Macchina
Gold Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2006
- Messages
- 5,204
Recently some friends and I went for a two-nighter on a trail in upper Michigan. A lot of the snow had melted up there last week (there was 2-4 feet accumulation), so travel was easy. Some areas had 1' remaining, some areas were frozen ground. We brought our snow shoes to the trailhead to decide if we needed them, about half of us wore and used them as much as crampons as snowshoes. This was the perfect situation to use undersized shoes (I wore 22" Atlas') and I walked confidently over ice and snow. Camping was a bit cold, but not too bad as long as you kept a hot drink in your hand. We've all slept in weather like that (around 15 degrees), so we knew what to bring and what to expect. Sorry I didn't take any knife pics, but my Gransfors Small Forest Axe was in my hand almost the whole time at camp sectioning the fallen branches for fire. My Fallkniven F1 was on my hip in its new Zytel sheath (the original leather sheath was way to big) and did a great job with food prep.
Some things that work out really great on winter trips for us:
>Put a Nalgene (use a real one, cheap ones leak) of boiling water by your feet in your sleeping bag, it makes a world of difference.
>Bring a stock pot to put on the fire to keep water boiling at all times. Hot drinks warm you up. I made a stand for my pot, but you can just nest it in there if you have something to fill it with after it runs dry.
>Bring two of everything: one light and one heavy. I hike in Icebreaker liner gloves and a very think OR fleece hat, an Underarmor Heat Gear long sleeve shirt and light fleece on top, with a thin pair of wool long johns and vented waterproof pants. The second we stop, I throw on an Icebreaker sweater and zip up my pant vents to prevent chills. This system seems to work well for me.
Now for the pics:
Some things that work out really great on winter trips for us:
>Put a Nalgene (use a real one, cheap ones leak) of boiling water by your feet in your sleeping bag, it makes a world of difference.
>Bring a stock pot to put on the fire to keep water boiling at all times. Hot drinks warm you up. I made a stand for my pot, but you can just nest it in there if you have something to fill it with after it runs dry.
>Bring two of everything: one light and one heavy. I hike in Icebreaker liner gloves and a very think OR fleece hat, an Underarmor Heat Gear long sleeve shirt and light fleece on top, with a thin pair of wool long johns and vented waterproof pants. The second we stop, I throw on an Icebreaker sweater and zip up my pant vents to prevent chills. This system seems to work well for me.
Now for the pics:
