Coping with the Weather

[myxpyr]

A week today is the longest day and we have got the central heating on The rain is coming down in buckets and the number of decent walks I've done this year is still well down in single figures. Earlier this year I did an eight mile "point to point" in the Carneddau. My jacket came off within twenty minutes of starting and my top was nothing more than a light fleece. At the end of the day I sat outside a pub enjoying a pint. For goodness sake, that was 23rd February, still officially winter! At the moment I feel about as brassed off as when I was trying to get fit for the Annapurna circuit in 2012. That spring and summer were notorious for almost constant wind and rain caused, we were told, by the jet stream being up the creek. Personally I think this atrocious weather has been wished upon us by Juncker, Barnier and Tusk et al for daring to vote "leave".
Anyway, joking aside, what are others doing to off set the sight and sound of the wind and rain. Are you getting out on the hill at all.
At the moment I console myself with bring up my digital maps and making tentative plans for another round of the TMB

[rural roamer]

We are currently starting to get our things together whilst keeping a close eye on the weather, before we head down to Devon on Monday to start the Two Moors Way.    Hoping that by then the worst of the weather will have passed but now not expecting it to be dry underfoot! We did manage a 14 mile walk here (Suffolk) at the weekend in the dry but weather has been dreadful since then    but wasn’t really planning for any long walks this week. Hope to get out Friday or Saturday for a short walk.

[myxpyr]

We are currently starting to get our things together whilst keeping a close eye on the weather, before we head down to Devon on Monday to start the Two Moors Way.    Hoping that by then the worst of the weather will have passed but now not expecting it to be dry underfoot! We did manage a 14 mile walk here (Suffolk) at the weekend in the dry but weather has been dreadful since then    but wasn’t really planning for any long walks this week. Hope to get out Friday or Saturday for a short walk.

Hmm, according to my weather app it doesn't look good for the next week or so

[Dyffryn Ardudwy]

I simply cannot remember a June as wet as this one.
Here in Dyffryn, there has only been one dry day this month, the rest of the so called Flaming June weather has been continually wet.

[ninthace]

I'm leaving the country!  I have spent the time this week plotting and printing routes for a trip to Bad Kleinkirchheim.  Hopefully the weather will have improved by the time I get back.  Sadly the long range forecast for S Austria next week is not overly brilliant.  Hopefully it will not be a week of wandering around the valleys in the rain.

[rural roamer]

Hmm, according to my weather app it doesn't look good for the next week or so

Forecast will have changed by then with any luck!


Enjoy your walking in Austria ninthace, we’ll keep an eye on Devon for you!

[pdstsp]

It is very miserable here in Liverpool - been raining for days.  Mrs pdstsp was meant to be at an archaeological dig for two weeks but it turned into the Somme and has been abandoned until next year (they only get two weeks access). 


I've decided to take advantage of a rare quiet spell at work and am off to Chamonix next weekend for four days walking - though judging by the Alpine Club's reports, the spring and early summer weather there has left a huge mount of snow at relatively low levels, and much of the TMB is still covered, with some of the higher cols reporting  3m of snow - so perhaps its not an EU plot!  I've got myself on a guided traverse of the Vallee Blanches from The Aiguille de Midi to Helbronner on the Saturday - hoping for some views!  This is the only thing cheering me up at the moment, as the view out of the office window is grey, grey and grey.

[myxpyr]

Ridiculous thing is that I did part of the TMB two years ago and had some foul weather on a number of days and on territory that was unfamiliar to me. On my second day I had a steep, rugged three thousand foot ascent in total clag. I just got my head down and got on with it.

[sunnydale]

Well I've been out this morning and managed around 7 miles before the rain started again.  I don't mind a bit of rain generally...but when it's heavy and relentless, I just can't see the point in setting out. The last longer walk (only 11 miles) I did was last Thursday (6th). Since then, I've just done shorter walks from home whenever there's been a decent enough spell to get out for a bit.  Being trapped indoors really affects my mood. I get restless and apparently, turn into a right misery a.r.s.e (according to my daughter!lol).


I actually had a lovely experience on Sunday eve on one of my local wanders;  I stopped at a local badger sett at around 9.30pm to see if there was any activity.  I'd only been there about 10 mins when I saw 3 of them on the top of the bank, heading for the woods.  Then a bit later, another 2 came out of a different part of the sett and wandered off in the same direction.
I've been trying to get a glimpse of them for a while, but it seems I've been going a tad too early (about 8.30pm).  On top of that, there's been some bloke dressed in camouflage gear laying on top of the bank every time I've been to look.  He's been literally on top of the sett, which I think is illegal. Not quite sure about that though.
Either way, with him there I've had no chance of catching a glimpse.  He must have had Sunday night off!


Anyway....back to the weather...


I'm off on holiday tomorrow (Llyn Peninsula) and really hoping it's a better week weather wise next week!

[ninthace]

Forecast will have changed by then with any luck!


Enjoy your walking in Austria ninthace, we’ll keep an eye on Devon for you!

If your plan works we will be back just as you get to the Mitre.  Enjoy the TMW.  A tip for you.  The first section N from the Mitre between Yeo Copse and the road to Bradford Mill is very prone to being boggy and even flooding after heavy rain.  There is a boardwalk over part of it but is too short.  The path down to the fields from the village hall is passable but overgrown with vegetation so it is a wet passage after rain.  If things do not improve, take the lane to Hole Bridge and down Beetham Hill.  It is not much further and will keep you dry shod.

[April]

Wow, I've never seen badgers! Well not live ones 


Enjoy your trips pdstsp and ninthace 


I want to escape somewhere too. PM Boris  . I just can't take it. My grandad was Irish, I wonder if I can get a passport?

[pdstsp]

I think you can April - Mrs pdstsp is going through this process at the moment.  But it'll be peeing down there too 

[April]

I can cope with rain but PM Boris? Noooooooooo! 

[vizzavona]

We were reminiscing this morning over the fine weather in February and the good sunshine at Easter.
Wind and rain here for a couple of weeks with just two days reasonable for getting out on the hills.
Two weeks ago using the bikes to reach a forest track end then dumping them to gain an old path running with water to get onto the high ground at just above 800 metres with strong winds at this level.
Last week I set of on the bike parked up at another track end to immediately commit a huge faux pas when using a fallen tree to attempt a swollen burn crossing.....I might just as well jumped into the stream...slipped off the tree for an immersion in the stream.
Still had boots and thick socks and my bamboo shirt in the rucksack having cycled with my trainers on. Made fast time to keep warm to the nearby Bothy where I could get more comfortable.  Sun came out when following a fine but wet old path to the top of Coire Follais and out onto the heather at around 700mtrs.....wind got up so traversed across to reach the top of another path to descend and eventually regain by bike.
 
Downhill again with strong winds and rain most of this week.

[gunwharfman]

I decided long ago even as a young boy, that we live in a country where the weather is 'changeable!' Having grown up as family who worked on the land throughout the seasons, we all had to accept any weather types that came at us. Complaining, which we did a lot,  but it never solved the weather problem, ever. If we decided to take a day off because it was raining, cold or hot, we just wouldn't get paid.

I've always tried my best to live my life (with weather that is) on a 'what will be will be' basis. No matter what I say or think, it will have no effect whatsoever on the situation and I am in no position to control it anyway. Obviously, I remember weather that can be a bit over the top, the 50s and 60s cold, ice and snow and the 1987 Great Storm for example but I know from experience that these severe weather moments in time do not happen every year. I do realize of course that I am writing about my early life in Kent and about my present and adult life in Portsmouth and do appreciate that people in other parts of the country may have experienced a few more 'severe' problems than I have.

As regards 'weather' I am always fully equipped to try to cope with whatever comes my way, I mostly I get it right but now and again I get it wrong, usually caused by a failure of my equipment, clothing or boots.

For example, when I'm at home and its raining, like today and I want to go running as I did earlier, I just took my Vaude Poncho with me, slipped that on and off I ran. All I got was wet feet (my towel, dry socks and shoes were in my car) which wasn't really a problem at all, I was only running for about 40 minutes.

Now that I am at my age, my view now is that whatever the weather, I'm not always successful, but I do force myself to try to enjoy each day's experience as if it's my last day on the planet. I also have an agreement with my wife, if I falter and don't feel like trying on a particular day, she will try to 'force' me to change my attitude! It usually works.