Post a photo of your winter shelters and campsites.

What worked?
What didn't?
How do you plan to improve things next time?

(I plan to bring a camera next time!)

A snowcave..or even an igloo :)



And the view from a different trip (snow cave)

We used an MLD Trailstar for a night out in February this year. It was cold (7º at night), and so I would have blocked the entrance to the tarp with an emergency blanket or snow or something to keep the heat in. Sleeping on R5 worth of pads plus an emergency blanket, wearing my down jacket and nano puff, in a 0º EN-rated bag, in a bivy, I was still cold.

Tarp camping in serious winter weather is cold.

My first trials in winter
First time wet and snow during the night +5° C




Second time dry and very cold with a -9° sleeping bag at -16°C

For me winter does not necessarily mean snow.

I'm going to a tarp this year, but last year used an SL-3



Dave

Snow hole on the Cairngorm Plateau Scotland (thats me in front)

The Snow hole was bit tight.

Edited by stephenm on 10/15/2011 10:37:28 MDT.

What didn't work? 4feet of unsupported sil.. Thats what! LOL I mean, I guess it worked, but not ideal by any means. I woke up at whatever in the morning to the roof 6" off my face. It was kinda creepy. Luckily it didn't snow more than .5"

I'm bumping this thread in hopes that in the past two months some people have gotten pictures and would be so kind as to post them.

I'm still working on getting to the point where I'm ready for a winter overnight (thus have nothing to contribute), but I'd love to see more of other people's setups.

Jeff

Just try it. I'm a wimp in the winter, but went on an overnight & had a blast. Hardest part is getting out of town!

"How do you plan to improve things next time?"


Pitch my shelter on some blocks of snow for a little more interior room.

We had 10 people to build this. The hole in the roof gave us the perfect amount of ventilation. After a few days in the sun the roof started to sag but we were only here for two nights. If you have the time and energy to build one of these they work great. I definitely wouldn't recommend building one for a one night stay unless you don't have any other shelter options.





For solo trips, this shelter is much quicker to build and relatively convenient for a one night shelter. This would've been more comfortable with a bivvy sack, but this was a test run.