Your buddy sounds like he understood what they were facing and responded accordingly. Someone without proper clothing and shelter can be dead within a couple of hours in conditions like that.
Agreed
We’ve talked about it a number of times.
Looking back, he seems to have made ALL right decisions, after things went south.
The only wrong decision was heading out with kids who weren’t properly prepared, despite being told all the proper gear to have.
Unless a person has spent a fair amount of time in the mountains, they have ZERO idea of what weather can be like.
Parents assumed because it was August, that the weather would be hot or mild, so they decided NOT to get their kids all the proper gear.
My buddy foolishly went against his own experiences and better judgement.
About 17 years ago, I was in Colorado.
A friend of mine took me to RMNP for the first time.
It was Sept.
It was near 95 down in Denver.
About 90 in Estes.
When we parked the car at RMNP it was 85.
We did a hike mid afternoon, that had IIRC about a 2000 ft elevation rise.
Before we left I had packed a day pack, just in case.
My friend Kris had brought a fleece jacket in case.
We hiked up to this beautiful mountain lake.
When we were in the valley where we parked, the temp was 85.
Up at the lake, my jacket thermometer said it was 42.
Other than my fleece jacket in the pack,
I had 2 pair of light gloves. 2 hats. 1 rain gear and even 1 pair of light weight long johns.
1 hat was used for me. We both used the gloves and our jackets.
We had an absolutely great hike.
When we got back down to the valley floor, it was dark. Had to watch the ground where we walked.
Drove back into Estes Park and had pizza, outdoors at 10 pm, wearing t-shirts.
Almost a 45 degree change in temps in 2000 ft.
Its possible that the other side of the same mountain, the temp could have been 20-30 degrees warmer.