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On this trip Mike and
I learned a great many things about winter camping and the
Adirondacks. When we originally planned this trip it was
supposed to be a winter Northern Presidential Traverse in
the White Mountains. Due to weather conditions and the
amount of exposure above tree line, we decided to do a trip in
the Adirondack High Peaks region.
In the Adirondacks we planned to hike in, camp, hike over
Mt. Marcy, camp, then hike out. That never happened. Instead
we hiked into Lake Colden and hiked
out learning a lot of things along the
way. Below I will discuss what we learned. Breaking things into lessons
about the winter camping, then lessons about the Adirondacks. Hopefully from
these lessons our trips in the future will be
more succuessful. Most of this also relates more
to overnight winter camping. As a disclaimer most of this is based
on my experience and experiences shared with Mike. Things could
be different for other people in other situations. Though
we had similar experiences, Mike and I also had
a lot of different
experiences.
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Winter Camping
- Base Camp - Hike in and set up a base camp
- a place where you can unload and setup camp to make day
trips from. This will greatly reduce your load for planned
adventures such as summit attempts. In winter everything
is more difficult. You may not realize it, but your body is
constantly working harder to keep warm and carry
out your
adventure. Just because you could haul your gear over that summit
this summer, does not mean you should do it now. Plus you'll have
more gear in the winter.
Base camp is best setup around a
lean-to. Though you do not want to sleep in a lean-to
in winter (tents are warmer), lean-tos are very handy for food
preparation and
they provide a place to sit. In the
winter when everything is covered in 2 ft. of snow, it's very
difficult to find a place to sit yourself and sit your
stove. The lean-to can
also provide wind/weather
protection.
Depending on terrain, trail conditions and gear
loads, you'll want to keep the hike to your base camp relatively
short (2- 4 hours).
- Cold - At 0 degrees everything freezes.
Plastic zip lock bags will get crunchy - not that it's a problem,
but it's kind of weird when it happens. Batteries will lose
strength
(take extras and more extras). Food/water will
freeze. Your sweat will freeze on the outside of your
clothes. Your eyelashes will collect little balls of ice
from your breath.
The shock cords in tent poles can lose
elasticity. Your tent may be harder to stuff in its sack
because it's frozen (either carry a larger stuff sack then normal
or work
really hard to stuff it in the usual sack, at least
you'll be warm while you're stuffing). Materials such as nylon
will become less pliant. They won't stretch as well.
It's
basically like living in your freezer. At night inside your tent
everything will get a thin coat of ice on it. Your tent stakes
will freeze in the snow. Anything left in the
snow long enough
will freeze there.
The more time you spend in the cold, the
less energy you'll have. Eating and drinking, though very
necessary, become very difficult in the cold. You're burning an
incredible amount of calories each day and it's very difficult
to restore those calories. This is part of the reason for the base
camp. Without having to carry all your gear
with you
everywhere you plan to go, you'll conserve more of your energy -
energy you need to keep warm and eat. After your first
source of water runs out, you'll have to
melt snow. It
takes a lot of time and snow to fill the normal 2 quarts per
person we take. With melted snow for drinking water comes
contaminates. Things like pine
needles and leaf bits will be in your
water. Though they won't kill you, it makes drinking water less
desireable. The cold also makes things very dry -
including your throat. Without drinking enough water, swallowing
hard frozen food becomes more difficult. With less calorie intake
and more calorie consumption, you will find yourself tiring more
easily and staying warm more difficult the longer you stay out
in the cold. Everything you do becomes work.
- Gear - Know your gear. In winter conditions
for overnight trips, you don't really want to be trying out that
new fangled gizmo you got for the first time. You should
have a working knowledge of everything you're taking with
you. At home before you go, assemble your tent outside in
the cold. Try lighting your stove. Sleep in your
sleeping bag in your tent outside one night. Make sure you
know how cold your bag is really rated. It's a lot easier to
get up and go inside at home then it is 6 miles from your car in
the woods. Try out different sleeping pad combinations.
Does your camera work in the cold? If you're using snow
shoes, find out what spare parts you might need if a binding
should brake. Do you need tools for adjustments on things
like snowshoes, stoves, etc.?
Take a candle or
candle lantern for your campsite and tent. The candle
will provide some warmth and more light then your head
lamp.
White gas stoves need priming. In really
cold temperatures the white gas itself may not be enough to prime
the stove. You can try something like fire ribbon or other
fire gels to prime your stove. Apply once, light and let it
burn out. Apply the gel again, this time starting the
gas before it burns out. Lighting the gel twice will hopefully
insure your white gas is truly primed and less likely to
get a flare up. White gas stoves also flare really bad
when you first light them. If cooking in your vestibule (when
you don't have a lean-to nearby), a flare up can mean disaster.
You might want a good canister stove for winter camping.
They can be easier to light and don't flare up.
Make sure your fuel canister/type is good for cold weather.
I used nearly 10 oz. of white gas to heat 1 quart of
water and melt 2 quarts of ice. You'll use a lot more fuel
when it's cold.
Have things accessible in your pack -
things like snacks that you'll need to warm against your body,
sunglasses, goggles, hats, balaclavas, maps, chapstick, cameras,
etc. Throughout the day you'll want these different things, but
you won't want to take your pack on and off. In the
winter you generally keep your pack on for warmth. If you
don't have a base camp, your pack will also be very heavey, which
is not fun to take on and off all day. My pack
only has one pocket at the top, which makes it very difficult for
me to reach. Generally I have to ask someone else to get things
out of it for me. That single pocket also gets very full.
Side or accessory pockets strapped to your pack can make this
easier for you. Though you may still not have as much access
to your own pockets, it will be easier for those digging around in
there for you.
Use some kind of anti-fog wipes
or devices on your goggles or sun glasses. In really cold
temperatures your eyewear won't only fog, but the fog will freeze.
A windstopper
balaclava is a good idea, though the hood of your shell will
also block
the wind from your head.
If you use zip-lock bags for water-proofing
and storage, get the kind with the built in zipper. In the
cold you'll never get the regular kind closed.
Pants with
full side zippers are ideal. Once you get your boots, gaitors and
snow shoes on, you really don't want (or can't) take them off
until you go to bed (unless you have a base camp with a lean-to
where you could sit down on something dry). Pants and mid-layer
pants with full side zips would allow you to layer/delayer without
having to take your boots, gaiters and snowshoes off.
Your
sleeping bag is your haven. If all else fails, you should
have enough confindence in your bag that you can crawl in and stay
warm. A recent study (Backpacker 2/04) shows sleeping bags on
average are 10 degrees off their temperature ratings. If you
have a 0 degree bag, then it's good to about 10
degrees. A tent with two people in it will raise the temperature
anywhwere from 10 to 20 degrees. I would go as far as
to give myself another 10 degrees for my bag. An easy formula is to add
10 degrees to the outside forecasted low. This is
based on my own experience. Though I sweat at night at
home, I tend to
be a cold sleeper
in the woods.
- Food - Freeze dried meals reconstituited will
freeze if not consumed in time. Energy bars and other foods will
freeze solid in your pack. You cannot bite through a
frozen energy bar. You have to anticipate hunger and place
such items close to your body to thaw before you can eat
them. I thought cut up pieces of pepperoni and cheese would
work well in the cold. They do not. Frozen pepperoni
and cheese is not very tasty. Before the trip I did a lot of
reading and research about winter camping. For food the
mantra is get to camp (or wake up), make hot drinks, make dinner,
melt snow for water. There is a reason for this. The
hot drink will obviously warm you, but in not so obvious
ways. If your cold, your body will move blood to core
functions like your lungs, heart and brain. If you start
throwing large amounts of food to your stomach at this point, it
will have a difficult time digesting. The warm drink
literally warms your insides and gets digestion going.
By the time the real food comes around, your body should be ready
for it. This comes mostly from my personal experience.
When I went to eat Friday night, I had a very difficult time
getting the food down. My throat was dry and my stomach
wasn't happy.I did not get the normal warm feeling I usually
experience from a tasty Mountain House meal. I think it had
everything to do with skipping the hot drink step.
Melting
snow has three purposes. The first is obviously creating
water for yourself. The second helps keep the water from
freezing. Though we had insulators on our water bottles,
room temperature water will freeze in the insulator in about 4
hours. The real pain is that it freezes from the lid first.
When you drink from your water small easily freezable amounts will
get in the threads of your water bottle lid. When they
freeze your bottle is nearly impossible to open. The water
inside could still be good, but the lid is frozen solid to the
bottle. Boiling water from melted snow, will give you more
time before all of this starts to happen. The third purpose in
melting snow is the heat your stove generates. Though at 0
degrees, it's hardly enough to melt the snow underneath your
stove.
- Weather - Pay attention to the weather.
Not just temperatures, but things like snow accumulation. If
you're camping above tree line and it's been a low year for snow,
you may not have enough to melt for water. Same goes for
anywhere really. If there isn't much snow where you are and
water sources are frozen, you need alternate plans. In this
case, something to break the ice to gain access to the water
underneath or use the ice itself to melt for water.
Wind
is a huge danger in winter. Wind sucks all the heat away
from your body or the area around your body. If the
wind is whipping at you in the valley, it's going to be killer at
higher elevations.
- Why do this - I had Chicadees eating from my
hand. We stopped at Marcy Dam to have a snack. I
found if I held my hand out with
a piece of energy bar in my
palm, the Chicadees would land on my hand and eat the food. Too bad
I didn't get a picture of it. Granted it's not just Chicadees landing on
your fingers that makes this worth-while, but all the little things like Chicadees put
together.
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Adirondacks
- Lean-Tos - You can occupy up to 3 nights. Though the rules say
you cannot setup a tent near a lean-to, it's ok in winter.
It's also ok to cover the front of a lean-to with nylon or plastic
tarps as long as you don't put any nails into the
lean-to. In winter you could even go as far as setting
up your tent in a lean-to, but I would only reserve that for
really windy or snowy nights.
- Bears - There's a lot
of them in the Adirondacks and they've become very comfortable
with humans and their food. A bear canister is a very good
idea.
- Bunk Houses - The
Jack Rabbit in and Cascade (something or other), near the turn off
on 73 to Adirondak loj, offer bunk house/hostil type
accomodations. They're around $25 a night and I think include a
hot breakfast. It's a great way to get out during the day
and keep warm at night for cheap.
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