the 10 essentials - winter addition

[Slo-go'en]

We should all know the 10 essential hiking items:
1) Map/Compass
2) Hydration (water)
3) Food
4) Rain gear/extra insulation
5) Fire starter
6) First aid
7) Knife
8) Flashlight
9) Sun protection
10) Shelter

1) If you know the area well, map and compass can be optional.

2) Water might not be in liquid form, so having a way to melt snow and ice is a good idea, such as a metal cup.

3) Food - the kind you can eat frozen. A frozen candy bar can break teeth! I like candy orange "slices" frozen to 20 below though. Since you have the metal cup and a way to make fire (see below) some hot chocolate or tea bags would be good to have too.

4) Rain gear/insulation You most likely at least have a shell of some kind and a warm layer to put on. Have a piece of closed cell foam at least big enough to sit on. A spare set of base layers and a change of socks is a good idea too. The base layers you hike in are going to get wet or damp from sweat. If you have to stop and spend the night, having dry base layers and socks to change into could make all the difference in the world. You might even want a spare pair of gloves and hat.

5) Fire starter - and not just a lighter. If you need to make a fire, you need to make it in hurry and have it start right off. Carry fire ribbon or Vaseline soaked cotton balls or a few esbits cubes. You need a way to make that hot cup of tea or chocolate. A beef stew can with some holes punched into it can make a good stove/pot stand for wood or esbit cubes.

6) First aid - I consider this optional. Not a lot you can carry which would be helpful if your really in need.

7) Knife - a good one you can use to make fire wood with.

8) Flashlight - a no brainer here. Spare batteries too if you can't remember the last time they were changed.

9) Sun protection - also optional depending...

10) A basic bivy sack or even a space blanket could get you through the night. One of those emergency Sea to Summit sacks aren't very expensive. Maybe a bag liner too. Not as good as a full sleeping bag, but enough to keep you alive through the night.

Of course, if I'm just going out to walk around in the woods for a few hours around here, not likely I'll carry any of the above, but if I'm heading up towards tree line, maybe.

[Traillium]

Great list!

I bring sunglasses especially in snowy conditions. I've only had minor snow-blindness. It was not only painful but also remarkably incapacitating. Low sun off cold white sparkly snow can be dangerous …

[Hosh]

I like an automotive flare as a winter fire starter, not a lot of extra weight for a very reliable source.

When we snow shoe, I bring a small collapsible shovel, avalanche probe, and beacons. Snow caves, tree wells will protect from winds and an emergency bivy will capture heat. A military thermal blanket works well as a wind break in a lean two.

In the west, sunglasses/googles are a necessity. Snow blindness is not fun

Headlamps work best on uneven terrain, batteries must be kept warm.

[rafe]

For wind-driven rain or snow, goggles offer the best eye protection.

I'd bring spare hat and gloves/mittens as well.

[nsherry61]

I'd just like to add emphasis to the idea of a CCF sleeping pad or large sit pad as an essential. And it's not necessarily essential in the summer.
IMO, having one is vital for safety, insulating you from the snow as well as comfort for a nice relaxing sit at any point to eat, put on snowshoes, start a fire or whatever. A pad may be more important than a bivy sack if you can build a snow cave for protection, but can't insulate yourself against the snow you sit/lay on.

[Leo L.]

From the beginning of my mountaineering carrer decades ago a bivy bag is the most essential item I always carry in my pack no matter where I go.
Later added a headlamp and a small survival pack.
I carry one or two space blankets in the pack too, but found out recently that their value is dubious. They tear so easy that they will break in most situations of emergency.

[HeartFire]

Like nsherry said. In the winter, protection from the ground is mandatory - I not only bring a ccf pad 'sit-upon' but on day hikes, I have my neoair as well. If you were to twist your ankle - or break a leg, even if you are just a half mile from the trail head, y ou have to sit and wait for help. You need something to sit on. The cold ground will suck the life out of you. I also have an emergency bivy sack.

[Leo L.]

Forgot to mention:
My bivy is not mummy shape, but a real sack, spacious to pull over ones head while sitting on the pack. It would also cover two persons sitting close together.

[rickb]

Has anyone here actually used a space blanket in the woods?

How do you employ one? As an extra layer over the clothes you are wearing?

I can't speak to what is best to have with you when you get in over your head, but I seldom take even a moderate winter hike without a 3/4 length Ridgrest strapped to my day pack (my wife and I share it when breaking for lunch) or a very lightweight poly top which I will make a point to change into if I sweat up what I am wearing. I am also inclined to take microspikes if there is any possibility I might need them. So for me those together with warm "resting clothes" and a light are "essential".

But back to the space blanket -- I fully understand how they work at the end of a Marathon run against your mostly bare skin when you are radiating a lot of heat, but in the frozen backcountry?

For those who have actually used them there, do there really help you warm up in winter conditions?

[Leo L.]

Only once, several decades ago, when I got stuck in a snowstorm together with a friend and we dug a hole beneath a huge fir to sit together close and shiver through the night, I had with me and we used a piece of a space blanket. We pulled it over our heads, and you could immediately feel some warmth.
Downside was, that after some time under the coverage of the blanket all snow and ice that had gathered before on our hats, hair and shoulder started to melt so we finally got soaked pretty bad.
This had happened in the 70ties and all clothes were cotton then (except my trousers that happened to be Trevira, a Polyester brand - which worked just great, BTW).

So yes, the spaceblanket worked, in some ways. I still carry one in my survival kit.
But I'm well aware that it might fail, due to wear and tear, especially in the woods and in wind.
And its very important to replace an old blanket by a new one at times, as old stuff tends to stick together und thus being impossible to unfold without breaking it.

[Tipi Walter]

Leo L---Your post reminds me of a story from the Donner party and their survival in the Sierras during a series of terrible snowstorms. Some of them tried to get out of the mountains and traveled overland and used this technique to survive the night---The group of them sat in a tight circle on the snow (perhaps on tree boughs) and huddled together and threw blankets and fur hides over the entire group to form a sort of tipi with humans as the poles. This kept them alive thru the night.

[rafe]

I carry one on winter day hikes but have never used it.

[Leo L.]

Too much of an honor, Walter.
We were just stupid boys then

But yes, huddling together as close as possible makes all the difference.
Remember well the Boy Scout episode in "The Tracker: The True Story of Tom Brown".

[The Solemates]

8) Flashlight - a no brainer here. Spare batteries too if you can't remember the last time they were changed.

this is why I always put new batteries in my headlamp after every ~2 trips - whether they need it or not. If for no other reason that hating to carry extras, I cannot stand being without light to read for 2+ hrs in the winter months - and I'll have light in case of emergency.

[nsherry61]

Has anyone here actually used a space blanket in the woods?

How do you employ one? As an extra layer over the clothes you are wearing? . . .

I've draped a space blanket over my sleeping bag to protect it from a light drizzle when cowboy camping, corners held down with rocks.
I general, it seems space blanket can add maybe the equivalent of maybe 10 degrees of warmth or so, which can be significant, but also, not as much as one might like.
I like the SOL space blankets that are plastic instead of Mylar, so they are quieter and don't tear as readily.
I've used the SOL space blankets as a ground sheet, don't know if it helped with warmth or not, but made an okay, if slightly flimsy ground sheet.
I added some loops of tape to the corners of a SOL double space blanket and pitched it as a modified lean-to shelter, like I do my poncho. I left it up in a strong wind, using rubber bands as shock aborbers on the guy lines, and it lasted over two nights in 15 mph winds gusting to over 30 mph. And, sleeping under the SOL blanket instead of my poncho does feel noticeably warmer, especially to exposed skin.
Finally, pitched as a lean-to near a fire the space blanket can reflect crazy amounts of heat back to you.

Here's the rub, I rarely take a space blanket with me any more because my poncho is multi-purpose and provides good shelter without the added couple of ounces of a space blanket, and my polycryo ground sheets are much more durable than the space blanket and longer (which is important to a person my height, 6'4").

I have also played with the SOL emergency bivy that is basically a space blanket folded into a bag. Works great. Much better than wrapping yourself up in a loose blanket. But, of course, it doesn't breath, so it gets wet for overnight use.

Finally, I also have a SOL Escape bivy which is a $50 tyvk like bivy made with reflective material. I use it quite a bit in the summer when I am mostly cowboy camping where it can be my ground sheet and some extra warmth if it gets colder than the rest of my sleep system is comfortable with. It also protects me well from sporatic night-time drizzles. The Escape bivy is waterproof and still very breathable, so I haven't had condensation problems with it. Although it is generally not used all night long since, I generally only crawl inside, in the early morning as temperatures hit their lowest point and I start to get a little cool, or if it starts raining.

[ScareBear]

You can deploy a space blanket inside of a sleeping bag to create a VBL. That will save your shivering bacon, right there...

I use a SOL Escape Bivvy as part of my summer bag system. I don't find it very breathable, except by using the bag's opening as a vent. YMMV. SOL makes a 2 person space blanket bivvy bag that is a must for every pack. I carry one year-round in the glovebox of each vehicle as well...just sayin...

[pilgrimskywheel]

You know I'd have to say I'd put the emphasis on sleeping bag here. (Is that #10?) Maybe I'm missing it, on what is otherwise a really good list. Weighed against a FAK the bag is I think way more likely to be of use to you - even on a - gasp! - day hike. For the Tx of shock or hypothermia, or both as one would follow the other. You fall, get hurt, get shockey, get cold. I carry a -30* bag and Marmot +10 liner in winter and they don't weigh anything. In a compression sack my bag is the size of a coffee can, and my liner the size of a regular can of veggies. Why not bring em? Hell I paid enough for em I might as well.

I have used a space blanket in place of a liner in the past and you have to watch the moisture buildup. It's easy to wake up damp. I dont know who makes it but the one I had was pretty fancy. It was cut and shaped like a bivy, with a white almost like felty paper liner. It was also very light, however finally succumbed to normal wear and tear. It was a hiker box score.

[Tipi Walter]

It just dawned on me that a sleeping bag could be used as a disposable item on a dayhike because if you really need it you're in dire circumstances anyway and need to get thru the night at all costs. So just throw it down on the ground and try to survive the night. A sleeping bag for a backpacker on the other hand is not a disposable item because it must be used for Night #1 and night 5 and night 15 etc until the end of the trip. The point of having a bag as an Essential item is that it's never used and then only used once before (hopefully) rescue. I bet shivering hikers sitting thru the night would love to have a dry sleeping bag to wrap themselves inside---and stay cocooned until first light. And even let it get soaked if necessary.

[pilgrimskywheel]

Well, I'm kinda baffled here so somebody help this big dummy out. Please.

This is a list of 10 hiking essentials for a winter day hike only? I've got a sexy light little set up now and at around 40 lbs - depending on water and food which could push me up - I'm ready for about 72 hours of sustained humping thru a zombie apocalypse during a blizzard. 72 hours before I need more Ramun noodles, tuna packs, peanut butter, oatmeal, Snickers, etc. Yes, I strip down Mountain House meals too. I ditched my crossbow - too heavy - machete $8 WalMart. (Please don't ask for my packing list.) I don't weigh my stuff separately, and sometimes I load up for comfort and not for speed.

My point is I walk around the neighborhood with this on. If you have to ask why, just never mind. But, I wouldn't go into a tree line for a day without it - including tent, bag, rain skin, and the usual. No. I don't stand at the car and go: "Well, won't need this today so I'll just leave that behind!"

What is the attraction of going "hiking" without your hiking s--t? Especially given what has dominated the chatter on here for the last few days. (And no, I totally don't get "slackpacking" either. We had that already, and it was either called walking, speed walking, or running, depending on how fast you did it.)

[nsherry61]

. . . I use a SOL Escape Bivvy as part of my summer bag system. I don't find it very breathable . . .

I'm expect you are on top of these details and your reply is still the same, but if you are not, SOL makes their Escape Bivvy (actually a couple of them), their Thermal Bivvy, and then also their Emergency Bivvy. Only the Escape Bivvy is breathable, probably along the lines of Tyvek, although, I've never used Tyvek as a Bivvy. All the other bivvys are not breathable at all.

I've certainly slept in my Escape Bivvy in a range of different environments on multiple occasions and I've never felt that wet damp moist feel that I get in poorly breathable bags. But, as we all know, YMMV, and sometimes a lot! I just wish they made the Escape Bivvy in an extra long version.