View Full Version : tenting in snow
stonedflea
04-03-2011, 16:26
so... i'm originally from ms and currently living in sc. i "lived with" snow for three years in swva, but the most i've seen at one time has been six inches.
i'm new to the whole backpacking thing (>75, <100 miles), so i'm sort of clueless as to what's different about pitching a tent in the snow. i'll have a mid-april start, but i've heard i could still hit snow through may in the smokies.
i've got an msr hubba hubba tent. i will also have my dog, so from what i've gathered, shelters aren't an option. what do i need to do differently to pitch my tent in the snow? what about tent stakes? how hard is it to get them into the frozen ground? what about snow load? do you just hope your tent doesn't collapse?
thanks in advance. :)
It's harder to pitch a tent on frozen dirt than snow, and harder to pitch a tent in shallow snow than deep snow. Most times you can take some extra line (plan on carrying 50 feet or so) and tie the stakeouts to nearby shrubs - easy to do at almost any tentsite on the AT. You can also fill stuffsacks with snow, dig trenches for the bags, tie them to your stake loops, and bury them in the snow, packing it down on top (this is known as a snow anchor). Tying line to sticks and burying them laying down at 90 degrees to the tent corner stake loops, covering them with snow and packing them in can also work.
Oh, in frozen dirt you can heat your tent stakes over your stove and, with a gloved hand ;) push them through the frost (hot water works, too).
It's much easier to find a good spot to pitch a tent when there's snow covering the ground. You can camp in places you'd never dream of without the snow, on top of poison ivy, over briars in deep snow, on deep ruts, directly across a trail that you can't find, etc.
If it's snowing heavily while you're tent is pitched and you're on a standard AT hike (down South in the winter and spring that is), then you may have an issue with the snow "collapsing" your tent, but it's not very likely. Most good 3-season tents can handle it; the tent will sag on you and you'll wake up, put on boots and clear off the tent. Repeat as necessary throughout the night. A bigger issue I had was having the wind blow snow into the tent though the mesh and onto the sleeping bags. And of course, tenting in a storm with bad winds is dangerous, as branches and trees will fall, so site selection may depend more on whats around you than on what's underneath you. But the odds are that you'll be just fine in the tent you have. And in a bad storm, there's always room for one more in the shelters or privys.
I only had one night on the AT when we had to clear the snow off the tent, but the wind was bad enough the next day to damage one of the poles when we took the tent down for fear of widow-makers and to avoid the snow coming through the mesh. That was an unusually brutal storm and, given your plans, the odds are you won't have more than 5 or 6 inches at the worst.
Stakes (we had standard aluminum) were never an issue, though someone in a bivy may want to bring extra line so they don't slide too much if they create a slick sheet of ice under the bivy.
So change what you look for in a campsite. Try to pitch on the lee side of something to reduce the wind, be mindful of trees and branches that could fall, and don't worry about other things, like finding a flat spot and avoiding certain plants. And if you have warning of a large storm coming, try to get to a shelter, though be sure to check for widow-makers before staying in one (yes, shelters on the AT can and have collapsed due to a storm).
I started my thru-hike at Springer on April 10th and didn't have much snow to camp in during the beginning of my thru-hike. The last days of my thru-hike in Maine were a different story. By that time you'll have it all figured out.
Datto
The biggest problem I have had with snow camping in the GA section of the AT is that the snow usually melts underneath the tent which causes severe condensation on the inside of the floor. If the weather is going to warm up or if rain is in the forcast - I would brush the snow away or else you will be in for a wet morning!
Tipi Walter
04-03-2011, 20:58
The biggest problem I have had with snow camping in the GA section of the AT is that the snow usually melts underneath the tent which causes severe condensation on the inside of the floor. If the weather is going to warm up or if rain is in the forcast - I would brush the snow away or else you will be in for a wet morning!
Yeah, I always try to "shovel" off snow for my tent, but heck I have to use my gloved hands as who carries a shovel?? So, my nice fleece gloves end up ruined with holes, etc. Moving snow is usually a crappy proposition, unless it's only four or five inches. Two feet? Gotta have a shovel or you'll be playing Mad Gopher for 30 minutes.
Blissful
04-03-2011, 21:18
I only camped in snow once, and I cleared the ground of it before pitching.
Monkeywrench
04-03-2011, 21:24
A bit off-topic, but I believe dogs aren't allowed in GSMNP, except for service animals.
LoneRidgeRunner
04-03-2011, 21:46
IMO the best option is to clear the snow away where you will pitch your tent then you will have solid ground in which to plant your stakes... I've never seen conditions in which I couldn't drive tent stakes into the ground with a rock... You will probably find a suitable rock as you clear the snow.. No matter how I hard I try to clear rocks there's always a big one some where under my sleeping pad.. usually right in the middle of my back..lol..I don't use 3 season tents..only 4 season (MH Trango 2..yes it's heavy but the wind and snow doesn't collapse it or blow it away) so I've never had my tent collapsed by snow..I have camped in the higher mountains of NC in the Winter months so I have been snowed on.. Be sure to tie the tent down well... and if it's snowing at night whenever you wake up be sure to check for sagging and beat the snow off of it..
stonedflea
04-03-2011, 21:53
A bit off-topic, but I believe dogs aren't allowed in GSMNP, except for service animals.
you're correct in this; when i posted, i was thinking more along the lines of, "i've heard it's snowed in the smokies in may; maybe it snows in the general area until late into the spring." so if it does snow in the smokies, my dog will hopefully be all cuddly warm in the kennel she'll be boarded at during that time. :)
i'm not too worried about the snow issue... i just wanted to have some kind of insight as to what to expect if it came up.
thanks so much for the responses thus far. i'm open to more input if y'all've got it. :)
I work in a park and we had issues with people claiming dogs to be service dogs when they didn't appear to be that way. They had the government layers look in to it. What we were told was that we are allowed to ask if it is a service dog. If they say yes we are not even allowed to ask for what or for proof and or paper work.