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WINTER CAMPING

Planning   Tents   Bivouac   Campsite   Bags and pads   Clothes   Night Sequence   Stoves and Food   Traces  

For many people winter trips mostly involves skiing and sleeping in huts, hotels or a rented cottage. This can be rather expensive and therefore many people choose not to go so often. Though you can do it a bit cheaper and more adventures if you just have the right knowledge and gear. Here I’m going to write about winter camping and what you need to know before going.

Exploring the wilderness in winter is a wonderful experience. You are far from the crowds, in a hushed tranquil world of white. Whether you are gliding on cross-country skis, snowboarding, glacier travelling or ice climbing, winter to me is a spectacular time of year!!

Having said this, you must realize that this cold environment can in some cases become dangerous. It takes proper planning, knowledge, experience, and of course the right equipment. A few months ago I saw a show on TV about safety in the Swedish mountains. It showed that most people doing winter trips have the right gear but not the knowledge to use it. Most people didn’t even know how to use a compass, but they had it with them along with the GPS, altitude clock and transceivers for avalanche safety. These things are naturally great to have, but aren’t to much use if you don’t know how they work.


Trip Planning

Planning a trip in the winter means spending a good deal of time researching areas and conditions to determine where, when, and how the trip will work. You have to think of what kind of goals you have for the trip, route, will you be on a trail or off trail, snow level;shallow or deep, snow quality;powder, packed, breakable crust, or variable, elevation changes and strength and experience of group.

Keep in mind that everything takes "twice" as long in the winter; setting up camp, breaking camp, cooking, going to the bathroom, etc. Also look to see where you could camp while planning the route. Know what your emergency and bail out options are if conditions deteriorate or you have problems. Talk to area guides about permits and camping restrictions, where to get water and beautiful spots you shouldn't miss. Find out about snow levels, avalanche danger, safety of ice crossings, etc.


Tents

In many cases you will be traveling to areas without shelters, so you need to bring your own. There are a range of tents available. Don't go buying a US $ 40 tent thinking it will be enough. There is a reason why the prices are so different, cause the quality is so different. Having said this I don't mean you have to run off buying the most expensive one on the market. Ask around and make sure you find a tent that will be good for the thing you are using it for. The key factors are:

  • Strength - to withstand both wind and snow. In general it is recommended that you use a tent specifically rated to be a 4-season tent. Four season tents typically have stronger poles (to hold snow loads and wind).
  • Ability to shed snow - the tent must have a roof line that allows snow to fall off. Otherwise the tent will load up and the weight will cause it to collapse. (Four season tents are designed this way).
  • Room - you need lots of internal space on a winter trip for all the bulky gear you are carrying. Also you may get snowed in and need to stay in the tent for an extended period of time. Being snowbound in a cramped tent with several other people can be unpleasant.
  • Rainfly - the tent must have a rainfly. Having a breathable inner tent wall with a waterproof fly outside helps reduce condensation in the tent. It also helps provide better insulation by increasing unmoving air space layers. Typically a tent will be a few degrees warmer than the outside air (once your body is inside heating it up).
  • Free standing tents are recommended because they shed snow fairly well and they provide efficient interior space. Make sure that the manufacturer recommends the tent for winter use. Many tents are designed for three season use only and the stitching and the poles are not designed to take the weight of snow.
  • Make sure the tent has an abside. At both side (if it's a tunnel tent) can be good. Here you can bulk the backpacks, food and if the weather is bad cook your food.
  • Another issue with tents is condensation. During the night your breathing pumps a great deal of humid air into the tent. This air rises and hits the inner tent wall where the moisture condenses into ice. These fine particles can get all over you and your gear. It is best to brush the ice particles off the tent in the morning and sweep them outside. A frost liner, hung inside the tent, allows the moisture to pass through and provides a layer between you and the ice.

Tips for Tents

  • Make sure you bring extra poles with you and pole splints in case a pole breaks.
  • A ground sheet (like a space blanket or tarp) can help protect your tent floor (the ground underneath usually turns to ice from your weight and body heat. Sharp ice can tear the floor)
  • You need larger tent sticks than those that usually comes with the tent. Paint the sticks in red, then you will find them more easily.
  • Cooking - Do not cook in a tent. It is possible to asphyxiate yourself from accumulated carbon monoxide and the water vapor leads to extensive condensation. It the weather is really bad you can cook in the abside, as long as you keep the ventilation good.


Bivouac.

If you don't have a tent you can always build a bivouac (other names=igloo or bivi). How cold it can get on the mountain increase with strong wind, the best thing to do is to build a bivouac- which makes a shelter from the wind. You’ll need some essential gear to be able to do this;

Spade (both a small and a bigger one is to prefer)

Bivibag, at least 2 meter long, 2-3 persons.

Sleeping mats.

When you build the bivi try not to get to warm and sweaty, cause you will be much colder when you sit down. There are several different sort of Bivouac. To protect yourself from the wind you can either build a wall to shelter behind or build it in a snow-drift. In the Swedish mountains it’s mostly winds coming from North and West, which makes more snow on the Eastern side of the Mountains. Avoid to build a Bivouac on open slopes where an avalanche easy can be triggered.

Check how deep the snow is and how hard it is packed. For two persons the snow-deep should be at least two meters or more. If you are to build the bivouac in a snow-drift, start to dig a rectangular path a bit lower than standing height. It should be so wide that you can fit in, but no more. When you have digged little more than a meter in you can start to make it wider. Don’t forget to make the roof in a vault, unless you want to wake up with the roof in your head. Also take away all sharp edges in the roof, cause it will start to drip when the temperature gets higher. There should also be holes for ventilation in the roof, you’ll need fresh air to get in, especially if you have to cook food inside. The sleeping spots should be build as bunks on the sides. Put them a bit higher than the floor since the cold air has a tendency to go lower. Another tip is to build the floor so it tilts a bit towards the door to decrease the cold even more. The opening can be covered with the skis, bivibag or a snow-block. Put the pole’s on the top, to mark where the bivouac is. Always keep one spade in the bivouac, incase it will come a lot of snow so you have to dig your way out.

When you finally are in the bivouac it’s time to curl down in the sleeping bag or bivibag, it’s good to be more than one person in the bag. Make sure you are sitting or lying on a mat. While in the bag, put on the extra layers of clothes you brought, to avoid getting more cold. This can be rather interesting if you are more than one person in the bivibag, but I think you all know that the best way to keep warm is body heat.

Split the food you have into small portions, you don’t know how long the bad weather may last and you might have to stay there during a longer time. Talk to each other and try to keep the good mood up. Hopefully the sun will come out again and you can continue your way towards your goal.


Campite

Keep the following factors in mind when choosing a winter camp.

  • Camping regulations
  • Other campers
  • Wind - avoid ridge tops and open areas where wind can blow down tents or create drifts.
  • Be aware of "widow makers", dead branches hanging in trees.
  • Avoid low lying areas where the coldest air will settle.
  • Avalanche danger - select sites that do not pose any risk from avalanches.
  • Exposure - south facing areas will give longer days and more direct sunlight.
  • Water availability from lakes or streams will prevent you having to melt snow for all your water.
  • Level ground

Setting up Camp

When you first get into camp, leave your snowshoes or skis on and begin to tramp down areas for tents and your kitchen. If possible, let the snow set up for 30 minutes or so, this will minimize postholing once you take snowshoes or skis off. Set up your tents with the doors at 90 degrees to the prevailing winds. Stake the tents out. If it's windy make sure you hold on to every part of the tent, it's no fun running around looking for the inner tent it a snow storm.

If it's windy you may have to build snow walls, at least on the windward side of the tent. Build the wall about 5 meters away from the tent, and make it as high as the tent is. Don't forget to mark the campsite so no snowmobiles or skiers hits it.

You can mound the sides of the tent with snow (have someone inside pushing out on the tent to keep it from collapsing. Some say the ventilation will get worse this way in the tent, but I have never had that problem. When the snow sets up you will have a hybrid tent-snow shelter which will have better insulation than the tent alone.

If you need more space for gear and stuff you can dig a pitch in the abside of your tent, like a porch. This makes taking your boots off much easier and you can load up more gear. Put your foam pads in the tent and unstuff your sleeping bag and place it in the tent so it can "expand" from it's stuffed size.

For safety reason, have one shovel inside and one outside the tent.


Sleeping bags and pads

Sleeping bags for winter camping should be rated to temperatures below what you will likely experience if you want to be comfortable. If the nighttime temperature can drop to -25 C, then your bag should be rated to -30 C. There are a variety of different fills for sleeping bags: down, Primaloft, Microloft, Qualofill, Polarguard, etc. The bag itself should be a mummy style bag with a hood. It should also have a draft tube along the zipper and a draft collar at the neck. In sleeping bags, you want the bag to snugly conform to your body. If the bag is too big, you will have large spaces for convection currents and you will be cold. In a bag that has too much space, you may need to wear clothing layers to help fill up the space. To make your bag warmer you can augment it with a barrier liner (or fleece bag), a bivy sack, and/or an overbag (a summer weight bag that fits over your mummy bag

Foam Pads You also need to insulate yourself from the underlying snow. Foam pads (Ensolite) or inflatables (Thermarest) work well. Your insulation should be a least 10 mm thick. If you have space and can manage the load the best thing is to use a Thermarest on top of a foam pad. On the market there are these 2/3 length pads. Why? It's made shorter to reduce the weight. For me it works well being only 165 cm long and I sleep curled up as a dog. Though if you are a long person it is best to use full length pads so that all of your body is insulated.


Clothes

I have on other places on Trek Mountains written about clothes, the layering system and so on. Therefor I will here only list the things you can think about when choosing clothes and how many layers while on the winter trek.

The essence of staying warm in the winter is having the proper clothing layers and knowing how to use them effectively.

Morning When you first get up in the morning, your activity level will be low as will be the temperature. You will need to have many, if not all, of your layers on at this point until breakfast is over and you have started to become active.

Getting ready When you get ready to be active, you will need to take off layers since you will begin generating heat. A good rule of thumb is to strip down until you feel just cool, not chilled just before activity. Failure to do this will mean overheating, sweating, losing heat and you will have to stop in 10 minutes down the trail anyway to take layers off. Open or closing zippers, rolling sleeves up or down, taking a hat off or putting one on will all help with temperature regulation.

Rests If you stop for more that a few minutes, you will need to put on another layer to keep from getting chilled. Keep a layer close at hand. Whenever you get covered with snow, either from a fall or from dislodged snow from a tree, it is essential to brush yourself off to keep your clothing free of snow. Failure to do this often results in the snow melting into your clothing and refreezing as ice.

End of day At the end of the day, as activity decreases and temperature drops, you will need to add layers. Once you start to cool down it takes a lot of the body's resources (calories) to heat up again so layer up fast before you get chilled. It may be good to put on more that you think you need; it will only get colder. If you are too warm, you can open up layers and ventilate to reach the proper temperature.


Night Sequence

After dinner, getting warm water for water bottles, and putting gear away, it's time for bed. This is a general sequence:

1. Get warm before you get into your bag. Do some jumping jacks, etc. so your heat is built up for when you get in your bag. Remember the bag won't get you warm, it will only help you keep your temperature.

2. Get any clothing/gear you will need out of your pack as well as full water bottles and tomorrow's lunch.

3. At the tent door, brush off any snow. Sit down inside the tent entrance and, keeping your boots outside, either have a friend brush them off, or remove them and brush them yourself.

4. Climb into the tent and close the door.

5. Strip off your layers of clothing to what will be appropriate in your sleeping bag. My advice is that wear a few layers to keep you better insulated. However, too much clothing can compress dead air space in the bag and reduce its effectiveness.

6. Remove any wet/damp layers and replace them with dry ones, particularly socks.

7. Pre-warm your bag with your body (get it nice and toasty).

8. Place damp items in the sleeping bag with you near your trunk. This will help dry them overnight.

9. Place your boots in your sleeping bag stuff sack (turned inside out) and place the stuff sack between your legs. This will keep them from freezing during the night and the stuff sack keeps your legs from getting wet.

10. If it's really cold put water bottles and food with you in the bag.

11. A hat and polarguard booties are recommended to help keep you warm.

12. Try to sleep with your face out of the bag. This reduces moisture build-up inside the bag (which could be catastrophic for a down bag). A scarf on your neck may be better than using the sleeping bag neck drawcord (which makes some people feel a little claustrophobic and creates a difficult nights sleep).

13. You will probably wake up a number of times during the night. This is normal in cold weather. Your body needs to change position to allow for circulation to compressed tissues and to move around a bit so that muscle movement generates more heat. If you are still cold, eat some protein to "stoke up your furnace" If that doesn't work, wake a tent-mate for some extra warmth. Body heat is the best way to keep warm.So cuttle up!!!

14. With 10 or more hours in the tent, you are likely to need to urinate in the middle of the night. Go for it! Otherwise you won't get back to sleep, and your body is wasting energy keep all that extra fluid warm. You will be surprised how quickly you can get out and back in and your body really won't chill that much. Women have to strip a bit more to go pie and that can be so, SO cold...trust me guys!! Brrr. If you have a abside on your tent you can pie there in a jar or something.

15. It is useful to have a thermos of hot drink in each tent.


Stoves and Food

StovesIn most cases you will be taking stoves and fuel for cooking. Fires are possible in some locations, but in high use areas, it is best to rely on a stove as firewood can be difficult to find in the winter.

Your stove should have good heat output. In order to insulate the stove from the snow (so it doesn't melt itself into a hole) place something underneath it like a pot lid, or a piece of fiberboard. Since the burner is usually significantly smaller than the pot bottom, placing a metal pot lid on top of the burner can also help spread the heat more efficiently to the pot. Wind shields are also helpful in the winter to concentrate the heat. Priming stoves in the winter can be difficult. It is best to use alcohol or lighter fluid rather than trying to prime the stove with white gas. The best thing would be a multifuel stove that runs on both gas, alcohol etc. Remember that the stove might work well at home but in cold air or on high altitude the effect will be decreasing. Make sure your stove works, your life depends on melting water with it or cooking your food.

Fuel - plan on 1/4 quart per person per day if you need to melt snow for water. Plan on 1/8 quart per person per day if water will be available. Make sure you have at least a day's surplus of fuel in case of bad weather, water being unavailable, etc.

Food If you wake in the middle of the night and are cold (or just before you go off to sleep) it is best to eat proteins. The protein will be broken down more slowly so the heat will be released over a longer period of time. If you eat a sugar, you will get a quick "heat high" and then your body temperature will drop back down, sometimes falling below its previous level. If you are on high altitude than eat more carbohydrates than protein and fat. It will cost you more oxygen to burn protein and fat, and you'll need that oxygen when you sleep at night. To read more about food click here.


Traces

Leave No Trace Camping in Winter. Winter generally provides a blanket of snow which protects underlying soil and vegetation, the major concerns for minimizing impact. However, when thin snow cover is compressed and compacted in early or late season, snowmelt can be delayed, shortening the growing season. Also, early and late winter trips can run into melting conditions, where top layers of soil melted by the sun lie overtop frozen ground. Erosion, and destruction of plant life is extremely likely at these times, and winter travel is best avoided. Otherwise travel in small groups and visit either remote places where your disturbances won't be compounded by others following you (allowing for recovery) or high impact areas that have already been disturbed. Special considerations exist for high altitude and glacier conditions.

Winter clothing and equipment, even when "natural" colored will show up well against the snow. Brighter colors can be a safety measure, as people and equipment can easily be lost in a winter storm. Since there are less people out in the winter, the visual impact is less.

Winter is an exceptionally quiet season in the backcountry. Travel quietly and avoid excess commotion at your campsite.

One of the greatest impacts can be on wildlife. Animals in the winter have limited food supplies and are often stressed to their limits to survive. Being disturbed by backcountry travelers can drive them away from food sources, require them to use more energy, and can lead to death. Animals may seem more "approachable" in the winter. This is because they are trying to conserve energy. Do not approach wildlife too closely.

Tent, igloo and snow cave sites should be selected away from trails and open bodies of water if possible.

All campsites and cooking areas should be disguised when you leave so that accidental stains are covered, and so that camping areas will be undetectable after some snow has fallen.

Large snow structures such as igloos and snow caves can be left intact, as long as the rest of the camping area is well camouflaged. Occasionally these snow structures can be used again by other grateful winter travelers.

Camp away from animal feeding, watering, and bedding areas.

Fires - Under winter conditions, it can be difficult to build a disguisable fireplace or to gather wood by acceptable means. Since any downed wood is under the snow and possibly wet, wood is both difficult to find and may not be usable for a fire. Gathering wood from lives trees can have significant impacts on an area especially at high use sites. Therefore, one should carefully examine the location, the ecosystem, and the ability to clean up the site after the fire before deciding to build one. Obviously, in a real emergency, a fire might need to be built in spite of the impact it might have on the environment

Sanitation - Lack of sunlight and cold temperatures retard the decomposition of fecal material.

The people who know me also know that I hate any kind of housework and I'm really loausy at it too. So I can happily tell you that you almost never need to wash pans in the winter. A simple scouring with snow will freeze all particles. They can be packed out with garbage. Ending dinner with hot drinks usually takes care of any food particles. Water left over from pasta is full of carbohydrates and makes good drink water. I know it sounds terrible, but it's so true. A few days out there and you wont even think about that. Leftover grease will cool to a solid and can be carried out. Minimize all solid food since animals will often dig up sump holes.

Litter is especially difficult to check in the winter when dropped items can be lost so easily in the snow. Special attention should be given to plastic bags, white toilet paper (use colored or better unbleached, or use snow or ice), candy wrappers and candle wax. Candy wrappers should be removed from all candy before leaving town to prevent accidental litter. Candle wax should be caught in a cup and packed out.

I get rather mad when I'm out in the nature when I see people that hides their, for example, candy paper under a rock. If you for any reason have to leave trash, leave it in the open so someone else can pick it up. Grrr..



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© Malin Andersson 2001