What is the rule for rain pants? Alway bring them in winter and optional for summer?
No rules, you decide.
I almost always carry either homemade silnylon rainpants (3.5 oz) or a rainkilt (2.5 oz), even in the summer. They're rarely used, but drifting into hypothermia is a bad way to spend the day.
Last August I was hiking over Whitecap in ME, South side was downpour rain, on the summit it was sleeting and on the North side it was Sunny.
Always carry rain gear.
WalkingStick"75"
I always carry rain gear and something for warmth, since I have gotten hypothermic in mid-summer after walking in an all day drizzle. I don't trust weather forecasts, especially in the east, plus mountains can make their own weather.
i always take rain pants but i have left the jacket out of a few summer time trips
If there is very little/no chance of windy weather below the mid/low 50's then I take a windbreaker instead of a rainjacket. You can use a windbreaker+poncho tarp and get down to the mid/upper 40's if it isn't that exposed. I always carry a fleece windstop hat--it's pretty warm even when it gets damp, and it never really gets sopping wet.
I had one very cold experience in the mid/lower 30's with cold, windy, exposed rain and just a poncho-tarp. Not recommended, but I didn't really expect those temperatures in Washington in August. Oh well, it takes a lot to kill you.
The most hypothermic I've ever gotten? When I had the flu and tried to go to class instead of staying in my warm bed at home, although that experience in Washington was probably close.
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