for sure. I've also been knocked down on snow. But the snow added to the loss of balance. Been bounced around countless times and endured wind gusts that seemed like 100 mph. But I still have no idea what it really was.

So what's my threshold? When its too dangerous or uncomfortable to continue. Whatever that is. And some days I just hate it from the get go and would rather go back to bed.

[ChadBriggs]

Great stuff, I really appreciate and value all of the input!

[719BR]

that's hard to say. i've had a couple really "fun" wind experiences, one on wheeler (nv), where we were literally getting blown off the trail with each step. how strong were the winds that day? no idea, i didn't look it up later. but it was such that it was becoming dangerous to proceed. the second one was on russell (ca), the winds were screaming like a jet engine. how strong were they? again, no idea, but it was in this case starting to not just be dangerous per se (though it would have been when we made it to the ridge proper), but also extremely unfun.

now i realize some people will say this is probably me being a pansy, but i've arrived to a place in life where i believe this should be fun on some level. note i said on some level. yes of course there will be effort and pain and fatigue and all that, but i pull the cord when it crosses over from difficult to pure suffering.

so that's my long way of saying that kind of like the others who answered, it's a personal question only you can decide. i always try to remember that the mountain isn't going anywhere, and i'm supposed to enjoy this on some level. and i eventually got to summit both wheeler and russell, so turning around wasn't the end of the world. in fact, with the exception of hood, i think i've summited every single peak on which i've had to turn around.

[nyker]

My wind tolerance in summer or warmer conditions is much higher than my wind tolerance in colder or winter conditions or in rain. Winds of 20mph in the winter on an already cold day can feel downright brutal whereas in summer The same wind can almost feel refreshing if it's a very hot day.

The last time I climbed Mount Washington it felt incredibly windy as we climbed progressively higher; on the summit they have an anemometer which registered 89 mph. Had it been that windy the whole time I don't think we would have continued on as it was fairly difficult to stand up straight in and would have been dangerous on the boulder section.

When I crossing to the summit crater of Mount Fuji it was a particularly windy day where I was unable to walk upright and I had to crawl and was being lifted off the ground by the wind. Later that night I read on a local weather site the wind had been up to 93mph around that time. It was not a cold day but that was definitely too much and again had it been anywhere near that windy climbing up I would have turned around.

Like others mentioned this is pretty subjective but I would ball park it around 50 mph as a limit to where it's comfortable hiking in but it will definitely depend on many things; the temperature, terrain I'm on, If that's constant wind or just an occasional gust and how long I would be exposed to it. 15 minutes of that kind of wind crossing a summit plateau on a flat summit is one thing. 8 hours of exposing myself to that kind of wind would be probably exhausting and not fun even on a warmer day.

My tolerance for wind also goes down the more technical a route is or the more exposed to technical terrain I would be on a peak versus a flatter walk-up trail.

[Bale]

To echo some comments here, temp and terrain are big factors in my wind tolerance. Not cool to be knocked off your feet. We were camped next to a party on the Emmons of Rainier whose tent ripped apart and flew down the glacier, never to be seen again. Imagine their surprise when they returned from an aborted summit attempt only to find guy lines flapping in the “breeze”.
Wind can be fun too. We were on some obscure peak in the Uintas, and on the way down was a strong wind, (idk, maybe 50mph), but it was warm and flowing up the mountain, so you could spread your arms and lean really hard into it for a sensation of flying.
Also, wind on rivers and lakes can be a real bitch.

[Scott P]

On 12/9/2005 I wad literally blown off North Star Mountain. It could have been much worse, but I got away with only minor injuries. Peak 8 supposedly clocked a 130 mph gust that day and the ski resorts were shut down due to the winds.

I don't know what my wind tolerance is, but it's far below 130 mph as I wouldn't do that again.