Am I Wrong?

[BillyBob58]

I am to deliver my 21 yo grandson and friend to Springer Monday morning for their attempted thru. Besides being under funded I think they are not equipped or prepared for the weather conditions. Grandson has a Travel Hammock, JRB 10x11 cat tarp, thermarest 3/4 pad and MH Phantom 15 bag. Friend has tent, blue foam pad and about 35-40 down bag. I have offered help with gear but grandson doesn't want it. He knows pretty much eveything about everything. His experience is limited to about 38 miles on AT in May 4 years ago and a few overnighters locally. Are they in for serious trouble or am I wrong?

Sounds pretty marginal for the friend. A 35-40 bag and he might have temps, what, sometimes in the low 20s or down to zero if the freakishy cold/snowy weather continues? He is going to be cold depending on what clothes he has to add to the bag and how dry they are capable of staying as they slog through the high elevation deep snow.

For the grandson, what is he going to use under his legs, some extra clothing or a maybe his pack? But it sounds like he is in survival range, again depending on the pad thickness, clothing, etc.

Are they capable of bailing out when things go to crap? That seems the main thing to me. If they know enough to handle that, then they may get a few bone chilling nights with little sleep. Then abandon ship, lessons learned.

Do they know the hot water bottle trick? Some folks just can't listen to advice, they can only learn from experience. As long as they know to, and are capable of, getting out of Dodge if needed, then I wouldn't worry too much about it. A couple of cold wet nights can be excellent teachers, as long as you feel confident in their ability to at least survive and abandon ship if needed.

[gunner76]

Southmark, sounds like the same answers you got on your WhiteBlaze posting. Isn't great when great minds think alike.

[UCMWINGS]

Southmark, I live about 30 min from the AT, we are expecting mid 20's tonight in the valley and its usually 10 deg colder up there. There was about 2 ft of snow earlier this week. I don't think I would try it with a 40 deg bag. I'm sure the Smokies are worse.

[aBRG2far]

Theres 45in of snow on Mt LeConte this morning and it never got above 20*F yesterday.

[gnome]

goodness I hiked from Il. to
florida and back to see my bro. (in the service) when I was 15 slept in a few ditches, did get miserable at times. Had a great time. Learned a lot. met a ton of nice folk. At 21 they will do fine and have fun and be miserable at times. I commend your concern. keep in touch and a touch of prayer won't hurt. gnome

[lazyboy]

Kermegan has the right idea imo

[DougTheElder]

Just give them your VISA card and ...Nah! If they want to do it their way, let them do it their way! Be ready for the call to come pick them up. I'd be inclined to let them figure that part out on their on, too!

[southmark]

I dropped them this morning around 9 am. We spent last night in Dahlonaga and after watching local weather about the winter storm warning they had a change of heart and asked for help. Luckily I had loaded a few items in the car. The grandson dropped his 3/4 thermarest in favor of a SPE 4 with full length pad, torso pad and foam for the wings. The friend accepted a GG 1/4 inch pad to supplement his blue pad and a fleece bag liner. He also accepted a pair of my wool liner and wool hiking socks after I discovered he had cotton socks. They also took a weeks worth of their two week food supply out of their packs and let me drop it off at Mountain Crossings. Now their packs only weigh probably 50 lbs but that's another issue that I'm sure they will resolve soon. All is well that ends well. Thanks for all the good advice.