View Full Version : Who is brave enuf??
My wife told me I was totally nuts to challenge Frances in my hammock here in the NC Mtns. It would have been fun to find out my limits. I was sure tempted, but wimped out. I could imagine glued to the inside of my hammock sailing horizontally in the wind and rain with crashing trees all around me. Now~~ we got Ivan the Terrible probably coming in the beginning of next week. Anybody have any survival stories to share?
SGT Rock
09-09-2004, 21:20
I already did that in 2001.
I have a non survival story. When hurricane Floyd passed through in Sept of 1999, I waited out the storm at the lodge on top Mt. Greylock, MA, and was surprised when I saw a few snow flakes mixed in with the rain and wind. I didn't think tropical storms would bring snow. Above treeline on Franconia Ridge, NH, conditions must have been much worse. Hard to imagine anyone up there in those conditions, but there was. I met a hiker later in the trip who was up there that day, and when I excitedly asked them about how it was, he got sort of quiet, and said it was bad. Then he mentioned he passed older man backpacking by himself who didn't seem to be doing to well. He later heard a guy died up there, probably the one he had seen.
Kerosene
09-10-2004, 06:32
Experiencing the ferocity of the wind and rain would be cool, but having trees and large branches fall all around you is only playing russian roullette. The amount of wood in a large tree branch is absolutely astounding. Having one fall on your hammock would very likely be fatal. If you walk in an area where a microburst or ice storm recently hit, you would be amazed at how many blowdowns there are.
Youngblood
09-10-2004, 09:12
My wife told me I was totally nuts to challenge Frances in my hammock here in the NC Mtns. It would have been fun to find out my limits. I was sure tempted, but wimped out. I could imagine glued to the inside of my hammock sailing horizontally in the wind and rain with crashing trees all around me. Now~~ we got Ivan the Terrible probably coming in the beginning of next week. Anybody have any survival stories to share?
I wasn't brave enough to go out to the mountains, but I did try out my home made catenary tarp in my backyard with me in my hammock. I live on the outskirts of Atlanta and I was somewhat protected by houses and trees. It got pretty scary, there was a lot of rain over a few hours and the wind lasted longer than that. I felt kind of foolish out there at times when the wind seemed like it was going to blow my tarp away with me wrapped up in it... but it was only a few feet to the back door of my house if I wanted to bail. Everything survived, but I did get some wind blown dampness on the bottom of my hammock on a few feet of the head end. I was using a full length closed cell foam pad so I didn't get damp. I also experienced the "misting effect" of the silnylon at times during the heavy rains and this did get the top of the fleece sleeping bag moist enough to feel by touch and I could feel it on my face... but it was not enough to be a problem.
The tarp I was using was 8 feet wide and almost 11 feet long with a Speer type 8.5 foot hammock. The tarp was pitched in a low angle A-frame with three stakes on each side. I had the hammock as close to the tarp as the 11 foot length allowed. The tarp has a catenary ridgeline as well as catenary curves on all edges. I used spectra core guyline with 275 lb breaking strength and I used short pieces of 1/8" shockcord to 'self-tension' the guylines ( http://www.whiteblaze.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/3997/password/0/sort/1/cat/500/page/1 ) on the six side pullouts. I believe this self-tensioning approach with limit helped save the tarp. The shock cord takes up any slack so that wind burst do not result in a quick snapping force on the guyline. The shock cord tied in parallel with the guyline prevents the shock cord from excessively stretching to its breaking point or to the point that the tarp coverage is compromised. With this arrangement you maintain the strength of the guyline cord and somewhat dampen the tremendous forces associated with high wind bursts. At lower winds there was no flapping of the tarp... at higher winds I don't know because the wind was howling pretty good and that was the least of my worries at that point.
The storm subsided when daylight arrived and I was ready to go inside because I didn't get much sleep. When I took down the tarp, some of the stakes were on the verge of failing and coming out of the ground. When I staked the tarp the previous evening it was difficult to get the stakes in the hard ground, but by morning the ground was saturated from the heavy rains. I guess if you know a big storm is coming it would be best to place heavy rocks or limbs on the guyline where it is staked to help hold them in saturated ground.
Youngblood