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Finding current conditions on Mount Sherman (or any peak)
There are several tips for checking current conditions on peaks. I’ll use Mount Sherman from the Colorado Rockies Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge as an example.
First, I check the hike logs. In the case of Colorado, it’s early in the season, and 14ers are still covered in that cold white stuff that turns hiking into winter mountaineering. So we don’t have any hikes logged on Mount Sherman (yet).
Second, I check the current weather conditions using NOAA and mountain-forecast.com. At the time of writing, the lows are in the 20’s and the highest are in the mid 30s, so not whole lot of melt off quite yet.
Finally, I do a hashtag search on Instagram. For example searching for #mountsherman turns up 1,248 posts. Scroll past the Top Posts and pay closer attention to the Most Recent posts, noting the dates.
Here’s a great example from Instagram of a shot posted from the top of Mount Sherman on May 6th.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bic3pvqlAWf/
You’ll notice that they are wearing microspikes, but are not wearing helmets, snowshoes, crampons or caring ice axes. This doesn’t mean that you can do the same and be safe, but it is useful information.
All three of these, the hike logs, weather forecast, and Instagram hashtag search, provide useful beta on conditions on a peak. They aren’t the gospel, but simple data points that can help you prepare intelligently.
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