Winter Weather in the Mountains

Weather conditions can change rapidly in the mountains. What started out as a nice sunny winter day can soon turn into a cold windy whiteout. It pays to be prepared for the weather at all times especially in winter. This is why we keep preaching about the necessity of layering when it comes to clothing.
 It's always better to carry extra than to try to save weight in your pack and carry less. Only to end up with hypothermia or frost bitten.

 As a rule on a sunny day the temperature drops 1 degree C for every 100 meters climbed. Cloudy days drops it to 0.6 degrees C but just use 1 degree C as a rule of thumb. That's without windchill.
 At certain times of the year we have literally seen the weather go through four seasons in the course of one hike.

A site we regularly use to check weather is Mountain- Forecasts.com Click here to check them out.
http://www.mountain-forecast.com/

Choose a peak in the general vicinity of your hike and get the forecasts for differing elevations for the day you are hiking. It will give temperature and windchill as well as wind speed..

Weather is a funny thing. It can be miserable in Calgary and many hikers will stay home. But in the mountains it can turn out to be a beautiful day. Of course the opposite can also be true. It has to be pretty cold for some of us diehards to reconsider.
One thing that will cause me to cancel a hike at the last minute are bad road conditions. Always check the road conditions before leaving at: https://ama.ab.ca/knowledge-base/articles/road-reports/

An old hiker once told me the most dangerous part of any hike or scramble is the ride home. Why have rotten road conditions on top of that. My thoughts. I realize the roads could deteriorate through the day while you're hiking but if they are bad to start it may be wise to reconsider.