Stays Dry in the Rain

It seems like more and more it might be useful to have a "Rainy Day" setting or field for routes and possibly areas. I'm not exactly sure what the best way to implement this is, but a simple Stays Dry: No/Light Rain/Downpour might be a useful field for someone adding a new route. It could be crowdsourced (voted on like grade, quality, etc), or simply just editable by the page owner. Obviously one can and probably in many cases, does write in the descriptions of walls or route whether it stays dry or not, however, it would be nice if you could sort areas or walls by whether they stay dry. This might cut down on the "Where to climb in XXX during rain?" questions in the forum, and would be a useful feature for veterans visiting new areas or walls and new climbers alike. 

Rock Type is another data element that is sometimes included in descriptions but may be interesting to have as its own field in the areas table. Perhaps approach time and sun exposure times as well.

Randy Von Zee wrote: Rock Type is another data element that is sometimes included in descriptions but may be interesting to have as its own field in the areas table. Perhaps approach time and sun exposure times as well.

Sure, Sun: AM/PM/All Day/Never is very useful and included in most guidebooks. Although it can be seasonal depending on the wall, it would still be useful to be able to sort for it. Something more robust which might be useful is the ability to set Shade: All Day/Never/Before x/After x, with x being a time, such as Shade: Before 13:00, or After 15:00.

As for rain, I'm thinking simple is probably better. Anything that requires explanation is probably too involved for a simple data field. So something like "Stays Dry:" During Downpour/During Light Rain Only/No/DO NOT CLIMB IF WET (for soft sandstone?). Explaining seepage and how many days to wait before it's dry seems like it might be too complicated, although quite useful.

Jake Jones wrote:

I know the sun aspect has been discussed- not sure if it's currently being implemented, but I know they're working on it.  The big challenge with sun aspect is that A) they want information to be as accurate as possible and B) it changes with the seasons.

In light of the information being as accurate as possible, it may be best then to stick with the very, very simple Stay Dry in Rain: No/Light Rain/Downpour, since that's the only reasonable way to keep things as accurate as possible? Possibly even as simple as Stays Dry in Rain: No/Yes, with maybe the ability to expound on the setting in the description for the wall or route.

Simplicity with sun is needed too, dont forget the sun changes its angle depending on the time of year and your latitude, so a feature like "sunny before 15:00" is really only valid part of the year. I prefer

Sun exposure: Always/Never/AM/PM

and I think that's fine grained enough. Adding more categories than that would just increase noise from people reporting. It's already hard enough for guidebook authors to get the approaches right all the time ;) I agree with simplicity for wetness stats as well. A system like

Stays Dry / Dries Fast / Normal (for the area) / Seeps

is probably complex enough. everyone understands that weather is extremely variable and a route that "stays dry" will probably still get wet after several days of heavy rain. An additional option like "never wet" may or may not be added, there are cases it would apply but I think they are pretty rare as it would really only apply to special cases like cave routes or extremely steep walls that are protected. Better to make it simpler and say those routes also "Stay dry"

Figuring you just buy the local guide book, most have this information.

And most purchases help support the local outdoor outfitters, author, or climbing coalitions. 

check out suncalc.net for sweet seasonal sunshine prediction

Nick Metzger wrote: Figuring you just buy the local guide book, most have this information.

And most purchases help support the local outdoor outfitters, author, or climbing coalitions. 

Of course. If I'm gonna be visiting an area often I do. But if I'm just visiting or checking a crag out for the first time I use MP.