when is the weather to bad to hang between 2 trees

[signguy]

The wind does not bother me near as much if the ground is dry-
On the other hand, you combine rain saturated ground with a good wind storm and you got problems.
The other issue I worry about now is a forest where a good fire has burned through. In the fall I hung in the Angeles National Forest which had a good fire several years ago. All night I could hear trees coming down and it was not blowing that hard-

[Floridahanger]

Most of my worry is when I'm not in my hammock. If I'm at a group hang and we have a shelter made or set up. I'm probably there when a storm hits. Then my concern is if I secured my tarp and gear for the wind and rain. Nothing worse than getting to your hammock and everything is wet.

Site selection becomes very important here. You can look up for widowmakers, hang on shorter trees than the surrounding trees, ensure strong trees with no bug/lightning damage, check wind direction to make best use of tarp, etc, etc, but, hanging over duff instead of hard ground or a depression will help to make sure the water doesn't splash up into your hammock.

Even with an UQP, some of our downpours can get splash over and into the hammock and TQ. If the tarp isn't almost to the ground, duff can be a lifesaver from moisture.

[GoatHanger]

Like OutandBack said, wind... it does freak me out sometimes when it's below freezing and the wind is strong and gusty.

I haven't had anything fall on me, but I hear a lot of cracking noises. A wee bit unsettling, haha.

I guess the other set of circumstances I'd be concerned with would be strong winds with saturated ground. We've all come across trees that have uprooted while hiking, usually big ones.

As others have said, site selection is important. Even more so in adverse conditions.

[sliver]

It pays to investigate the local conditions if you can find good info. I usually call the area park rangers for info so I can better gauge the risk. I got some very good advice on areas to avoid as well as what to look for to reduce risk.

In many cases, the strong winds are of a particular direction. Here, the strong winds are from the west. We average 1 wind "event" a year of 95 mph or greater. Knowing the most likely strong wind direction helps you choose a camp site that provides some degree of wind protection. Air is a fluid so it flows a lot like water, however, it is far more compressible. Knowing that helps you visualize where the wind will be less in windy conditions.

For example, the lee-side (downwind) of a hill will have a nice wind shadow in strong winds. Thick brush that is 3-5 ft high creates an enormous amount of friction that will greatly slow the wind down near the ground. Even a small stand of 5-10 trees upwind of you will do a lot to drop the wind speed hitting your camp. One trick I have used car camping is to simply park my car upwind of my hammock. What works best is to park it parallel to the hammock if the wind is coming from the side and park it in-line, front into the wind, with the long axis of the hammock if the wind is in that same direction.

Even positioning downwind of a mound of dirt like a berm or a large pile of debris will help deflect the wind over you.

One surprising phenomenon is where you have wind coming across a meadow to a cliff. In high winds, > 45mph, the wind will hit that "wall" and create a small stable compression zone where the wind is greatly reduced. The size of that zone depends on the velocity of the wind and the width and height of the cliff.

A venturi is where the wind gets funneled into a smaller "channel", which increases the velocity in a fashion similar to what happens when you put your thumb over the end of a hose. That's what you want to avoid. A classic example of that is where there are 2 hills next to each other. In that case it would be better to camp at the top of the hill than in the "channel" between the two. That only applies, though, if the wind is perpendicular to a line connecting the tops of the hills. Otherwise, if the wind is in a direction parallel to that aforementioned line, between the 2 hills is where a wind shadow is likely to occur. Another example is streams and/or rivers where the wind runs in the same direction.

In short, find out the strong wind direction, visualize how it will flow over the trees, hills, etc., and position your camp where you get the best wind block.

If you want to learn how to more accurately gauge where these wind shadows will be, then put your hand in a moving stream and watch how the water moves over it. Make a fist and see how that changes the flow. Then, put up one finger (1 tree), then two (2 trees), etc. When you have 3 trees/fingers, rotate them in relation to the flow and see what happens. Is it better to be inside the V or have the V pointing at you? When you have 5 trees/fingers do you get more protection if you're in-line with the trees or to the side of the line of trees? There are many things to try and learn from.

Doing that exercise will help you learn how air flows and entertain your kids. It's likely your wife|S.O. is going to think you're crazy but she/they probably thinks that anyway. :-)

Hope this helps.

[GoatHanger]

That's a lot of words.

[ktitan]

thanks sliver for the wind explanation.

If I'm expecting bad weather I usually try to find smaller (6 to 8 inch) trees thinking that there is less that can fall on me.

[Montexan]

I like this thread; there's a whole lot of underrepresented PacNW love.

I may go and investigate the Pacific Northwest Trail this summer. Some where along this 1,200 mile trail, I would expect bad weather. Fickle is the word they use to describe the weather up there. So I need to decide on my Hennesy Hiper Light or my tent. This is not my back yard, and bailout could be a week away.

I only did J last year and it rained all but 1 day, making it very miserable for non-PacNW folk, resulting in some 0-days. While some sections of your hikes each day might be exposed, you won't be at camp, unless you choose to be. Same goes for I and K. L looks more exposed, but I can't comment from personal experience. Goat Rocks, which I'll probably be doing this late-Spring, is notoriously exposed. But there are still meadows and shorter high-alpine trees similar to this photo (in Goat Rocks even) I found on Flikr:

https://flic.kr/p/fFrbkw

When it's windy, do you hide in a group of trees to lessen your exposure or hang under open gaps with no branches above you? I've done both and prefer the latter.

And you can always mock-bivy using the hammock. My Dad just sent me his Early Winters bivy which I'm going to test (modify?) using as an UQ protector and optional bivy for longer trips in alpine environments.

WP_20150205_002.jpg

[chrisx]

nd you can always mock-bivy using the hammock.

That's a lot of words.

It pays to investigate the local conditions if you can find good info.
Know anything about airplanes?

wind... it does freak me out sometimes

[Bannerstone]

Rain doesn't really deter me too much and wind for the most part can be tolerated, I've been in a few hangs with winds up over 40 mph and at least one that it was up over 50 mph that we knew before the trip. Anything more than that I can't see much point in being out there. Otherwise bring the bad weather.

David

[sliver]

That's a lot of words.

Sorry... I try to stick to my $.02 worth and usually end up saying about $.05 more than I should. Doh!