Winter hub
Winter Shelter
In winter the shelter isn't where you sleep — it's where you survive the night. Wind, ground cold, and snow load decide who wakes up warm.
4-Season Tents
A 4-season tent is built for snow load and wind, not for being warmer — insulation comes from your bag and pads.
- Stronger poles, more guy points, and full-coverage flys that shed wind instead of catching it.
- Use snow stakes or deadman anchors — regular stakes pull out of snow instantly.
- Kick out a ventilator gap: closed flys in a storm trap the moisture from your breath as frost.
- Dig the tent platform into the snow and let it sinter (harden) for 30+ minutes before staking.
Snow Shelters
Snow is a surprisingly good insulator — a well-built snow shelter holds around 0°C inside while it's −20°C outside.
- Quinzhee: pile a mound of snow, let it sinter 1–2 hours, then hollow it out to walls at least forearm-thick. Probe sticks in the roof warn you before it collapses.
- Snow cave: dig into a deep drift or slope, ideally from below with an entry tunnel that rises to the chamber — cold air pools low and drains out.
- Snow trench: the fast option — dig a body-length trench, line it with a tarp or boughs, roof it with poles and the spoil, and snow it over.
- Whatever you build: insulate the floor with pads and boughs, carve a small cold-air drain at the door, and keep a shovel inside for digging out.
Do
- Mark the shelter with skis or poles so you can find it after a storm.
Don't
- Never build into a drift at the base of a slope — that’s where avalanches and slumps land.
Site Selection
The best shelter technique can't rescue a bad site. Pick the site first, spend the time there.
- Avoid avalanche terrain: stay out of runout zones and off slopes steeper than ~25°.
- Get out of the wind — the lee side of ridges, tree lines, and terrain features — but keep clear of dead standing trees (widowmakers).
- Cold air flows downhill like water: valley bottoms and hollows collect it. A bench partway up is often warmest.
- Camp near water and, where legal, deadwood — everything takes twice as long in snow.
Carbon monoxide kills campers every winter
Never cook, melt snow, or run a stove inside a sealed tent or snow shelter. Carbon monoxide is odorless, and symptoms — headache, drowsiness, nausea — feel exactly like altitude sickness or exhaustion. Ventilate generously and cook outside or in a fully open vestibule.