A windy day in the mountains

It was very windy on the day we did this walk. It made me wonder how fast would the wind have to be to abandon or cancel a walk. I think the wind speed on this day was around 40km/h. It was almost impossible to talk to anyone like being in a late night bar with loud music. The impact on the body was not to bad. We were walking across the wind at 90º so it did not make walking much more difficult. If we had been walking straight into the wind it would have been much more tiring.

Based on this walk I would say that if there are predicted wind speeds of over 50km/h I would cancel a walk. If you are dressed right and the temperature is OK a walk in high winds is not dangerous but anything over 40km/h starts to be unpleasant. If you go hiking to be sociable not being able to talk to anyone makes it pointless.

I am writing this on 1st September 2022. I had a look at this website to see what the weather is like around the ski station. It says that today there are going to be wind speeds of 60km/h and a "feel like" temperature of -10C. The feel like temperature takes into account the chill factor based on wind speed.

It just goes to show that if you go walking in the high Sierra Nevada it is a very good idea to check the weather forecast before going on walks. If the feel like temperature is -10C on the first of September it must get really low later on in the year. The area we walked in is covered in metres of snow in the winter, this is why there are no trees or bushes.

By the way: When we worked in tourism in Granada people would often ask if it was OK to go up to the ski station by car and if ski chains are necessary. I used to tell them to google for web cams from the ski station. You can then look out of the cameras in real time and judge for yourself.