View Full Version : Winter hikes.
Longboysfan
11-10-2016, 15:48
Does anyone have anything special they do during the winter?
The Solemates
11-10-2016, 16:17
bring more coffee
Studlintsean
11-10-2016, 16:25
Extra batteries and something warm to drink a night (generally whiskey and apple cider)
saltysack
11-10-2016, 16:32
Walk longer...with a good headlamp...get bored sitting still
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I just bring warmer clothes and a warmer sleeping bag
evyck da fleet
11-10-2016, 18:04
Shorter (day) hikes at faster pace and/or trip to Southern Hemisphere.
rocketsocks
11-10-2016, 18:54
More socks, sweaty socks suck, the warmth from ya.
nsherry61
11-10-2016, 19:15
Biggies are skis and snowshoes and microspikes.
Wear hats that cover my ears, gloves that cover my hands, and thicker socks - same shoes often.
Dark glasses on sunny days.
Carry a puffy warm jacket in my backpack.
Plan on shorter mileage due to both shorter days and slower speeds in many snow conditions.
Lots of merino wool and goose down.
Bring something to do for the long, dark nights. I've often brought a small ham radio, just lay the random wire antenna on the ground.
death valley is pretty popular in the winter
LIhikers
11-10-2016, 22:57
A little Blackberry Brandy will warm you from the inside out.
Alpine Jack
11-10-2016, 23:36
Keep your fuel canisters in your footbox of the sleeping bag... so you can still do a lot of this: https://youtu.be/ESFc2VvE2EM
garlic08
11-11-2016, 09:39
Going south for backpacking trips is fun. The Grand Canyon is a favorite. A few years ago I hiked the Arizona Trail. Years before I got in a PCT shake-down cruise by hiking a section of the CDT in southern New Mexico. Big Bend NP is also excellent.
There's a long-standing tradition among a group of friends here to hike up 13,300' James Peak every January 1, pop a cork to toast in the New Year. If it's tougher than a day hike we don't do it.
Otherwise, microspikes allow me to keep day hiking around the Front Range foothills. Every few years I'll snowshoe up to a tree-line camp and attempt a 14er, often don't make it but that's okay.
Generally in winter I ski tour more than I hike. The Crater Lake rim was a memorable multi-day tour.
saltysack
11-11-2016, 10:24
Keep your fuel canisters in your footbox of the sleeping bag... so you can still do a lot of this: https://youtu.be/ESFc2VvE2EM
Nice video....Think I'll stick to my organic instant Mt Hagen.......taste great waaaay easier....
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Puddlefish
11-11-2016, 11:06
Alcohol is easily the stupidest thing to drink when you need to stay warm. Dilutes blood vessels making your skin feel warm, while the heat escapes your core, inhibits the shivering response.
Flat out irresponsible to mention it in this thread.
Tipi Walter
11-11-2016, 11:08
Alcohol is easily the stupidest thing to drink when you need to stay warm. Dilutes blood vessels making your skin feel warm, while the heat escapes your core, inhibits the shivering response.
Flat out irresponsible to mention it in this thread.
Totally . . . . . agree. Alcohol is poison.
I pulled a 21 day trip back in January 2016 and wrote up these random off-the-top-of-my-head Winter Tips in my trip report near the end of the trip---
2016 WINTER TIPS FROM UNCLE FUNGUS
** You'll produce a nasty stank because it's too cold to wash out your hair and so it's possible your scalp will be foul and need a thorough washing which won't be done no matter how much soap you have because it's always too damn cold.
** Your geese items generally get less warm due to continued high air humidity and so all your wonderful bone-dry at-home stuff won't be as lofted dry or warm.
** You may almost run out of stove fuel especially if you use your stove for any amount of in-tent heating. It's best to never do so until the last couple days of a long trip.
** By Day 18 or 20 most of your favorite foods have been eaten and there's not much exciting left to eat.
** You won't be doing any trailwork in 20F temps or below, you'll just be trying to survive day to day.
** In bad storms always try to camp near a road especially near the end of a trip. If a big winter storm is forecasted on Day 21 of your trip and you hear about it on Day 19, get out fast by hitchhiking and use your cellphone if possible to get a ride home. Place your phone next to your chest to keep the battery warm and serviceable.
** Be flexible and do what it takes to survive a winter hellstorm. If early in the trip find a spot to make your stand preferably by water and hunker in for 4 or 5 days until the storm passes. If at the end of a trip, get out of the mountains and camp as low as possible by a road and plan on doing some road walking and hitchhiking. It's all good.
** On your last night try to camp as close to your evac point as possible so pick up day will be easy no matter the weather.
** Have phone numbers of people who can pick you up if your main ride bails, or if it's an uncomplicated hitch home start thumbing out.
** When all feels lost spread some blistex lip balm over your lips, it's comforting and seems to quiet the panicked heart so keep some close by in your pocket as you hike.
** Always keep liquid water in your cooking pot overnight so at least you'll have something to drink once it's put on the stove to boil in case your water bottle is frozen solid.
** In severe cold always put your ccf pad on top of your inflatable pad. It's noticeably warmer.
** Wear double socks to sleep.
** Do not sleep in your down pants or parka and instead place your water bottle inside the wrapped parka until morning.
** Ideally your sleeping bag should be overkill enough so you rarely have to zip it up unless temps go to 0F or -10F. You'll sleep better unzipped with the bag thrown over you like a blanket. But if you get cold this way zip up fast and go into cocoon mode mummification.
** Ideally, don't come home with any honey, stove fuel, candles or stick incense or chocolate left.
** Do not be afraid to leave camp in the mornings completely swaddled up in warmth layers. Go ahead and leave with rain pants over your leggings and most all tops (not down parka, you'll melt), and use the rain jacket as a moving warmth layer over capilene and merino and fleece. Once you start sweating, dump the pack and delayer.
** Get the best down mittens you can find as these will be your main defense against frozen hands both as you hike and as you strike camp. Never take down a tent and set one up without gloves and never bare handed.
** Every morning try and boil up a liter of hot sweet tea as it will warm your hands as it cools and will warm your guts as you sip.
** Dump food you will never eat as this will lighten your pack.
** Keep hot dinner in pot cozy while you eat and keep the hot food going inside your body. This will noticeably warm you up fast.
** Always keep a fresh set of headlamp batteries in case you have to pull an emergency nighthike.
** Treat your phone like an emergency personal locator beacon and use it rarely when conditions get rough. You'll need its battery when it's critical so keep it off 95% of the time.
** Don't bother washing your dinner pot, just finish the meal and put pot in cozy and fill unwashed with water for morning tea.
** Exhaustion coupled with cold equals more hypothermia so when you get to your campsite you have 2 options:
1. If it's a cold rain at 35F don't dawdle, stay in your layers and get the tent up first and fast pronto, then change into dry clothing.
2. If it's 10F and you hiked to camp half-shivering, immediately dump the pack and put on all warmth layers like fleece jacket and down parka, and then set up the tent. Once tent is up then you can focus on your legs by removing boots and pulling on your second pair of leggings or fleece or down pants.
** Always keep something sweet to eat up to the last day of your trip. It will always top off dinner.
Be prepared to sit around the campfire for a few hours. Or read a book (my fingers get too cold to do this in winter if its really cold). Or you can go to bed at dark and freeze for 12 hours until daylight.
Puddlefish
11-11-2016, 11:36
I only winter hike "lite" at most. Check the conditions, and forecast, day hikes only, microspikes (not snowshoe conditions), dress warmer obviously, but also carry a shelter/sleep system that would let me survive overnight if I badly injure myself. This method goes hand in hand with telling someone responsible exactly where I'm going and setting a hard check in time for my return.
ny breakfast
11-12-2016, 10:16
the op topic wasn't asking for advice just what you personally do special on winter hikes and trips. HYOH
nsherry61
11-12-2016, 10:46
Alcohol is easily the stupidest thing to drink when you need to stay warm. Dilutes blood vessels making your skin feel warm, while the heat escapes your core, inhibits the shivering response.
Flat out irresponsible to mention it in this thread.
Oh chill. . . Pun intended.
Nobody is suggesting to drink alcohol while they are hypothermic or in danger of it.
To get totally nerdy, if your core is warm and your hands and feet are cold, alcohol actually improves circulation to the extremities . . . which is, of course, why it is such a bad idea to consume if you are in danger of hypothermia.
Lighten up. . . Scotch or bourbon weighs less per effect than beer or champagne and is multi-purpose in that it can be used as disinfectent. Champagne tends to bubble out and leave almost nothing left in the bottle when opened at altitude.
:eek: :D
Puddlefish
11-12-2016, 11:39
Oh chill. . . Pun intended.
Nobody is suggesting to drink alcohol while they are hypothermic or in danger of it.
To get totally nerdy, if your core is warm and your hands and feet are cold, alcohol actually improves circulation to the extremities . . . which is, of course, why it is such a bad idea to consume if you are in danger of hypothermia.
Lighten up. . . Scotch or bourbon weighs less per effect than beer or champagne and is multi-purpose in that it can be used as disinfectent. Champagne tends to bubble out and leave almost nothing left in the bottle when opened at altitude.
:eek: :D
Some of the symptoms of alcohol match the symptoms of hypothermia. Specifically, the ones concerning confusion, coordination, drowsiness, and poor decision making. There's nothing to chill about, bringing alcohol on a winter hike can get you killed.
There's nothing clever, funny or cheerful about that.
Totally . . . . . agree. Alcohol is poison.
I pulled a 21 day trip back in January 2016 and wrote up these random off-the-top-of-my-head Winter Tips in my trip report near the end of the trip---
2016 WINTER TIPS FROM UNCLE FUNGUS
** You'll produce a nasty stank because it's too cold to wash out your hair and so it's possible your scalp will be foul and need a thorough washing which won't be done no matter how much soap you have because it's always too damn cold.
** Your geese items generally get less warm due to continued high air humidity and so all your wonderful bone-dry at-home stuff won't be as lofted dry or warm.
** You may almost run out of stove fuel especially if you use your stove for any amount of in-tent heating. It's best to never do so until the last couple days of a long trip.
** By Day 18 or 20 most of your favorite foods have been eaten and there's not much exciting left to eat.
** You won't be doing any trailwork in 20F temps or below, you'll just be trying to survive day to day.
** In bad storms always try to camp near a road especially near the end of a trip. If a big winter storm is forecasted on Day 21 of your trip and you hear about it on Day 19, get out fast by hitchhiking and use your cellphone if possible to get a ride home. Place your phone next to your chest to keep the battery warm and serviceable.
** Be flexible and do what it takes to survive a winter hellstorm. If early in the trip find a spot to make your stand preferably by water and hunker in for 4 or 5 days until the storm passes. If at the end of a trip, get out of the mountains and camp as low as possible by a road and plan on doing some road walking and hitchhiking. It's all good.
** On your last night try to camp as close to your evac point as possible so pick up day will be easy no matter the weather.
** Have phone numbers of people who can pick you up if your main ride bails, or if it's an uncomplicated hitch home start thumbing out.
** When all feels lost spread some blistex lip balm over your lips, it's comforting and seems to quiet the panicked heart so keep some close by in your pocket as you hike.
** Always keep liquid water in your cooking pot overnight so at least you'll have something to drink once it's put on the stove to boil in case your water bottle is frozen solid.
** In severe cold always put your ccf pad on top of your inflatable pad. It's noticeably warmer.
** Wear double socks to sleep.
** Do not sleep in your down pants or parka and instead place your water bottle inside the wrapped parka until morning.
** Ideally your sleeping bag should be overkill enough so you rarely have to zip it up unless temps go to 0F or -10F. You'll sleep better unzipped with the bag thrown over you like a blanket. But if you get cold this way zip up fast and go into cocoon mode mummification.
** Ideally, don't come home with any honey, stove fuel, candles or stick incense or chocolate left.
** Do not be afraid to leave camp in the mornings completely swaddled up in warmth layers. Go ahead and leave with rain pants over your leggings and most all tops (not down parka, you'll melt), and use the rain jacket as a moving warmth layer over capilene and merino and fleece. Once you start sweating, dump the pack and delayer.
** Get the best down mittens you can find as these will be your main defense against frozen hands both as you hike and as you strike camp. Never take down a tent and set one up without gloves and never bare handed.
** Every morning try and boil up a liter of hot sweet tea as it will warm your hands as it cools and will warm your guts as you sip.
** Dump food you will never eat as this will lighten your pack.
** Keep hot dinner in pot cozy while you eat and keep the hot food going inside your body. This will noticeably warm you up fast.
** Always keep a fresh set of headlamp batteries in case you have to pull an emergency nighthike.
** Treat your phone like an emergency personal locator beacon and use it rarely when conditions get rough. You'll need its battery when it's critical so keep it off 95% of the time.
** Don't bother washing your dinner pot, just finish the meal and put pot in cozy and fill unwashed with water for morning tea.
** Exhaustion coupled with cold equals more hypothermia so when you get to your campsite you have 2 options:
1. If it's a cold rain at 35F don't dawdle, stay in your layers and get the tent up first and fast pronto, then change into dry clothing.
2. If it's 10F and you hiked to camp half-shivering, immediately dump the pack and put on all warmth layers like fleece jacket and down parka, and then set up the tent. Once tent is up then you can focus on your legs by removing boots and pulling on your second pair of leggings or fleece or down pants.
** Always keep something sweet to eat up to the last day of your trip. It will always top off dinner.
How do you plan to keep water liquid in your cookpot when it freezes in your water bottle?
20* isnt cold. Thats a warm Winter day.
Winter hiking is more about energy conservation and staying warm and dry and alive than it is about making miles. Don't allow yourself to get to the point where you are cold and shivering. One should arrive at camp relatively warm. Immediately upon stopping, get your warm layers on. Set up camp, change out of your damp baselayers and put on dry clothes and eat and climb into your bed. Cook and eat while lying in your sleeping bag. Melt and boil water and place in hot water bottles to place in your sleeping bag. Build a fire, if you can. Use the fire to melt drinking water or boil water rather than stove fuel. There are a lot of things that one does in the Winter, that one does not need to do in the Summer. We are from a warm continent. We can survive naked in the Summer. We will die long before it gets truly cold in the Winter if we are naked. Cold weather is not our natural climate. You can and will die if you exhaust yourself.
LoneStranger
11-12-2016, 13:01
I'm assuming Tipi meant you'd light the stove in the morning to melt the ice as needed the idea being to have it in the pot rather than frozen in a water bottle, but I'll let him clear that up. That tip, like the rest of his list, is subject to personal preferences. Personally I clean my pot so my morning coffee doesn't taste like last nights soup, never use a stove in my tent for safety reasons and prefer a single pair of thick, alpaca socks for sub zero sleeping, but his tip about putting your inflatable pad under your foam is something I totally agree with.
A good thermos is quite useful in really cold weather. I've put fresh boiled water into mine before bed and found it still lukewarm after a 14 hour, sub zero night. If you're stuck melting snow having some liquid water in the pot is essential unless you want to drink the burnt tasting stuff you get just tossing snow in the pot so having some in a thermos comes in really handy.
I "bag peaks" and do day hikes in winter but don't camp. First off I'm picky about weather -- I don't venture out while storms are in progress, in the immediate forecast, or immediately following a storm. I almost always have a partner, for winter hiking at least.
I wear lots of thin layers. Little or no cotton. Nylon or Goretex (or similar) outer shell. My day pack has some survival gear in it -- sleeping bag, ground cover, extra socks, gloves, hat, scarf or neck gator, base layer. Bring eye protection as well -- sunglasses or goggles or clear safety glasses. Several different kinds of traction devices -- microspikes, trail Crampons, and snowshoes. (In certain conditions I leave the snow shoes behind.)
Most of all keep your wits about you. Know your turn-around time based on available light or when you need to be back at the trailhead. Stick to that time. It often happens I don't reach my goal for the day. I'm OK with that.
Tipi Walter
11-12-2016, 13:13
How do you plan to keep water liquid in your cookpot when it freezes in your water bottle?
20* isnt cold. Thats a warm Winter day.
Melt and boil water and place in hot water bottles to place in your sleeping bag. Build a fire, if you can. Use the fire to melt drinking water or boil water rather than stove fuel. There are a lot of things that one does in the Winter, that one does not need to do in the Summer. We are from a warm continent. We can survive naked in the Summer. We will die long before it gets truly cold in the Winter if we are naked. Cold weather is not our natural climate. You can and will die if you exhaust yourself.
Anyone who has camped at -10F knows you can fill your cook pot with liquid water from your spring or creek water source and let it sit in your tent vestibule thru the night and in the morning it is frozen solid but immediately ready to be placed on your cookstove to brew up instant water. This technique alleviates the need to store water in any water bottles or bladders, and certainly never having to resort to placing these filled containers inside your sleeping bag.
NEVER SLEEP WITH YOUR WATER!!!
Bottles leak, even the best bottles. Think about it: You're relying on the one item in your kit to keep you alive on a trip in subzero temps---your down sleeping bag---and yet you are introducing the one thing that could ruin your trip and your survival---Water inside your sleeping bag. Don't do it.
Regarding 20F temps, well, spend a 21 day trip day in and day out in such temps and you'll see how difficult it can be.
Oh and we here in the Southeast get much worse temps on occasion. Need proof?---
https://photos.smugmug.com/Backpacking2009/In-The-Citico-With-Hootyhoo/i-7WdvhJN/0/L/trip%2090%20049-L.jpg
Here's a cold morning in the North Carolina mountains at 5,000 feet with -10F temps. Nearby Mt LeConte the same morning was -22F. This was January 2009.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Backpack-2014-Trips-152/24-Days-in-the-Cold/i-HnqK6N9/0/XL/TRIP%20152%20118-XL.jpg
Here's -8F during the Polar Vortex of January 2014. I spent three days at this spot close to Brookshire Creek until the "cold storm" passed. On my last morning it was 0F and I had to cross Brookshire Creek in bare feet. Sucked.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Backpacking2006/Subzero-Blizzard-and-the-16th/i-zRd5mR6/0/L/adadadad-L.jpg
Here's a wonderful -10F morning at around 5,000 feet in the NC mountains---December 2006. Notice my cook pot full of frozen water.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/19-Days-of-Solitude/i-44hTcJR/0/XL/TRIP%20151%20186-XL.jpg
I remember this trip as an early Thanksgiving cold snap hit the Kilmer wilderness in 2013 with temps at 12F.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Backpacking2010/15-Days-with-a-Red-Hilleberg/i-9wb2RSs/0/L/TRIP%20105%20135-L.jpg
I remember this trip in January 2010 with temps at -5F.
Silly Uncle Fungus, not putting leaky water bottles in your sleeping bag should be common sense. But, I guess it should be said to test your water bottles before putting them in your bag. I prefer Hunersdorf bottles for Winter trips.
colorado_rob
11-13-2016, 11:11
Oh chill. . . Pun intended.
Nobody is suggesting to drink alcohol while they are hypothermic or in danger of it.
To get totally nerdy, if your core is warm and your hands and feet are cold, alcohol actually improves circulation to the extremities . . . which is, of course, why it is such a bad idea to consume if you are in danger of hypothermia.
Lighten up. . . Scotch or bourbon weighs less per effect than beer or champagne and is multi-purpose in that it can be used as disinfectent. Champagne tends to bubble out and leave almost nothing left in the bottle when opened at altitude.
:eek: :DWell said! The anti-modest-drinking thing on WB can be downright weird, but there ya go. Good to hear an explanation of why modest amounts of alcohol can, indeed, warm one up (the circulation thing). Don't forget the calories involved as well. It goes without saying that one must only consume very modest amounts of alcohol.
We have two drinks of choice for winter hiking/camping: Hot mulled wine and Hot cocoa with schnapps. We call the cocoa/schnapps thing "snugglers". Yummy! If we're not overnighting with a stove, we tend to bring a thermos with such beverages.
My wife and I lead a Colorado Mountain Club Mount Elbert (14,440') overnight (we camp at treeline) climb every January, and the 25 year (I've been doing it for about 15) tradition involves the hot mulled wine thing. Not everyone partakes, but most thoroughly enjoy the comradery of the little circle of folks with their hot cups of wine standing around in zero degree weather chatting about everything outdoors. Do the cups of hot mulled wine actually warm us up? Of course they do. The math (calories into your body) is simple.
In a related note, I was going to add, for winter hiking with overnights, bring along some for of entertainment for the long nights.... We like to bring a set of Yahtzee dice and small scorepad. We can entertain ourselves for hours playing Yahtzee, especially when we all enjoy a hot snuggler or two while playing.
MuddyWaters
11-13-2016, 11:43
get up after suns up
stop earlier, with plenty of time to take care of camp chores before sun goes down and fingers get too cold
carry lighter in pocket. Carry spare lighter
use HEET instead of SLX or ethanol when using alcohol, a bit extra fuel
Water bottles in sleeping bag at night to keep from freezing
No bars that become rock hard taffy like and inedible when cold (though frozen chocolate and snickers rock IMO)
Keep good tab on weather forecast.....
Goretex socks if some snow. (assumes normally no significant snow, southern Appalachian conditions. Obviously deep snow up north demands boots and gaiters)
microspikes if expect icy conditions
thicker socks, larger size trail runners (my normal socks are thin and unpadded)
Avoid puddles if not wearing the goretex socks....numb toes suck.
Does anyone have anything special they do during the winter?
Depends on how you're defining winter.
For me, winter is not a limited northern N. American mindset. Living in "winter" in S. Florida, Hawaii, southern Nevada, and southern Arizona has broken me of that. I think nationally and globally. However, I don't shy away from cold icy snowy winter hikes of up to 4 wks in Maine, Minnesota, New York, Utah, northern Arizona(at elevation), Yosemite, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Escalante, etc. I think winter offers some the very BEST criteria for hiking in a wide range of U.S. NP's including Acadia, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Big Bend, Guadalupe, Everglades(paddling/hiking trip), Redwoods, etc. Yosemite, Bryce, Zion etc in winter are absolutely stunning with snow that the vast majority of visitors personally boots on the ground miss out on.
Adding to what Garlic posted, it's a time to perhaps consider hiking in Australia, New Zealand, central and S. America, Costa Rica, Asia, Thailand, etc where the U.S. winter is their summer. I do hikes in Hawaii, other islands, in the southern U.S. along the Cali and Oregon coasts, etc. too.
Took adapting to a new enjoyable Christmas perspective to which I was accustomed in NJ compared to decorating a palm tree with Santa on surf board delivering presents in Hawaii or planning Christmas/New Yrs Day trips in Florida around swimming with the dolphins and snorkeling and diving. :D
rocketsocks
11-13-2016, 12:40
Depends on how you're defining winter.
For me, winter is not a limited northern N. American mindset. Living in "winter" in S. Florida, Hawaii, southern Nevada, and southern Arizona has broken me of that. I think nationally and globally. However, I don't shy away from cold icy snowy winter hikes of up to 4 wks in Maine, Minnesota, New York, Utah, northern Arizona(at elevation), Yosemite, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Escalante, etc. I think winter offers some the very BEST criteria for hiking in a wide range of U.S. NP's including Acadia, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Big Bend, Guadalupe, Everglades(paddling/hiking trip), Redwoods, etc. Yosemite, Bryce, Zion etc in winter are absolutely stunning with snow that the vast majority of visitors personally boots on the ground miss out on.
Adding to what Garlic posted, it's a time to perhaps consider hiking in Australia, New Zealand, central and S. America, Costa Rica, Asia, Thailand, etc where the U.S. winter is their summer. I do hikes in Hawaii, other islands, in the southern U.S. along the Cali and Oregon coasts, etc. too.
Took adapting to a new enjoyable Christmas perspective to which I was accustomed in NJ compared to decorating a palm tree with Santa on surf board delivering presents in Hawaii or planning Christmas/New Yrs Day trips in Florida around swimming with the dolphins and snorkeling and diving. :D...and with regard to snorkel on Christmas Day...you bastard. :D
Congrats on the move, glad you're doin' well.
rocketsocks
11-13-2016, 12:45
Does anyone have anything special they do during the winter?I shiver me timbers!
Tipi Walter
11-13-2016, 15:07
A good thermos is quite useful in really cold weather. I've put fresh boiled water into mine before bed and found it still lukewarm after a 14 hour, sub zero night. If you're stuck melting snow having some liquid water in the pot is essential unless you want to drink the burnt tasting stuff you get just tossing snow in the pot so having some in a thermos comes in really handy.
I used a Sigg thermos for one winter trip and even for me it was way too heavy.
Silly Uncle Fungus, not putting leaky water bottles in your sleeping bag should be common sense. But, I guess it should be said to test your water bottles before putting them in your bag. I prefer Hunersdorf bottles for Winter trips.
Two years ago I upgraded to a Hunersdorf bottle and it works although it smells pretty bad---plastic stink.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Backpack-2016-Trips-171/19-Days-in-a-Rattlesnake/i-FJbGmTs/0/XL/Trip%20175%20093-XL.jpg
LoneStranger
11-13-2016, 17:01
I used a Sigg thermos for one winter trip and even for me it was way too heavy.
My stainless steel Stanley weighs just shy of 18oz empty, but if I'm going to be out in sub zero weather for days at a time it is worth carrying. I can pour 25 fl oz of boiling water in there fresh off the stove in the morning and use it to melt the ice in my drinking bottle all day long.
nsherry61
11-13-2016, 19:57
. . . Hot mulled wine and Hot cocoa with schnapps. . .
Yumm!!! Good ideas.
It's worth considering dietary changes during winter too.
I don't get as anal about trail food nutritional stats as I used too but I still tweak % of cals from protein(considering protein is not only derived from animal products!), "good" fats, and complex carbs(avoiding highly processed 'empty' calorie simple carbs always) to reflect the typical higher daily calories needed for going at it hard in winter.
I typically ballpark Nutritional Breakdown allowing for total daily caloric load of about 3600 to 4440 calories daily with the breakdown being 15-17% protein always, carbs, almost entirely complex slow burning of about 45-55% and GOOD fat 30-35+%. The main thing I change nutritionally is increasing the % of good fat in total daily calories in winter.
Consider, I go at it hard always whether winter or summer.ie; in camp and bag time isn't suddenly significantly increased just because it's winter although that's often the assumption that is what everyone does in winter. I still aim to be on the move and outside of being in camp or a in a bag more than in camp in winter. I don't associate winter backpacking with more time in camp. I do associate winter backpacking with lower but often more physically strenuous mileage, appreciation of different scenery and environment, and greater daily calories needed.
Another association with winter backpacking I have is winter night hiking. It's a great experience when prepared which include some of the most memorable miles I've ever experienced. Everything is slowed down allowing a greater opportunity to connect with the Natural world and oneself.