Have you ever pitched your tent while the wind blows sideways or had to dig your tent out overnight during a brutal snowstorm? I have – let’s be honest: winter camping for ski touring is difficult. Not only must you endure the bitter cold, harsh wind and sideways snow throughout the day, but you must do all that while setting up a winter camp and keeping your frosty extremities warm. And, small mistakes do add up. Fortunately, acquired experience and the right winter camping gear go a long way to improve your camping routine, experience that I’ll happily share with you. You’ll find below a plethora of pro-tips to better your winter camping trip while ski touring or splitboarding.

Related: How To Get Into Ski Touring (Backcountry Skiing)

Essential Winter Camping Gear For Ski Touring

As previously mentioned, carefully selected winter camping gear goes a long way to improving your experience in the mountains. The goal is to strike the perfect balance between functionality, weight and durability when faced with the harsh weather Mother Nature might throw at you. You’ll have to carry the following equipment:

• A 4-season tent
• A cold-weather sleeping bag
• An insulated sleeping pad
• A wide array of insulating layers
• A cooking system adapted to cold temperatures
• A long-lasting headlamp

If you’re looking for more insight on the matter, you’ll find more detail in the following post: Backcountry Winter Camping Gear For Alpine Touring.

Staying Warm And Toasty

Winter camping for ski touring naturally involves some downtime at camp. Mid-winter in North America means the sun sets at around 4-6 PM, so you’ll be spending a lot of time relaxing in the dark with your headlamp beaming across the landscape.

Avoid frostbite: With temperatures often dipping below -15C at night, especially in the alpine, it’s paramount to maintain an adequate body temperature and keep those pesky extremities as far away from frost damage. Extra-warm camp booties and over gloves go a long way to preventing frostbite. I often sleep with them too. I always carry an insulated butt pad to minimize heat loss when sitting around. Your sleeping pad or backpack can double up as a butt pad if necessary.

Dry camp clothes: Once my camp setup is erected (tent platform, kitchen pit and latrine are excavated), I change into a dry set of ultra-warm base layers and bone-dry socks. Make it your mission to keep those clothes dry, as you’ll be sleeping the night in them.

Frequent high-calorie meals and fluid intake: When I get to camp, I kickstart my food & fluid intake with a warm cup of chicken broth or miso soup while the rest of the food is cooking. I keep my kitchen setup as simple as possible by exclusively using dehydrated meals requiring boiling water only. This makes planning how much camping fuel to bring on a trip much easier. With experience and some sharp mathematics, you’ll learn how to estimate your fuel use for a specific trip length according to your burner type and access to fresh water.

Managing Moisture

Ventilate your tent: Moisture build-up in 4-season tents is a serious issue. Throughout the night, you’re warm breath condenses on the tent walls and drips all over your sleeping bag, jackets, etc. It’s already hard enough to keep a sleeping bag dry on extended trips. I prefer single-walled tents for their ease of setup and lighter weight, but that does come with a drawback: poor moisture management. To alleviate the issue, I pitch my tent door into the prevailing wind and crack it open at the top to let airflow through. Pitching your tent next to a water source (high moisture availability) should be avoided at all costs, as this will exacerbate the problem.

Dry your gear as often as possible: Dry your gear in the sun whenever possible. Strap wet socks and base layers to your backpack on a sunny or windy day. Lay out the ropes, climbing skins and jackets over the tent. Stick your boot liners over your poles. In the evening, I stuff my pockets with moist gear, draping wet socks over my shoulders but underneath my puffy jacket. While you’ll be a little cold at first, it works wonders and means less drying in the sleeping bag at night. Now, the next tip is polarizing: I sleep with boot liners between my legs and insoles under my armpits. Some folks can tolerate frozen boot liners in the morning. I won’t. Years of frostbitten toes prevent me from doing so. I also stuff the next day’s base layers and socks in my sleeping bag’s toe box to keep them warm in the morning when temperatures are often chilly.

Managing The Snow

Compared to summer camping, winter camping for ski touring involves managing an obvious factor: snow. If you’re expecting a severe snowstorm, I recommend building a wall out of hard snow around your tent and kitchen area while considering the prevailing wind’s direction. You may have to wake up through the night to dig out the tent’s surroundings and clear snow off your gear. I’ve often woken up at first light only to find my tent walls are almost caving in from the heavy snow load. The way tent poles can bend is a testimony to their durability. Although… I wouldn’t test out their breaking point!

Build An Effective Winter Camping Setup

An effective winter camping setup involves three main factors: site flow, protection from the elements and durability. Start with a good tent platform, tamped down with skis and left undisturbed to freeze for 10-15 minutes. Dig a pit to a depth of approximately 0.75-1m (2-3ft) at the tent’s entrance and cut out some benches around its perimeter using the excavated snow to wall the perimeter. The bench can play double duty as a kitchen table in a pinch. Stake your tent and guy lines securely with disassembled poles, ice axes or Deadman anchors. You can easily bury wooden branches and pack snow on top of them. It’ll make for bomber anchors when the surface freezes over.

From there, I carve small stairs to exit the tent/bench area and dig out a path to the latrines further downhill. Excavate a comfortable latrine large enough for the length of the trip. Trust me – it’s harder to modify after the fact! I also recommend pooping in wag bags made to securely store human fecal matter if travelling in the alpine or on glaciers where organic decomposition halts. Carve a separate path for urine, leading away from the snow you’ll use to boil water.

When camping for many days at a given site, I’ll bring another kitchen tent (often a pyramid-tarp shelter) and link the sleeping and kitchen quarters through an excavated path for added elbow room. The combination of a sleeping and kitchen area makes extended base camps extremely comfortable.

One word of advice: include your setup time in your trip planning. With experience, you’ll get quite efficient at it. It usually takes my partner and me 45-60 minutes to build a comfortable winter camping setup for a ski touring trip.

A final Word

I truly hope you found this article useful in improving your winter camping experience in the ski touring context. Winter camping is equal parts pure awe and suffering. Fortunately, camping allows for extended trips in our beautiful backcountry terrain, travel over mountains seldom visited and witness sights not many have seen before. To me, the suffering is well worth the adventure. Feel free to reach out through my Contact Page or Instagram for additional information.