Mark and I have spent a couple more nights in the snow as we continue to refine our winter camping system. While we won’t say winter camping is easy for us just yet, every time we go out it feels more manageable. Right now, the biggest challenge that we have been encountering is balancing comfort at camp and the weight in our packs. Winter camping requires a fair bit more gear than summer backpacking, but we are doing our best to keep pack weight to a minimum to make it easier to hike faster and spend more time in the backcountry.
The “big three” weight saving items in backpacking are a backpack, sleeping bag (and pad), and tent. We have spent a lot of time choosing these items and feel fairly confident in our choices. Right now we are using our summer backpacking packs, we use a double wide inflatable sleeping pad and a close cell foam pad underneath, and we have a TarpTent Stratospire Li tent.
While we have dialed in our “big three,” picking out clothing has been one of the hotter topics of debate, and we are both still working out which layers work best for both hiking during the day and sleeping warm at night. The reality of ski touring and camping is that the days are often spent working up a sweat and the nights quickly get cold when all that heat generating movement comes to a halt at camp. So good clothing options have to be packable and breathable during the day, and warm at camp. We’re still figuring out exactly what that looks like for us.
Luckily, whatever we load our packs down with is enough to get us out enjoying the spectacular experience of waking up in the winter backcountry.
On February 15, we spent the night in Herman gulch at the base of the Citadel– a prominent peak just North of I-70. We hiked up the basin to tree line where we found the a nook in the last protective grove of trees. It was a pretty incredible spot. Wind on the front of a storm rolling in howled around us all night, but we scarcely felt a breeze on our tent.
The week prior, we had gone camping outside of Camp Hale near the Jackal Hut, where we stopped to bum some water from the vacationers enjoying their warm cabin. While our nights sleep was uninterrupted by winds, we spent the day tramping around in gusts that made for a challenging day of hiking. Between the rolling clouds, flurries of snow, and random spots of hot, still sunshine, we found ourselves fatigued by the constant shedding and adding of layers as we tried to regulate temperature. This weather combined with the crummy snow conditions as a result of the long dry spell, made the hiking feel less rewarding than it often is. Being so close to Minturn when we made it back to our car, however, did give us an excuse to enjoy one of our favorite taco spots, Rocky Mountain Taco. The delicious food was a definite moral booster, and made it easier to reflect on our outing with some rose tinted glasses. We had, after all, found tent set up much easier than it had been in the past and reveled in the relatively warm morning at camp, taking our time to enjoy our hot drinks and one another’s company before ever having to leave the comfort of our sleeping bags. Mark and I had also gotten to explore an area near Sheep mountain about which we had often talked and admired the lack of travel near Kokomo pass in the winter. The experience of hiking in that area felt remarkably remote as we broke trail through the untracked snow.
Our most recent outing was just outside of Leadville on and near Homestake and Galena peaks. We hiked out toward the base of Homestake after I got off of work. As the sun started to set, we found a spot near the stream below Slide lake. A result of the warm weeks preceding us, the stream was flowing, and water was accessible via a few melt spots in the snow. After tamping down a spot in a nook of trees and setting up the tent, I went to collect some water. It was a relief not to have to melt snow for our water supply for the next day and as I stooped over the stream it was easy to fill our bottles in the surprisingly deep running water. I sealed up our bottles and was ready to make the short trek back to camp when the snow gave way underneath one of my boots and I found my right foot fully submerged in the creek! I stepped out quickly, but my boot, liner and sock were totally soaked.
When I returned to Mark with the news, we worried that it might prevent us from going on the hike we had planned for the next day, but decided to wait and see how it looked in the morning. I slept with the boot liner in a plastic bag and kept it in my sleeping bag to keep it from freezing. We took our usual time getting out of camp, and by the time we were moving at 9:15 am, it was warm enough that the wet boot wasn’t an issue! By the end of the day, it didn’t even matter that I had soaked the liner in the creek, because both Mark and I had sweated through our boot liners in the unseasonably spring like conditions.
Since much of the snow had been transformed into death crust or collapsing mush, Mark and I set out to enjoy a hike rather than punish ourselves skiing the snow. We skinned to the top of Homestake peak and then hiked over the ridge to Galena peak where we descended back into the trees. The hiking up high was extremely taxing. Homestake tops out at 13,209′ and the entirety of the hike along the ridge kept us above 12,500′. The hiking side of the ridge was wind scoured, and we spent almost the entirety of the hike bumbling between patches of rock and punchy snow. When the snow was continuous, we kept our skis on our feet and skinned over it relatively quickly. In areas that had been totally stripped of snow, the moving was similarly fast as we hiked overtop rock and alpine grasses. But between the dreaded middle ground–not enough snow to skin, but still enough that you punch through it occasionally– the many transitions, and the constant elevations, we made relatively slow progress over the 5 mile ridge.
We were relieved to start our final descent on skis, but when we reached tree line, found the conditions that had inspired our hiking itinerary. Skiing through the crust and slop down to the Colorado trail (which is trafficked in the winter by hut users) was particularly trying as we both dealt with major dehydration headaches. We had drank all of our water but spent the entire day above tree line in the bright, hot sun. We were looking forward to making camp, but wanted to get to a stream so we could collect water. We did not find the streams that we expected to be accessible and, having had luck when we camped near the Jackal hut, decided to push to Uncle Bud’s cabin to see if there was anyone melting buckets of snow over the hot stove inside. We are hardly ashamed of taking advantage of this convenience since it reduces our fuel usage and gives us the opportunity to engage in some interesting interactions with strangers.
We were met by a huge group at the hut, who were more than willing to share their water. We drank down a liter each, refilled our bottles, accepted their offer of a few cheese snacks and went on our way. After the day we’d had, I’m certain we looked like a haggard goof troop, which reflected how we felt.
We continued hiking for a little while longer, but made camp when we saw ourselves getting close to tree line where the trail went up and over a ridge. In our tired state, it took a surprising amount of conversation to decide if our chosen spot was actually flat, but we eventually decided it was and reveled in the warm calm evening to set up our tent.
Sitting down on our sleeping pad and enjoying our warm meal felt like real luxury after the challenging hiking and skiing. It was a warm night and we slept great. When we woke up the next morning, we were greeted by the sun shining through the trees. We packed up and started hiking again. We followed, roughly, the Colorado trail back to our car, not without incident, but with a much greater degree of ease than the day prior. We moved seven miles in two and a half hours, where yesterday it had taken us eight hours to move eleven miles. The well trodden track below tree line is mainly to be thanked. We did, however, find ourselves in a couple spots where downhill skinning was necessary, but challenging. Mark broke a pole on one of these rollers, but was luckily able to mend it to be usable for the rest of our hike.
Back to the car before noon, we were happy to have the rest of our day to air out our gear and relax back in Leadville. While many parts of this trip were challenging, overall it felt like a successful application of our skills. It’s exciting to see winter backpacking getting easier us!