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Bugman88
01-19-2015, 10:33
My friend is planning on starting his thru-hike in late March and I'm going to join him for the first two weeks. I was wondering what sort of weather I should expect, mainly how cold it will likely get, so I can figure out what clothes to bring. My hiking experience is confined to mid-summer in New England, so this is new terrain for me (pardon the pun). I typically bring a pair of zipoffs, a lightweight t shirt, a long sleeve button down, a synthetic half zip, a wool pullover, and a rain jacket, which I already tend to think is too much or too redundant. I'm thinking about augmenting this list with some long underwear and a down jacket, while leaving behind the wool pullover. Does this seem like enough or is it overkill?

Thanks!

Bugman88
01-19-2015, 10:34
I can't tell how to edit my previous post, so I'll just add here that we're starting in Georgia, just in case it wasn't obvious.

WILLIAM HAYES
01-26-2015, 22:09
bring whatever you would wear hiking in winter time the temps can range below freezing this time of year there can be snow and sleet etc just depends one day might be great the next day very cold it is better to be prepared for cold weather this time of the year in the georgia mountains

Don H
01-27-2015, 07:22
Down jacket for sure. You'll use it in camp in the evenings and when you stop for breaks.
Light weight long underwear is good for sleeping in and hiking on really cold days

Here's what I had for clothing:
North Face Zip off pants
synthetic T shirt
Smartwool light wool long sleeve shirt
Patagonia Capilene 1 top and bottom
Patagonia down sweater
Dri-Ducks rain jacket
Light gloves
Knit hat

bigcranky
01-27-2015, 09:14
So it's still late winter in the Southern Appalachians at the end of March. Not New England winter, but still winter. I've hiked Georgia in March three times now, and had temps ranging from lows in the single digits to highs in the 70s - and that was the same week :)

I bring a 20-F rated bag and a warm pad. For clothing, 150-wt merino wool base layers -- short sleeve and long sleeve tops, and boxer briefs and long john bottoms. Mix and match depending on the weather. Nylon hiking shorts, ultralight wind shirt, light or midweight fleece pullover (Cap 4 most recently), lightweight down jacket with a hood, rain shell, rain pants, windbloc gloves, rain mitts, powerstretch balaclava. Warm dry socks for sleeping. That covers me for pretty much any weather from very cold and windy (oh, it'll be windy), to wet snow or 35-and-raining, to 70 and sunny.

Don't forget some sunscreen.

Have a great hike.

No Directions
01-27-2015, 11:13
Professional weather forecasters can't accurately predict the weather 2 days ahead of time. There is no way anyone can tell you what the weather is going to be like 2 months from now. But like Big Cranky said, it's still winter so plan accordingly.

No Directions
01-27-2015, 11:14
One more thing, we had temps in the 60's last week in north Georgia.