After years of wanting to get out and try winter camping, I finally got a chance this past weekend.
First off, this was the gear I had along:
- Warbonnet Blackbird XLC
- WB Winter Cover
- WB Wookie 20 degree UQ
- WB Yeti 40 degree UQ (in reserve)
- WB Diamondback 10 degree TQ
Weather was supposed to be in the mid 20's on Saturday with a low in the late evening of 18-20 and then temps would rise by morning. 38-40 degrees for highs on Sunday and lows that night of 28. The area just had 16 inches of snow a week earlier and was cold all week, so I knew there would be plenty of snow.
After receiving a foot of snow at home Friday and Friday night, I had to work just to get out of the driveway to make the 4+ hour drive to GCMSP. After snowplowing the driveway and luckily having the snowplow come by and clear the street, I was on the road by 7:30am.
Arrived to the winter park lot just before noon and was packed up and snowshoes laced up by 12:15. I had 2 or 2.5 miles to get to the campsite, at #8 along the Manitou River. I was able to make pretty good time on the recently broken trails and got to camp around 1:40pm. I got my hammock area and paths to firepit, food bag tree, and latrine all packed down. Then started on the hammock and got that all setup before sundown, which comes at 4:15 this time of year.
By the time I got done setting up, my feet were already feeling cold. So, I stripped down and jumped into the hammock to get them warm. By the time I got out of the hammock at 5pm, it was already 17 degrees at camp. I started a small twig fire and tried to get some larger pieces to burn, but the wood that was left in camp from the fall was very wet. So, I quit trying to keep a larger fire going and got started boiling more water for dinner. Dinner was was Peak Refuel Chicken Alfredo Pasta, which was pretty good.
Then headed to the hammock and added my 40 degree Yeti bag under the Wookie since it was already down to 15 and still dropping. Decided to jump in to start reading Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. Ended up reading until about 10pm since the book was so dang good.
Woke up chilled at 3:30 and couldn't figure out why. It was only my upper back and shoulders. I finally realizing that my legs (without the added Yeti down) were toasty warm and that I had just gotten too far towards the head end of the hammock and was not over my Wookie anymore. Readjusted and instantly felt warm and went back to sleep until 8:30am.
All night when I woke up to pee, the temps kept dropping (even though the forecast called for 25 degrees by 9am). Instead, I woke up to 10 degrees and the low overnight was 7 degrees. Put warmest socks on and got out to boil water and start another twig fire to heat my precooked sausage patties over the fire grate. Also had some Kodak oatmeal. Within an hour, my feet were already starting to get cold again and temps were still only 11 degrees by 9:30am.
So, back to the hammock for another hour to thaw the feet. Decided to pull the plug on the trip since I wasn't going to be able to do anything with constant cold feet. Was packed up and on the trail again by 12:40 and got to the car by 2pm.
Overall, it was a good trip, but definitely disappointed with my choice of boots. I was definitely surprised by the major temp differences at the bottom of that river canyon. It beautiful and will definitely try again in March when there is more light.
Things I learned:
- always wear the warmest boots you have, regardless of forecast. I'd rather have slightly less comfortable boots for snowshoeing than cold feet.
- wear plenty of layers and go slow and don't sweat. I did a pretty good job of this and kept the sweat down.
- my choice of vapor barrier for my feet was already poor. I had tried Target bags the week before with great success and was sold on the idea. I had extras to pack and used crappy grocery store bags which ended up tearing on the hike in. And of course I forgot to pack the other bags.
- never did figure out how to not use stakes and need to practice that in the backyard. I was able to use stakes and got 3 of the 4 out of the ground.
- bring a bigger pot next time. I brought a 2 liter aluminum pot thought it was a bit small for melting snow. Also used up 13-14 ounces of fuel in less than a full day, so would have been through my 20 ounces of fuel before the next morning at that rate. Maybe my 20+ year old MSR Simmerlite is not efficient anymore.
- I should have left my camp chair as it's 2 pounds and I didn't use it once. Site #8 has very nice benches close to the fire pit.
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