The Joy of Winter Hiking by Derek Dellinger

Author:Derek Dellinger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Countryman Press
Published: 2023-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Your Tent Makes All the Difference

Do you already own a tent for camping? If so, the first question you must ask is whether your tent is designed for backpacking or simply for car camping. If you aren’t sure, or if you bought whatever tent you could find for cheap from a big retailer, chances are it’s a basic tent meant only for camping in a campground.

If you bought your tent specifically for backpacking, on the other hand, you likely already know its limitations. This same loose principle also applies to sleeping bags. You probably know if you bought a sleeping bag designed for backpacking, because it likely cost a good bit more money and required research into temperature ratings and other technical specifics. In both cases, tents and sleeping bags engineered for wilderness camping will weigh much less than their casual equivalents. They’ll also pack down into a small stuff sack and fit easily into a backpack. If your tent or sleeping bag is heavy and bulky, it is likely not designed for wilderness camping and should never be used for such. For one thing, it’s probably too bulky for you to carry around for miles in the first place. But more importantly, such sleeping bags are not designed with the same insulation rating and material quality as backpacking bags and may become dangerously compromised if conditions are too cold or wet.

Once you’ve determined this, there’s still another big question to ask, and this one may be even more crucial. If you now know that you have a three-season backpacking tent, do you wish to take the steps to winterize your tent, or do you want to buy yet another tent designed specifically for winter camping? Because here’s the bad news: even a good (and likely expensive) three-season tent won’t hold up to the roughest of winter weather on its own. Here’s the even worse news: tents designed for winter camping cost a lot of money and aren’t even particularly good as multi-purpose tents. Tents meant to be used during the warm-weather months are designed with abundant ventilation, while winter tents are engineered for heat retention, as you might expect. This, however, makes them quite stuffy and unpleasant when used during the summer, so you almost certainly won’t want to use your winter tent for summer camping, and it may not be especially great for spring or fall either, depending on the climate where you live.

All this is to say, you probably only want to consider buying a winter tent if you are seriously dedicated to doing lots of camping in the winter. And if you’re only now learning the basic of winter camping, chances are you can’t realistically know yet how enthusiastically you’ll wish to pursue it. Unless you have the spare change to toss nearly a thousand dollars at a fancy new tent you may rarely ever use, you’ll probably want to find a way to test out winter camping first.

While warmth is paramount, winter tents are designed for more than just heat retention.

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