Hey there folks Jim Ryan here, host of the Peak Northwest video series and today we're
going to teach you a thing or two about going snow camping with gear you may already have at home.
So I'm gonna get my boots on here and we're gonna head out.
All right, so tip number one - even if in the summertime you feel good going like eight or
ten miles into the back country to set up camp, pick someplace easy for your first snow camping
destination. Today we are up near mount hood and I've picked a super easy access spot,
just a short ways from the road. So I'm gonna grab my tent my sleeping bag and head on out.
Tip number two - as soon as you have found your spot to camp, so a nice flat area,
you're going to want to go stomp around in your skis, snow shoes, or just your boots
to make sure that your space is flat. This is a lot easier if you have snow shoes or skis!
The more that you can do of this at the beginning, the happier you're going to be once your camp is
set up. But it does look very silly. Tip number three - if there's any kind of bumpy or rough
spots in your campsite, one of the advantages of snow camping is that you can get out a shovel and
use snow from around the area to fill in those spots. This is just a small packable shovel,
something that could be good to keep in your car, or in my case, in my backcountry skiing backpack.
Tip number four - it's obviously great if you can get your hands on a winter specific tent,
but for a day like today, when it's pretty nice outside and not that cold, a more standard tent
like you may have at home, such as this one from REI, is probably gonna be alright.
Tip number five - you're going to want to stake your tent down so it doesn't blow away
and the little stakes that come with your tent? They're not going to do much for you
in the winter time, so i've brought along here some ski poles and trekking poles that
are going to do a little bit better job of making sure our tent doesn't go anywhere.
Tip number six - once you have your tent properly anchored down so it's not going to blow away,
it's time to get your gear out of the elements and into the tent.
With me here I have a warm sleeping bag and then two different sleeping pads,
a Z-pad and an inflating pad
Tip number seven - having a nice warm sleeping setup. In this case for me,
I have a three degree Mountain Hardwear sleeping bag that was inspired by many,
many cold nights outside. Tip number eight - once you have your tent more or less situated,
you can dig out a spot to store any gear you don't want in your tent overnight.
Once you've shoveled out a spot for your gear,
it's time to stake out the vestibule to have an actual place to put it.
In this case i'm going to use part of my shovel because I ran out of things to stake with.
Tip number nine - if you were in an exposed area that was very windy or you wanted to get creative,
you could build yourself a wind block with blocks of snow, or a bench, or any other kind of things
that you want to have around your camp. I'm going to forego that step today because as you can see
it's starting to rain and I'm going to get inside my tent here shortly. Our 10th and final tip
is using the snow to make ourselves some water. So I have a little baby
backpacking stove, I'm gonna get this sucker set up and get to boiling some water.
Once you've made your snow into water and brought it to a boil,
you can use it of course for drinking water, to make coffee or tea or hot cocoa,
you can put it into a freeze-dried meal to make yourself some lunch or dinner, or you could put
it in a Nalgene-type water bottle to put in your sleeping bag to keep you warm once you go to bed.
All right folks I hope you have a great time out snow camping, and stay safe out
there. For now though, I'm gonna get out of the elements and tuck into my tent. Goodbye for now.