Winter Camping in the Snowy’s with Sierra Trading Post

{Hey, guess what? All the photos are by Will. Something new, right?!}

I’m baaaaaaaaack! And guess what? It’s for real this time! Sure, I have a few weekend trips scattered here and there, but I am more-or-less HOME until April. Know what else? It feels fantastic!

Of course, I would be remiss to wax about the glory of my own bed without first sharing a story that is approximately 1.33 weeks late….our winter camping trip with Sierra Trading Post!

{Last} Saturday dawned bright and early as Will, Stew {remember him from Alaska? He flew in for this trip!} and myself blearily crawled out of bed before dawn. Per usual, I hadn’t packed so I was stuck throwing stuff together up until the last minute. Typical. I also suffered through a few well deserved verbal jabs from Stew: we had promptly taken him to a bar after his flight landed the night before, and he was in a world of hurt because of a whiskey drink I had encouraged. Guess alcohol + whiskey does not equal an early morning? Who knew!

We piled in the car, headed north towards the tiny town of Centennial, Wyoming, and knocked out the three-hour drive in order to meet the gang at the trailhead by 10am. We had settled on a trail in the Snowy Range of the Medicine Bow Wilderness, and I was psyched to check it out. Heidi, Lynne and Andy and Chris were already there, so we quickly loaded up our packs and hit the trail!

You know, the one thing I’ve quickly realized about winter camping is that no matter how brief the trip, your backpack is always huge! We were only heading in for a single night, but both Will and I had large 60 liter packs strapped to our backs. Everyone else {excluding Stew, who apparently is a magician} had similar-sized cargo, and Lynne and Alex even had an additional sled full of gear. Winter camping means business!

The snowshoe in was fairly easy so we were all able to take our time and enjoy the scenery. The sun was shining but the wind was viciously whipping, causing me to take off my down jacket and replace it with a hardshell. I swear: my body cranks out heat while snowshoeing and I have yet to figure out the perfect combination of clothes after 32 years!

After a few miles, we veered off the designated trail and began searching for the perfect campsite in the trees. We found a small clearing that offered protection from the wind while facing the east: we really wanted to catch those sun rays first thing in the morning. Between the 9 of us, we had 5 tents, so we all began setting up our little commune of tents.

If you’ve only been summer camping, you may not realize that setting up a tent in the winter is a tad different. First, you have to tromp down the area where the tent will be. It’s great if you have time to let it ice over a little! While that’s freezing up a bit, we tromped out a path into the woods for a bathroom, as well as a separate area for a kitchen. {There is nothing worse than stumbling out of your tent at night to use the bathroom and falling into knee-deep snow!} Another tip? Don’t forget your snow stakes! Regular stakes won’t hold in the snow so you have to use snow stakes to secure the tent to the ground. Finally, after setting up your tent, dig out one-two feet of snow from the vestibule area. This makes it a lot easier to get in and out of the tent and makes it a lot more comfortable to sit there while cooking.

After the serious stuff was taken care of, it was time to play! We did a little snowshoeing in the area and found a hill nearby. A few of hoofed to the top to take in the view while Heidi and Chris got a chance to get some turns in with their split boards. All in all, not a bad way to spend an evening!

The downside of winter camping? You spend a lot of time in the tent! Once the sun sets, everyone tends to crawl inside just so they can get in their warm sleeping bag. I think we climbed into our bags around 6:30 and didn’t come out until 8:30 the following morning!

The other downside? We experienced one of the most fluke sleeping pad malfunctions of all time! While inflating my extra warm winter camping pad, the lamination burst, causing the separate air compartments to blur together. Instead of keeping the air even throughout the mat, all of the air flooded the top half of the sleeping mat, creating a massive bulge. Instead of laying flat on my back, I was bent at the waist, sitting almost completely upright while leaning against the bulge. Naturally, Will offered to switch with me but I wouldn’t let him. After all, he got screwed last time we went winter camping too!

However, I soon learned that the ruptured pad wouldn’t help me sleep, and I ended up laying there, staring at the tent ceiling until 1am. I was wallowing in my exhaustion when I heard Will’s voice in the darkness: “Are you miserable enough to switch yet?” Man, that guy knows me well! We switched mats around 1:30 in the morning which turned out to be the right decision. He sleeps warm so he was fine on the deflated pad, and I got a solid 7 hours of sleep. Perfect!

Everyone finally crawled out of the tents and ate breakfast by 10am; most of us had been hanging out inside, waiting for the outside temps to warm up! It had sunk into single digit temps overnight, so the morning frost was definitely chilly. Fortunately, I’ve finally learned how to dress properly so I was quite toasty!

The rest of the morning was spent playing, frolicking the snow and recording videos that you’ll likely see soon. The snowshoe out was pretty easy since it was all downhill, and before we knew it, we were back at the cars!

I know that winter camping is a weird concept for many people, and sometimes words just don’t do it justice! Chris, the STP videographer, created this video of our trip and I think he captured it perfectly. If you want to see what our winter experience was like, check it out!

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Guess what else? Sierra Trading Post is offering up a 30% discount on all snowshoes, snowshoe poles, avalanche safety gear, men and women’s snowsport clothing and snowsport gloves. Just click on this link, and the discount will be automatically applied to your order. It’s good starting at noon today and will last until February 28, so go buy some snow gear and come winter camping with me!

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Have you ever been winter camping? Would you like to or is the cold not your thing?