Afternoon Ascents

[MichiganMan]

Seems like I usually hear that it is best to hike at high elevations in the morning, as the threat of thunderstorms is worse in the afternoon. I guess I've heard that it's best to have summited and be heading down by noon. Yet I've read several threads where folks are hiking and summiting fourteeners in the afternoon or evening. What's the skinny? Thanks...

[peter303]

Lightning is a distant 3rd cause of death in mountain hiking after falls (60%) and exposure/hyperthermia (20%). But anyone who has been in a lightning storm knows how psychologically terrifying they can feel.

[Scott P]

Usually thunderstorms happen in the afternoon, but occasionally there are clear afternoons and thunderstorms in the morning.

Also, thunderstorms are mostly in summer. At the other times of the year they are less common.

[Monster5]

Eh as you hike more and more peaks, you'll get a better feel for weather and weather windows. A lot of the time, we'll get a one boom wonder around noon followed by reasonable weather for several hours. It's best to stick to the AM starting out and in general. Personally, I love sqeezing in sunset summits. Makes for fantastic pictures.

[DArcyS]

Much of it depends upon the time of year. September can produce stable weather patterns where there's little risk for t-storms. If there's a 30-40% chance for t-storms in the summer, I don't sleep in and risk throwing a hiking day away by having a t-storm chase me off a peak. I'll frequently hit the trail in the summertime before 6 and summit before 10, and almost always this practice yields a successful summit. If you're serious about the summit, the best practice is to start early. Better to lose some sleep than your life. If you're in it to do some casual climbing and don't mind a failed summit attempt, there's nothing wrong with a late start if you have the discipline to turn back at the first hint of bad weather, which can develop far faster than you can descend in the worst case scenario where a severe thunderstorm develops directly above you in under an hour. Understand that in the worst cases, you don't see a developed storm slowly approach from a distance; rather, the storm develops rapidly overhead with little warning and you become a sitting duck.

[TallGrass]

"Off the summit by noon" is for two reasons: afternoon "monsoon" storms are more common in summer (July-August), and to a lesser degree "half" your daylight is spent. Storms can roll in anytime of year, night hiking and navigation are doable, and there are plenty of good weather afternoons in July-August too. It's a good rule to start with, but like others have said, with experience and skills (reading clouds, forecast data) you can make more informed guesses.

My first try at a 14er (unsuccessful) saw me making the Notch Shelter (~13,000') just as night fell even though I started at dawn. Second attempt (successful), I left the TH around 4pm as I intended to hike through the night but ended up bivying a few hours on HCR (~13,800). I left the TH for my fourth 14er at 11am, summitted at like 6pm or something, and made my way out in the dark changing the batteries in my flashlight once (fun to do in the dark, eh?) in awesome night weather (calm, clear, warm). I've returned to camp or the TH under darkness multiple times.

I'd recommend carrying two light sources (e.g. two headlamps, or headlamp and flashlight) that use the same batteries (e.g. 3 x AAA), with one tucked away securely in your pack's brain along with a spare set of batteries. If you drop one in the dark when it's turned off, at least you have a back up.

[DArcyS]

An old thread discussing how innocent looking weather can turn south quickly. In my photos, note how there's no vertical build to the clouds and the cloud coverage is far from alarming. Yet, within an hour there was a bad storm above me.

https://www.14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31538

I knew t-storms were in the forecast, but I was a little surprised at how quickly they developed. If you're going to do afternoon ascents, knowing the forecast is probably a good idea, as sometimes interpreting the weather in the field won't be enough.

[JChitwood]

It's all in the day and the time of year. I have clambered onto more than half my summits after 2 PM and a fair amount of them after 3 because I like hiking in the middle of the day and I am not a morning person. BUT, I choose my days in the mountains very carefully and am prepared to turn back if I get to tree line and weather conditions are not near perfect. It has not happened many times because I don't even start if the forecast is not favorable. If there is a significant chance of storms and I am committed to hiking usually because that is the only day a partner can make it, I bite the bullet and start early, it will almost always give you the best chance of gaining the summit. We do have clear days even in mid summer but September and October are my favorite times to get out and storms generally don't build from nowhere that time of year.

[montanahiker]

I"ll second the afternoon storm talk. I can't count how many times it has started raining as I was starting my drive home and I couldn't believe how many people were just starting up the trail.

Also, as someone who does a lot of day trips from Denver, if you leave before sunrise you also don't have to worry about I-70 or I-25 traffic.

[justiner]

So late afternoon/evening ascents can be more dangerous: you need more gear to stay warm/see in the dark, there's the thunderboom problems, what happens if you get lost because of the dark/benighted, less of a safety margin of daylight, harder for others to spot you, giant hungry forest-dwelling animals that only come out at night - yadda yadda.

Watching sunsets from the summits are pretty sweet, but so are sunrises.

It's riskier, but afternoon ascents can be done, but it's nice to have a plan if things hit the fan - how fast can you descend? Are you comfortable going down a random ridgeline (then perhaps back up afterwards) to safety? Can you spot shelter (cave)? Can you now safely go down when things are all wet and slippery (and rockfall happens more when things are wet) Those are some of things I think about when pushing my luck. Def. have pushed it, but have also been huddled underneath something providing mostly mental protection wondering if the hail and thunder were getting bigger or smaller.

Accidents happen when small mistakes add up. Check out the accident reports that start out with, "left late". Research the Quandary dudes - I think they left around 10:00am/11:00am for the West Ridge? That may be just a simple lack of preparedness in general, but IF you're prepared to spend the night up there, it can be nice.

[James Dziezynski]

Here are some stats from 2014: http://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/ ... /14518207/

Search for Matt Payne's posts here for more info -

[TallGrass]

An old thread discussing how innocent looking weather can turn south quickly. In my photos, note how there's no vertical build to the clouds and the cloud coverage is far from alarming. Yet, within an hour there was a bad storm above me.
https://www.14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31538
I knew t-storms were in the forecast, but I was a little surprised at how quickly they developed.

The first reply to your post pretty much nailed it. Air masses get uplifted and cooled passing over mountains condensing the moisture they carry. The hottest times of the year cause the most evaporation from land. Some of that moisture gets trapped in a cycle of evaporating during the morning, condensing around noon, returning as rain in the afternoon, then as the sun (which drives the cycle) sets the cycle wanes or you get another shower from moisture condensing in the cool of the night. This is why an overcast morning can lead to no showers because it blocks the sun from heating the ground. Amount of morning dew, clouds, winds, hi or lo fronts, time of year, and area forecast data all provide clues. +1 to if you go later, be prepared.