A forest on a rainy day is one of the finest sights there is: the smell of earth comes up clearly, the leaves are a deeper green, and there is the sound of water everywhere. It is also the day when things most easily go wrong, and most of the risk comes from water rather than from rain.
Light rain is not a reason to postpone. But heavy prolonged rain, a stream changing colour and rising fast, or a forecast of flash floods and landslides are reasons to postpone, even if you have arranged everything. Once you are out in rain, the two priorities are keeping the base layer dry and slowing down.
The places that matter most when it rains
- Dry gullies and dry stream beds: a large volume of water can arrive in a very short time even if it has not rained much where you stand.
- The foot of a freshly slipped slope: the soil is still wet and still moving.
- Wet rock with moss: far more slippery than wet rock without it.
- Roots lying across the path: smooth and slick when wet, very easy to slip on going downhill.
- Makeshift bridges and fallen trunks used as bridges: they lose almost all their friction when wet.
Keeping dry the things that must stay dry
Nobody stays completely dry through a long day of rain. Choose what needs to stay dry and protect exactly those things: one insulating layer, one pair of socks, the phone, documents, a light, and matches or a lighter. A zip bag or a purpose-made dry bag is enough, and it is worth adding a liner inside the pack because a pack shell is rarely fully sealed.
On ZUNGZA trips the rule is to open the pack as few times as possible while it is raining, because most of the water that gets into a pack comes in during those openings to look for something.
Walk slowly and read the ground
Take shorter steps, place the whole foot down rather than the toe, and avoid grabbing small trees for balance. Going down a slippery slope, lower your centre of gravity and angle slightly along the hillside. If someone in the group walks slowly, set the whole group to their pace, because accidents usually happen when someone tries to keep up with a pace that is not theirs.
A few questions you often send us
Should I carry on once the rain stops
The path stays slippery and stream levels stay high for a while after rain, so if the route includes wading or walking along a stream, wait until the water has clearly dropped. If the route is only a dirt path through forest, carrying on is usually fine, just more slowly.
What to do when there is thunder
Leave summits, ridgelines, wide open ground and water. Avoid standing under the single tallest tree around. Get low, stand close together without touching, and wait a good while after the thunder has completely stopped before moving on.
What is worth seeing on a rainy day
The scent. After rain, the notes of damp earth, moss and decaying wood are clearer than at any other time, and that is something you rarely meet on a sunny day. If the scent of a forest interests you, a day of light rain is the best day there is.