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It depends on two things:
Good equipment and knowing what you're doing.

Story by Tim Jones
Photographs by Stephen O. Muskie

I know you don't believe me . . . but read on before you pass final judgment.

There are basically two kinds of winter tent camping. The simplest way to distinguish them is "heavy" and "light," or if you prefer, "low-tech" and "high-tech."

Heavy, low-tech camping is the traditional method perfected by the Indians and fur trappers and traders of the Canadian taiga. Most of the time, heavy camping involves a person or two on snowshoes, pulling along a toboggan loaded with a canvas wall tent, a small folding wood stove, an ax, a saw, food, cooking gear, and sleeping bags.

Once you reach a camp site you set up the tent. In the old days the floor was covered with evergreen boughs for insulation, but today's "heavy" campers use a tarp and foam pads. Then you set up the stove inside the tent, run the stovepipe outside, cut or gather some wood, and fire it up. You lounge in your shirtsleeves inside the warm tent, with your feet close to the fire, reading or talking by the light of a Coleman lantern or a candle. It's a very comfortable way to travel.

The only problem is the weight of the equipment and the difficulty of pulling the toboggan behind you while you walk on skis or snowshoes, which frequently limits its your travels to fairly flat, fairly open terrain, or frozen river courses. More and more, today's "heavy" winter campers use a snowmobile to pull the loaded sled -- which automatically limits your itinerary to places a snomobile can go.

Also, heavy camping works best if you stay put for awhile in each spot; moving a big camp every day isn't much fun.

The other option for winter camping is to use high-technology lightweight modern gear, including nylon tents with aluminum frames; mummy sleeping bags filled with waterfowl down or one of the new, light-weight synthetic fills such as Polar Guard or Quallofil; closed-cell foam pads or self-inflating air mattresses; and a small gasoline (Coleman fuel) or kerosene backpacking stove for cooking.

Going lightweight means that you can carry everything you need for comfort in an internal or external frame pack on your back and go where you please. High-tech and lightweight is the only way to go in the mountains. Since you rarely if ever build a fire in a high-tech camp, the comfort level isn't quite what you get in a heavy camp -- maybe 9.5 on a scale of 10 (home being 10). But Jones's first law of the outdoors says, "If you're cold, quit," and I've never quit winter camping.

Winter camping takes a touch more planning than summer camping. Each camper needs a good, warm mummy sleeping bag, a pad to put under it (to insulate from cold snow), personal clothing including long polyester or polypropylene underwear, insulating polyester pile or fleece layers top and bottom, a windproof, waterproof outer layer, wool socks, a warm hat, mittens with lightweight liner gloves, and a pack to carry it all in, plus a pair of snowshoes to travel on.

Winter tents should be a little larger than the tent you'd choose for summer, because you'll be spending more time inside and will need space to safely store your gear. Most people use freestanding dome-style tents, mine is an old Northface VE 24 that's done yeoman service for more than 15 years now. I also have an eight-man teepee with it's own folding wood stove, custom made by the Smith Design Center in Golden Colorado (303-278-9155). This rig weighs only 19 pounds (complete!) and lets me and my companions enjoy all the benefits of a "heavy" camp without the weight.

Common gear for a winter backpack trip for two or three people includes food, two small Coleman Peak 1 Apex backpack stoves, an extra bottle of fuel, cook pots, a water bottle, and a large stainless-steel vacuum bottle (a real luxury and worth the extra weight). In addition to personal clothing, each person needs eating utensils and a headlamp with spare batteries.

A standard winter pack with all the extra clothing, gear, and food for two full days, plus a thermos of hot tea each, weighs slightly more than 40 pounds -- not an uncomfortable weight for a modern internal or external frame pack. To stay out longer, you have to add more food and fuel. Most people don't stay out much longer than a three-day weekend in the winter. Beyond that, food and fuel get pretty heavy to tote.

Planning your route is important for safe winter camping, the first rule being to tell someone where you are headed and when you'll return. Also, hiking on snowshoes with a full pack is hard work, and it pays to keep early trips short and simple. Keep your first expedition short and simple -- there's nothing wrong with a trial run in the backyard (it will amuse your neighbors) or very near your car, where you can beat a hasty retreat if you make any serious mistakes -- such as spilling a pot of soup on your sleeping bag.

Winter camping can be a leisurely affair. Carrying a pack over hill and dale is great exercise, and you're going to generate some internal heat. It's not uncommon to see winter hikers with all their insulation layers stripped off and the sleeves on their long underwear rolled up, strolling through subzero woodlands.

Hiking on snowshoes is fun and occasionally challenging. Sometimes, near the top of a mountain where winds can drift light snow bushes can hold up the snow cover, and send unwary snowshoers plunging in to the waist.

Setting up a winter camp is a bit of an art form. Finding the right spot will help determine how comfortably you pass the night. Ideal is a site with a view, which get the first rays of the morning sun, and which is sheltered from any wind. For those of you who haven't ever camped in winter, wind is the worst enemy to your comfort, rattling your tent, chilling your hands as you cook or work, and generally making life more difficult. If you have to give up the view and the morning sun, do it -- you want shelter from wind when possible.

Once you've found a spot, pack down the snow into a smooth platform before you set up the tent. Roll out your pads and sleeping bags inside, and you're home.

Water is as critical in winter camping as it is in summer. If you can find a safe source of water, great. If not, you'll have to melt your water supply. When melting snow for water, ice or crust is denser and much less trouble than loose snow. You wouldn't believe the amount of powder snow it takes to make a quart of water. Liquids are important in winter camping. Cold, dry air dehydrates the body quickly, and liquids are important in regulating your metabolism. Very often, if you feel cold, a drink of even cold water will quickly warm things up.

Try to allow yourself some time to wander after camp is set. Enjoy the views and the tracks of deer wandering to feed on birch shoots, snowshoe hares, bobcats, fishers, grouse, foxes, and the ubiquitous red squirrels and mice. The only thing you generally won't see is other human beings. When winter camping, you pretty much have the world to yourself.

Dinner consists of a simple, calorie-rich stew. While the stove is going, melt more snow to fill the water bottles, and boil another pot of water for hot cocoa or hot Jell-O (a sweet, tasty energy-rich and caffeine-free alternative to coffee, tea, or cocoa) as a before-bed drink. Usually by the time you've finished cooking, eating, and preparing water bottles and thermoses for the evening, it's time to remove boots and outer clothing and take to the comfort of sleeping bags inside the tent. By that time, it will have already been dark for two hours -- in other words, it will be about 7:00.

The more astute among you will have figured out by now the real problem of winter camping: How to pass 14 hours of darkness. Well, a headlamp helps. When alone, you can read or toot on a harmonica. With good companions, it's easy to talk the evening away, or bring along a miniature board game (Cribbage is a perennial favorite, that weighs only about three ounces. Chances are, however, that you'll find yourself ready for sleep long before it's time for the late show.

Sleep comes easily in a warm sleeping bag after a good meal and a day of hiking in the cold. Before you head for bed, take a big drink of water, and stick a water bottle full of warm water in the foot of your sleeping bag.

By the way, whoever said that it's best to sleep naked inside a sleeping bag should be forced to do so on an average New England winter night. Wear at least your long johns and dry socks, and don't be afraid to put on more clothing if you're cold.

If you have to answer a call of nature, just get up and do it (here's where a pair of camp booties is worth its weight in gold). Enjoy the stars while you're out. If you feel even slightly chilled, drink something and eat a handful of nuts and raisins to refuel your inner furnace.

When dawn wakes you with its cold, opalescent glow on the eastern horizon, slip an arm and one shoulder from your sleeping bag, and without ever leaving the warmth of the bag, light one of the little gas stoves, put on a pot of still-warm water poured from the thermos, and lay back to wait for it to boil. A few minutes later you can have hot tea, coffee, or cocoa, eat breakfast (granola bars), and generally get your circulation going before you ever crawl out of your warm sleeping bags to face a brisk, refreshing morning and another day of fun on skis or snowshoes.

Breakfast in bed! How often do you get that at home?