Winter Backpacking Trip

[Aron Snyder]

Breakfast is served......

 

[Aron Snyder]

 

[craitchky]

Looks like a good time....wish I was there!

 

[Darren Best]

I took the wife and boys up just over the Montana border off of Lookout Pass last weekend and we built an igloo.

We had a whole lot more snow than you guys did. Snow pack at the base of the Lookout Pass ski resort was 77".

Unfortunately halfway through the construction it started raining and the igloo started sagging and partially collapsed on one side. Rather than risking a full collapse during the night while we were sleeping we set up tarps and slept out under those.

The rain turned to snow which later turned into a gusting windy snow storm and temps dropped into the teens.

All four of use have Kifaru slick bags and they are worth every penny I paid for them.

 

[MIKEYB]

What temp rating were you running on those slick bags?

 

[Darren Best]

What temp rating were you running on those slick bags?

0

They have lost some of their loft though so they aren't as warm as when I first got them. They are three years old this month and have been used one to two times a month almost all year round in that time.

 

[Pilgrim]

Sounds like an awesome time, 241. The trip in this thread was my first mountain winter camp. Looking forward to more, but I can already tell it would be nice to have a bag rated for temps lower than 20, lol! I had cold spots, but I wasn't cold... make sense?

 

[Darren Best]

Sounds like an awesome time, 241. The trip in this thread was my first mountain winter camp. Looking forward to more, but I can already tell it would be nice to have a bag rated for temps lower than 20, lol! I had cold spots, but I wasn't cold... make sense?

It makes sense, where the bag drapes over your shoulder and hip and where they also press into your pad will give you cold spots and anyplace else the bag is tight and compresses the insulation will give you cold spots.

You definitely want to overshoot your coldest expected temp by about 10 - 20 degrees, more if you don't have a good windbreak style of tent/tipi/tarp. Also a good idea to use two pads in the winter.

I like to sleep almost fully dressed for winter camping, that way when I have to get up in the middle of the night for either nature calls or to shake snow off the tent/tarp I don't have to wrestle into my clothes in the cold on the ground.

Winter camping is my favorite time of year to camp as there are no skeeters and no crowds of people.

I am currently running a 1/2" Evazote pad underneath a Neo air all season for pads. The Neo air is almost 3 years old and I keep expecting to wake up one night with a flat, but the darn thing just keeps on going. I was thinking I would make one of the lightweight Exped pads my next purchase as I'm not fond of using my breathe to inflate the pad and the pump sack with the Neo air kinda sucks.

I always have my Kifaru Woobie with me, but the wife confiscated it this last weekend, but I didn't need it. She also got her mitts on my KUIU Superdown jacket for the night, but I laid down the law come morning and got it back.

 

[Rockey]

elkhunter 241,

... and by laying down the law in the morning you mean asking for it back nicely when she was done with it?!? jk

 

[Darren Best]

elkhunter 241,

... and by laying down the law in the morning you mean asking for it back nicely when she was done with it?!? jk

When your wife is 6'2", you always ask nicely.

 

[hammer0419]

Looks like it was a great time.