Olympics rainshadow...

[nolanr]

My ass! I think it's a hoax. I've been up to Royal Basin 3 times now, which is supposedly in the rainshadow, and the weather has sucked all 3 times. Wet, blustery, foggy, and generally shitty. But I did almost get ran over by a deer on my way out yesterday, so that made it worth it. No kidding, about 10 minutes from the parking lot, this deer is bounding towards me straight down the trail, full speed ahead, and it passed within a foot or 2 of me. Something scared the crappola out of it. I was thinking, "Great, a cougar was stalking a deer, the deer got away, now the cougar is going to be stalking me." Didn't see any big kitties though.

 

Seriously though, has anybody ever ecountered GOOD weather on the NE side of the range?

[Norman_Clyde]

I've been up to Royal Basin once, up the Dose twice, Del Monte Ridge/ Mt. Mystery, all in midsummer, and I have had sunny days every time. I have had bad weather in Avalanche Canyon, but good weather there also. It's true that the "rain shadow" just lowers the precipitation, while the clouds remain-- Port Townsend apparently gets only 15 inches of precip. a year, but it's gray there almost all the time. No place in the Northwest is a sure thing for nice weather. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for Olympus on the 21st.

[David_Parker]

I've been "rained out" of the Cascades more than the Olympics. But now I try to wait for weather windows when planning trips. All mountains have their personal weather systems though.....

[nolanr]

Well I guess I've just been unlucky then. Clark and the rest of the Needles look pretty cool when they pop out of the clouds. I actually camped in Deception Basin this time rather than Royal B. Didn't see another soul. I'm sure Royal was crawling w/ people over the 3 day weekend. Did a slow, roundabout approach via Heather Creek. I was impressed w/ the size of the glacier on the east side of Mystery, some nice crevasses opened up.

[bonehead]

I think "rainshadow" is a misnomer ........

 

They should call it the "notasmuchrainshadow".....

 

I've had good weather and poor weather there, but what I've noticed mostly about the NE corner of the peninsula is that it's grey all the time, with not as much accompanying rain. DEPRESSING!!!

[Goat_Boy]

quote:

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Originally posted by nolanr:

Well I guess I've just been unlucky then. Clark and the rest of the Needles look pretty cool when they pop out of the clouds.

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I think you have been unlucky, but this is the NW afterall. I've been hiking and climbing in the Olys since I was a puppy (and I used to walk 5 miles to school in barefeet too, dammit), and I would confirm the rain shadow phenomenom beyond the empirical data. Not to say it the bahamas, but I've had consistently better luck around the Needles than the Vahallas. And it's the only area I found that occasionally beats the prevailing weather systems. Albeit marginally.