RE Weather Changes:

A story to tell on myself - and a lesson learned...

About 20 years ago, I was going for a nice day hike up Slide Mountain in the Catskills of NY - by western standards - hardly a mountain at all - 4100 ft give ot take a couple of dozen, but the tallest in the range. At that time, I had probably climbed Slide around 8-10 times.

Anyway, it was the week before Memorial Day, left NYC and drove up with 2 friends. Dumb me just brought a canteen, a bit of snack food, a nice sandwich for lunch, some TP and a light jacket and my share of the group gear - the first aid kit(NOTE: I ALWAYS have a knife, lighter etc on me, so I won't list me edc as it turned out not to be important)

We got to the parking area, and it was kinda misty, and a BIT cool, but I figured - it's early in the day - it'll warm up

About 1/2 way up the hike (it takes a bit less than 2 hours up - taking you time) the temp had dropped - and that nice mist? It was a snow flurry (yeah - I know - turn around now) Another 20 minutes, and I start shaking - yep, hypothermia. Now my buddy Joe figured out what was going on - and HE had a nice Seva stove with him, and we made all 3 of us some instant soup and he put HIS jacket on me (heavier than what I had, but not by that much) and took mine (BTW we knew he had the stove - his part of the group gear)

We finished the soup - he looked at me and said "You OK?" I could honestly answer "Yes - wow, so that's what hypothermia is like"

The REAL interesting part? While we were eating the soup, the snow stopped, the sun came out, and the temps went up 15-20 degrees! We decided to continue the hike, went to the top (we were above the 3500ft mark already), had a nice lunch (including some Hot Cocoa), hicked a bit down the back side to the spring - refilled out canteens, back to the top, and down - all safe) - stopped in Phonecia for an early dinner, and home to NYC

Learned some interesting things that day - how a simple 3-4 hour day hike can go wrong - fast. I've never seen it that cold up there that time of year before or since, and did NOT have the right clothes - that said - the group having a small stove, some instant soup/cocoa, knowing the trails, and looking out for one another saved the day

I'll honestly didn't even realize how cold I was until I warmed up - thank goodness Joe and Dave realized what was going on (Dave was a first timer - Joe and I have spent MANY hours hiking with one another - including winter, go figure)

So, there is a simple thing that can go wrong on a 4-5 hour day hike (time dependant on how much time you spend on the top)

BTW - OT - if anyone plans to hike that part of the Catskills - the view is MUCH better from The Wittenburg and/or Cornell Mtn, but the climb up Wittenburg is MUCH harder, even if the Moutain is 200 or so feet lower - you start lower, and climb faster (I can tell the story of doing it with nearly 70lbs of pack... NOT a climb I'd want to repeat)