For me it is when everything starts to hurt, that is too cold. If I stay moving I can go a lot lower temps.
Plus if you prepared for the conditions you will be in, it is much more bearable
Temperate scale in northern climes:
50 degrees - balmy, beach wear
40 degrees - breezy, shorts with socks
30 degrees - chilly, tee shirt, shorts, and ball cap
20 degrees - nippy, start closing some windows
10 degrees - brisk, close front and back door
0 degrees - frosty, fingerless glove weather
-10 degrees - cold, need long pants
-20 degrees - "fricken" cold, long sleeve shirts
Last edited by Traveler; 01-13-2019 at 09:36.
Ahhhh, 50°, those warm New England summer days. Summer in New England, as in the second and third week of July.Originally Posted by Traveler
0° is okay if it's not a winter storm. 40° is no bueno if it's raining.
This time last year, I went on my first winter campout with our Boy Scout Troop. Friday night was 9 degrees. Saturday night was 26 with 2" of snow. Since it is was pretty much car camping trip, carrying gear wasn't an issue so we were able to keep everyone safe. Surprisingly, it wasn't too awful bad. Even my 6 year old was fine.
Our 2019 trip is next weekend and it looks a little worse (more fun) weatherwise than last year.
Best advice I got re winter camping is don't have breakfast when you wake up. It just prolongs the misery. Pack up your camp, hike for an hour or so, warm up, then find a sunny spot for leisurely breakfast.
I'm going out this weekend.
Thank you for posting this. This may save me some unpleasantness on an upcoming trip ... incidentally one that would be a time-crunch anyway in terms of having to pack up and meet another group over a mile away just 35 min after sunrise. OTOH with long nights we may wake pre-dawn and be eager to make some hot tea.
I bared the cold weather for several years on the AT. Would keep hiking all the way thru winter. These days I hang it up when it gets 30* at night. Which is pretty much November 1st. Last year I pulled trip #1 of the year at easter which fell on 3/30/18 and I froze my keester off the second night out. I am going to springer this year on 3/15/18 and gunna skirt up to neels to see the troves of greenwoods. Lets see how my temperament of cold weather is this year...
Trail Miles: 4,980.5
AT Map 1: Complete 2013-2021
Sheltowee Trace: Complete 2020-2023
Pinhoti Trail: Complete 2023-2024
Foothills Trail: 47.9
AT Map 2: 279.4
BMT: 52.7
CDT: 85.4
I agree and disagree. Last time I was out it was 4-5 degrees in the morning. My cousin doesn’t eat in the am when we camp in winter. I packed up and said to myself I want a coffee. Enjoyed my drink and woke him up and off we went.
Depending on conditions and mileage you might like some food. Don’t dismiss the idea of breakfast completely. Plus you are going to be cold, warm up then stop and cool off. If you are going to eat a real “breakfast” eat in your bag. I personally only break out the stove at camp as I use white gas and wouldn’t want to use it during the day unless it’s an emergency
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I don't plan to sleep out of doors below about -10 °F. I'm good to hike a little bit below that, and live through the night if I'm caught out.
That's enough to do weekends (if the weather forecast is worse, I go elsewehere or stay home), and good enough for the occasional winter peakbag (where most people's style is to wait for a good forecast, get in and get out before the weather changes).
If I had Coach Lou's sleeping gear (only sized for me, I'm a big guy and he isn't), and a mountaineering tent, and a pack big enough to hold the winter loadout, and the motivation to use them, I'd be good down to about -25. But I have neither the budget nor the motivation. As long as I can get out once in a while to relieve the cabin fever, I'm fine with what I've got.
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
Pre winter hike I like to consider my early morning approaches. I'm more inclined to Seth's thinking. I let the conditions and morning temperament dictate how I'm to proceed. I don't want rigidness or one approach to always rule. Diversity of experiences keeps me more engaged on winter trips...and every trip. Diversity also gets me out more and for longer durations. For morning I may get up and immediately pack up, sometimes eating an hr or two later, other times sit in the bag taking in the winter perspective as the winter sun rises warming a meal outside of an enclosed tent. That's why I love Tipi Walter's winter trip reports w/ pics. I think he appreciates the aspects of winter "nut busters."
Organizing along these multiple morning approaches, for morning winter eats I like to bring along different foods based on variable inclinations, mixing it up with simple non heated nutrition like a Bobo's Oatmeal bar, ProBar, or Cashew Macro bar dipped in a high fat nut or seed butter with perhaps dry roasted caramel or chocolate covered coconut strips. I might bring along morning beverages to be heated something I never do on warmer trips. To the morning food menu I'll throw in oatmeal or millet or dehydrated quinoa as a base with flax seed oil or full fat powered coconut milk with nuts and seeds and their butters with dried fruits. Get up and go while eating or within an hr or two and then eat "cold" or heat a b'fast meal...it all works. All the b'fasts are made to also be consumed at any other time doing away with a rigid 3 squares a day approach.
I don't know if anyone has said this but as prep for a winter hike I re-habituate to cold and wind and walking in sleet and snow. I'll winter I'll mountain bike or peddle a gravel bike. Windows at home are opened. I sleep outside pre hike bivying if conditions allow. Tipi Walter sleeps outside even in winter which is one aspect of why he probably has a wider temp comfort zone. This is the physiological and psychological conditioning discussed in detail for thru hikers. Those same principles can be applied to winter outings. One problem for folks not going out in winter is they lock themselves inside enclosed tents or indoors pre hike hovering over a thermostat or under blankets on the bed or couch and scurry quickly to their vehicles in the cold mornings. No wonder not as a many that could enjoy winter aspects like winter backpacking and hiking choose not to.
Dayhiking I’ll go out in the twenties. I want no part of overnighting in the twenties. Add in the short days where I’m not moving around and lying in my tent listening to music and I’ll pass. Sterling fire tower in November.
On on the flip side, if it’s not too humid I’ll hike all day in the nineties if I’ve got tree cover. Pretty sure I did a thirty plus mile day into Harpers Ferry while it was 100 in DC.
Just did my first hike after the snowfall.
It was tough snowshoeing over the pass into the next vally, which had much more snow than at my home - the edge cut out by the plow was above my head.
Snow inside the forest was crusty with some powder atop - just perfect for snowshoeing!
Spent the night tucked away high on the mountain (est. -10/-12°C resp. -23/-24F), it was cosy inside the winter tent.
Some things to note about hiking in the cold:
- you should be super fit, but always leave a wide margin from exhaustion
- layer clothes, gloves, hats and adjust speed such, that you never start really sweating
- bathroom usage is difficult, you better bring your pee bottle
The worst part of the whole hike was packing up in the crisp-cold morning. Especially my fingers suffered a lot when packing up the tent.
Highlight of the hike was an Eagle Owl that I heard huuting. Very rare species here around.
Just a correction: -10/-12°C are +14/+10.4°F respectively.
So sorry.
Did the conversion from -10F to -23°C.
Maybe the cold was enough to damage my brain?
Dain BramageIt's tough if you're raised under one system and then have to always convert. Most of the equipment at my workplace is European, so while I recognize certain values, I always have to convert to have it make sense in my head.
Tough for us Europeans to visit the US.
I mixed up quarts and pints and got severe headache <G>
Regarding the cold, yeah, the snow was creaking so it was cold indeed.
As long as I kept moving, and had the head well covered I was fine.
Problem were the hands, I don't have decent gloves while holding the poles would require some.
Plus at certain points I had to take the gloves off again and again to look/zoom on the GPS app.
The near-full moon was so bright I didn't use the headlamp at all.
I took 10 sentences to say the same thing. I did include examples.
I used to follow Colin Fletcher's advice (remember him?) and set up my stove and breakfast beside my sleeping bag, for a comfy breakfast in bed the next morning. But now I live in bear country, and now that would mean getting out of the tent and sleeping bag, retrieving the bear bag. However, I do have a cup of coffee before hitting the trail. Woe to any bear that comes between me and my coffee.
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