"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
( windsock pictured is bigger than it looks )
I learned how to "read" a windsock when I was tending bar in Alaska ( Mangy Moose, Tonsina Lodge ). The bar had an airstrip where normal bars would have a parking lot. I took phone calls from pilots all the time enquiring about local weather conditions.
I was a city boy, dropped into the Alaskan Bush, so when someone called and asked what the weather was like, I'd more often than not, answer "fine". What did I know?
Wasn't long before word of my ambiguous weather reports got back to my boss, a pilot himself. He told me what those callers were asking for; ceiling, wind direction, and wind speed. Once I found out what my customers wanted, that became part of my job.
( windsock pictured isn't in Alaska, it's near the Point Arena Lighthouse in California )
Well I sailed in 30 knot winds Yep they had instruments.
It was fun had to reef the main.
Fastest I think I have sailed.
Probably not sh#t compared to the winds some of you have experienced climbing big stuff and Im not speaking the big Stone.
79-80ish 4th of July 104 on sickle I remember seeing ropes blow sideways up higher and we were wishing for the wind.
Maybe it was when we were back on the ground that I saw the wind. HA Ha
What's the wind speed when your backpack straps are whipping your face raw and you have to brace yourself when you hear the gusts coming even on flat ground?
Here's some fun with wind. Looks like someone forgot to tie down the front end of this 747-200F retired to the Mojave desert.
Don't bother watching the whole thing -- nothing really exciting happens after the first minute -- but think about the fact that the wind speed was around 70 mph and that bird weighs about 170 tonnes (375,000 pounds)
So, how much wind would it take to lift a 160 lb. dude and gear in a hammock up and shake him like a leaf? I lived through that and was told 100 mph. Does that sound right?
George Gardner, a guide for 17 years, fell from the lower Exum Ridge of the Grand Teton while free soloing in 2008. Some have speculated he fell from the Black Face pitch during an atypical 60 mph wind gust measured about 6 PM the evening before his body was discovered east of the central rib.
George had done the route many times.
20 to 40 mph winds are commonly measured on the instruments at the Lower Saddle. I’ve been on the Grand Teton more than thirty times and recall only a handful of climbs that the air was still. Climbing in significant winds is common on the higher peaks of the range…but executing moves in small holds on that portion of the route…with winds that intense… seems pretty dubious.
walking cross country through the woods in SoYO on a ridge above the San Joaquin river gorge this past spring, Harrison and I came across a wide area of trees blown over, all of them, and all of them were larger in diameter than the two of us could get our arms around together. BIG trees blown by that gale that went through there. Hurricane force. From that area you can see Mammoth, Banner and Ritter and the path of the wind. Believe me, the forest was blown down.
I've seen bunks of plywood peel and scatter like a decks of cards in Carson City and Juneau many times, i've had property in west Washoe Valley selectively and significantly thinned of old growth pine, i've climbed when the wind has blown the rope straight up rather than just sideways, but i've never, anywhere else, seen anything approaching the ferocity of a sustained winter windstorm as in the corner of the Matanuska-Susitna valley that i have inhabited for the last thirty years.Interior Alaska regularly gets long winter cold snaps associated with clear skies and high barometric pressure systems and as intense low pressure systems come into the gulf of Alaska the pressures have to equalize with the resulting winds funneling and gaining speed through the canyon between the Chugach and Talkeetna ranges and into the valley. I've seen this equalization take several days and sometimes up to a week to play out. During these periods the wind is often sustained above 75 mph and with gusts well exceeding 100 mph on a regular basis. Anywhere else it would be called a hurricane,but here it is just a normal winter condition. My two sons are enduring just such an event right now. They informed me today that the Russian and Ukranian immigrant contractors,that are our main competition, lost two houses in the framing stage.I can't say i'm particularly sorry for them, but i know they will learn.
Reilly, good to know others on this Taco have experienced a Mat-Su breeze. A lot of the time when the wind is whipping down below it is relatively calm up at Hatcher, as you are probably well aware. I don't know about your other examples ,as i've not experienced their windy delights, so i assume you are right.
Climbing in 25MPH gusts is f*#king impossible, and it sounds pathetic because asshats claim to climb in 60mph gusts at josh every tuesday.
Well, that's part of the beauty of having moved to the Columbia River Gorge for the highwind windsurfing back in the mid to late 80's - we regularly get to sail on minuscule boards waving tiny sails the size of half a trench coat in summer West winds so strong the river sets up in 15-20' standing waves with a sheet of a solid sheet of white foam across the top that has flip massive barges out in the desert east of Hood River. Guys throw double forward loops off those wave tops and can get 40-60' over the troughs.
On those days, the most dangerous part of windsurfing is just trying to get the damn board on and off the top of your car and down to the beach without getting killed. And you know it's a big day when even the solidly good crowd thins down to just a handful of folks while everyone else sits it out on the beach to watch or goes home beat up and exhausted. Point being, we do know exactly how strong the winter East winds are in the Gorge each year and what windspeeds you can and can't climb in on Beacon Rock.
Up on the final corner ridge where the fierce East wind is forced go up and over the top of Beacon it does blow steady 50kts with long persistent gusts to 70 kts on a quite regular basis each winter. And to climb that final ridge pitch you're almost better off soloing off like a normal day as if you do it roped you have to lace it up or long loops of rope between pieces start to blow out in space over the edge exerting enormous sideways forces on your pro and generating a staggering a downward pull on you by the top of the pitch. That, and 'climbing' on the pitch basically involves having to hug the rock, lock down all four points hard, and ride it out waiting for a momentary let up when you can make one move, possible two, only to then lock all points back down hard and wait it out again. It's a harrowing amount of cold, hard wind you couldn't possibly stand upright against and makes an otherwise easy route into a spectacular and unforgettable experience.
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