Winter Camping Class

I really liked winter camping even though it was a challenge for me. The way it was described to me was that its not about how to survive in the winter time its about how to thrive in the winter time camping. We have had record breaking snow fall this year and even the big 6x6 military truck with chains on the tires was not able to make it up the hill like normal. So we spent the alot of the day hiking with snowshoes and shoveling out the road for the truck to get up. All through Winter skills i dont think it ever stopped snowing but very breifly a couple of days. Mostly it was snow all day and night long. The hikes were especially beautuful when the sun did decide to peak out.

When we got to the spot we were going to camp at we had no time to rest because we had to start building our quinzhee. This is kind of like a iglo but instead of block s of ice that you cut out it is made form a big pile of snow that you shovel. You first stomp out the ground to pack it down and then start piling a huge pile of snow in that area. After you have a good dome shape you let it harden for a couple of hours then you get to "mole" it out which is a blast but you get snow all over you.


With about 8 feet off snow everywhere all you need is a shovel an imagination and some muscles ( got that covered) and you can build anything you want. Me and my buddy scott built a couch with a foot rest and drink holders after our quinzhee was done to relax on and then we started on the kitchen. It was nice not having to worry about how much water we had because if we needed more you just fire up the store and melt some snow. Warning: you can burn it and that is some nasty tasting water. We eat pretty good out there. This is us testing out the noodles (ramen) for our spaghetti dinner that night. We used sticks that we found laying around and they worked quite well.

We were all pretty exhausted and couldnt wait for dinner to be ready so we could just go to bed in our new shelter. It actually sleeps very good in side all that snow. It blocks out virtually all sound from outside and everything around you is white snow. Just beware the dreaded "wump" while the snow is settling which could be ugly if it collapses on you.

The next day we got up and decided to make some sled runs for our air sleds that we hiked up with us. At the bottom of the run the was a small drop off that we made into a ramp which launched us into the air. Luckily there was plently of powder for all the ugly landings. It was a great time as long as you can keep clothes dry and have fun to keep your self warm which can be tricky at times.