weather/altimeter watches

This summer we are taking a group of 12 to NE New Mexico for a twelve day trek. Serval peaks are on the agenda. All Approaches are from the east & one peak in particular is mainly granite. All this for my question: Highgear Has the Terra Tech Summit weather/altimeter watch with barometer, temperature, and altimeter. Is this watch worth the $100.00 investment to keep up with possible storms and lightening which frequent this area? I don't want to get caught at 12,000 ft with 10 boys and 2 adults in an ascent with a thunderstorm brewing on the backside of a granite peak. A barometric drop might be a nice tip off.

We will have contact with rangers and such, but storms can be unpredictable. Anybody with any experience with the watch or the possibilities?

Thanks: Guyz

Sounds like you are going to Philmont on one of the standard itineraries.

I would not choose the Highgear watch. Suunto has a number of different versions, ranging from a pretty basic barometer/altimeter to ones with all sorts of bells and whistles. They have a number of years of experience with such watches in the field. I would also choose the Timex and Casio versions over the Highgear.

BUT ... you really have to understand some basics of altimeters and barometers for such tools to be of any help. Recall that the barometric and altitude readings are hard-linked to each other. If you set the altimeter at the bottom of the hill, the barometric reading will drop as you go up, at the rate of about 1 inch per 1000 feet altitude gain. So to spot a drop in the barometer, you would have to recalibrate the altimeter (and hence barometer) frequently. But you just do not have known, surveyed altitude points that would be 20-30 minutes of hiking/climbing apart. You can use a GPSR to obtain an altitude within 20-30 ft, which will help (be aware, though, that the Garmin GPSRs that have built-in barometric altimeters display the barometric altitude and not the GPS-derived altitude, with no way to force it to display only the GPS-derived value).

Also, the thunderstorms you will encounter in the Sangres during your trek are orographic, not frontal, so the barometric changes are not as indicative as for frontal thunderstorms. If you do not already have a fair amount of background in meteorology and experience with using barometers and barometric altimeters in mountain conditions, I would not suggest depending on one.

You can get "lightning warning" devices that are small and portable, and are far more accurate in warning of impending lightning strikes. Philmont has larger versions of these installed at the climbing areas, although not at the popular peaks like Trail Peak, Baldy, the Tooth, etc.

You will receive lightning briefings as part of your ranger briefing at the start of the trail. You can also depend pretty well on the thunderstorms following the "every day at 2 PM" schedule, as is commonly seen in mountain areas (sometimes it seems like you can set your watch by them). So the plan is start hiking early (be on the trail by 7, and no later than 8AM) and at your next camp by noon. Plan on doing the peaks early in the day and be off them pretty quickly after lunch.

And of course, learn to read the weather - watch cloud buildups, watch the daily patterns, use the "5-second" rule (count seconds between flash of lightning and hearing the thunder - sound travels at about 1 mile per 5 seconds, and if the interval is decreasing, the storm is getting closer). Review lightning safety procedures before you get to Philmont (there is a NOAA website that discusses and illustrates the safety procedures). You will get that in your ranger briefing, plus will go through a practice drill (or they used to do the drill up through the time my son was a Philmont Ranger).

Thanks Bill! Yes, it is Philmont. Sounds like the watch is not worth the expense for me. I have not seen the lightening warning devices. That sounds much more practical. Do you know where I might start looking for something on that order?

There are several companies that make handheld size units. One company that sells them is Ambient Weather - http://www.ambientweather.com/handheldlt.html My early acquaintance with lightning detectors was the early StormScopes, made for small aircraft. These fairly quickly developed into units that could show direction and distance, and are now often included in small aircraft weather radars that are fairly effective at weather avoidance. The handheld units are similar to the 1st generation or 2 of StormScopes, in that they give a rough indication of distance and strike frequency. The StrikeAlert is the smallest and cheapest at about $60-70. It isn't sophisticated, but is adequate for hikers who pay attention to the warnings.

One thing about the "wrist-top computers" like the Suunto units and the Polar heart rate monitors that include altimeters - these are pretty useful for keeping records of your day's hike profile - altitude gained and lost, and with the foot pods or GPSR add-on modules, the distance covered. And, of course, the adults in the group need the HRM to find out how much they are struggling up the hill... er, I mean, how much benefit from the training they are getting. You do need a computer to download and graph the information, but they have enough memory to store a whole Philmont trek (if you set the memory interval to 1 min or longer). If you look at my Africa report on this website (look on the News section), you will see my daily altitude gain and loss for the hike up and down Kilimanjaro (ok, ok, I am one of the gear freaks who keeps track of everything - but it's kind of fun to track this trivia).

If you really want to track the weather, I suggest the Kestrel 4000 or 4500 "pocket weather stations". These measure barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, and windspeed, and use these to calculate altitude, density altitude, wind chill, relative humidity, dew point, heat index, and with the 4500 which has a flux-gate compass in it, wind direction with headwind and cross-wind components (for the pilots in the crowd). Both of them log all the data at a user-specified interval (5 minutes or longer if you want to do a whole trek's worth). Since they display graphs of the data, you can have the unit record overnight and see whether the barometer has risen or fallen in that period (to be useful, the unit has to stay in the same place during that time period). They don't have lightning detectors in them, though.