A good guide to winter camping is Allen & Mike's Really Cool Backcountry Ski Book (Amazon and other fine booksellers). About half the book is about camping, so don't be put off by the title.

Also, there are many online sites dedicated to winter camping. Use a search engine to find them.

The dividing line for me is snow/no snow. Snow camping requires a different skill set than non-snow camping and some different gear. For example, I do not go snow camping without a shovel-mine is a Voile Mini, but there is one by Lifeline for sale on Amazon and much cheaper than mine-Loomis has that one.

Also, unless you are on hardpacked trails or roads, take skis or snowshoes. I've used both. Snowshoes are easier to learn on-if you can walk, you can snowshoe.

Tent- a three season tent will work unless, as already mentioned, you are in heavy snowfall, where a three season tent might be fine, depending on the design, but in the wild is no place to find out it won't.

Bag and pads-I have a bag, overbag because my bag isn't a deep winter bag and I also have a BD Winter Bivy to keep my bag dry.

Stove-I have several. My Primus Micron canister stove will work down to about 15F at 7200 ft. Both altitude and temperature are factors that affect canister stoves. White gas will be more dependable, the exception being a Coleman Xtreme which uses a different canister design. That stove is no longer made and canisters aren't easy to find, but you may meet someone who has one.

If you look back through the winter camping forum. you may find some gear lists, but mine for example is for the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite in particular.

btw, you really don't need a parka like I am wearing in my photo with the big hood on it. That one is an earlier version of the warmest parka North Face makes.


Edited by TomD (01/13/11 09:05 PM)
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