Philip J. Smith's Blog: Lightweight Winter Backpacking Gear List: Explained

Winter backpacking in very different from three season backpacking - it requires more gear and many new skills. — Winter backpacking is very different from three season backpacking – It requires more gear, good decision-making, and many new skills.

This winter backpacking gear list is designed for use in temperatures down to 10 below zero (fahrenheit) and for camping below treeline, out of high wind. At just under 28 pounds, without food, fuel, or water, it's a good example of a lightweight winter backpacking load and the tradeoffs that you can make to reduce the weight of your winter gear without skimping on comfort or taking too many risks.

I've broken the gear list into sections so I can explain it in more detail for hikers interested in winter backpacking. There's a lot of information packed into this post about winter backpacking activities, gear requirements, and alternatives that I think you'll find useful.

clothing for camp
clothing for hiking
clothing for layering
hydration
cooking
navigation
electronics
first-aid
packing
shelter
sleeping
traction

If you have questions, ask them in the comments. I'm happy to respond.

Clothing for Camp

Winter backpacking involves a lot of sitting around in the cold so you can cook and melt snow for drinking water. We do this to be social (because it's fun) and to avoid dying from carbon monoxide poisoning in our tents or burning them down around us.

name	description	weight oz.
Darn Tough Hiker Socks	Wool socks	2.4
Glasses hard case	Protect glasses when sleeping	4
LL Bean UL 850 Hooded Down Jacket	Puffy hooded insulation	18.7
Montbell Thermawrap Pants	Insulated Pants	12.4
Mountain Hardware Dome Perignon Hat	Really warm hat	2.1
Patagonia Capilene LW Bottoms	Sleeping baselayer	5.9
Personal Effects	Wallet, keys, money, etc.	7
Polar Buff	Neck insulation	2.8
Supernatural Jersey	Sleeping baselayer	6.7

When melting snow or cooking dinner, you're not moving, so you need to pile on the insulated clothing to stay warm. This typically includes a heavy insulated jacket, insulated pants, warm gloves, and head-gear, layered over your day time clothing if it's dry or your sleeping clothes. You'll often wear your regular winter boots in camp, but some people bring down booties to keep their feet warm.

Most of these extra "camp" layers are too warm to wear when you're hiking, but you do need to carry them nonetheless. However, they can be used to augment the warmth of your sleeping bag: I use mine that way so I can take my zero-degree sleeping bag down to -10 degrees. I'm not that interested in camping in anything colder because it's kind of unpleasant. It took me many years to admit this to myself, but when I did I was able to switch from a -25 degree sleeping bag to a much less expensive and lighter weight zero degree sleeping bag.

Clothing for Hiking

You don't want to dress too warmly for winter hiking. You'll be carrying a much heavier pack than in summer, wearing heavier boots, and possibly snowshoes or crampons. Sweat is bad because it will accumulate in your clothes and cool you whenever you stop moving. This can snowball in crappy conditions and lead to hypothermia. If you start to sweat, strip off layers or slow down so your body generates less heat.

name	description	weight/oz.
Baffin Borealis Boots	Lightweight double Insulated Boot	48
Darn Tough Hiker Socks	Cushioned	2.4
Minus 33 Ticonderoga Wool Jersey	Medium weight	8.4
Mountain Hardware Fleece Hat	Light enough for exertion	0.8
Possumdown Gloves	Highly breathable	1.5
Rab Polartec 100 Fleece 1/2 zip Pullover	Thin, easy to vent, warm when wet	9.9
Ragged Mountain Interval Uncoated Gaiters	High breathable gaiters	4.3
REI Activator Soft Shell Pants	Breathable, stretchy	17.3
Under Armor Heatgear Boxers	Non-chafing, some insulation	3.2

It's not unusual for me to backpack stripped down to my midlayer fleece pullover or baselayer shirt. I also rarely wear long johns under my soft shell pants because I get too hot. I use them for sleeping instead.

My Baffin Borealis winter backpacking boots require some explanation. Called double insulated boots, they have removable liners. This is desirable in winter so you can sleep with your liners in your sleeping bag and not your entire boots. You do this to prevent the liners from freezing at night using your body heat. These Baffin Borealis boots are a real find because they're super lightweight and you can walk easily in them. If your winter boots don't have removable liners, you should be prepared to sleep with them.

Clothing for Layering

External temperatures or wind chill can vary widely on a winter backpacking trip, depending on the time of day, your location, and the amount of surrounding vegetation. It's best to carry additional layers that you hold in reserve so you can layer up or off as conditions change. This is normal on winter hikes and backpacking trips, with people calling for layer breaks all the time.

name	description	weight/oz.
CAMP Wind Gloves	Wind shell exterior, soft shell glove	3.5
Golite Reed XL Rain Pant	Women's boot zip, no longer made	6.7
Marmot Softshell Gloves	Dries fast	2
Outdoor Research Cornice Mittens	Waterproof shell mitts, limited dexterity w/Primaloft inner insulated gloves	8.4
Outdoor Research Foray Jacket	Technical GTX Shell with pit/torso zips. Size XL	17.5
Smith Knowledge OTG Fan Goggles	Internal fan to prevent fogging	6.1
Sunglasses + Case	Glare protection	4.2

Your extra layers should be easy to put on or take off and they should be packed where they're easy to access in your backpack. This includes extra hats, extra gloves, jackets, pants, a buff (neck gaiter), balaclava/face mask, gaiters, sunglasses, or goggles. If you wear big boots, bring rain pants than you can put on or take off without taking your boots off – usually pants with full or 3/4 side zips. My boots are small enough that I can put them on with just boot zip rain pants.

It will be rare for you to need your camping clothes during the day, with the exception of your big puffy jacket if you stop for a snack or water break. But you have those warm extra layers in reserve if you need them.

Hydration

The amount of water you carry on a winter backpacking trip usually varies between two and three liters, so you don't have to stop and melt more using a stove during the day.You should shoot to have a half-cup of water left at the end of the day as a starter for melting more snow. If you try to melt snow in a dry pot, you'll burn it and maybe hole your pot.

You'll want to carry one bottle in an insulated container (foam or neoprene) outside your pack for easy access, positioned upside down so the cap doesn't freeze. You can store the other bottles inside your backpack, snuggled among your insulating layers in order to save weight on added bottle insulation. You should carry your water in wide mouth bottles which are less likely to freeze and easier to open if they do. I like to carry soft propylene wide-mouth Hunersdorf bottles in winter which won't crack if frozen and are easy to open while wearing mittens.

name	description	weight/oz.
Forty Below Bottle Boots (1 liter)	Neoprene insulated covers for 1 liter bottles	3.8
Hunersdorf Bottle (1 liter)	Wide mouth bottle	4.8
Hunersdorf Bottle (1 liter)	Wide mouth bottle	4.8
Hunersdorf Bottle (1 liter)	Wide mouth bottle	4.8

If you can find water in liquid form, you still have to purify it. Boiling is an effective way to do this, since you'll want to heat it up anyway to keep it from freezing overnight and to reboil it in the morning so it doesn't freeze during the next day,

Cooking

All this boiling and melting snow takes a lot of time and stove fuel. I like to use a liquid fuel stove for winter because liquid fuel (white gas) is the highest BTU fuel available and it will burn down to -40 fahrenheit. While you can use a canister stove in winter, it becomes increasingly difficult to use under 20 degrees fahrenheit. You can push that down to about 0 degrees with a special inverted canister stove like the Jetboil Joule. But liquid fuel is still the best all round solution in my opinion, and makes it easy to share fuel in a group since so many other people use liquid fuel stoves in winter. That extra redundancy is nice.

name	description	weight/oz.
Evernew 1.3 L Titanium Pot w/handle	Winter size for melting snow	4
Light My Fire Fire Steel	Fire starter	1
Mesh Stuff Sack	Holds winter stove kit together	0.8
MSR 20 oz Fuel Bottle		6.3
MSR Whisperlite	White Gas Stove w/fuel pump	11.4
Folding Windscreen	Accordion, compact	4
OP Sack	Food bag, heavy plastic	1.3
Sea to Summit Delta Insulated Mug	With cap, liquid measurements	4
Victorinox Classic Swiss Army Knife	Tiny little knife with scissors	0.7

Packing space is at a real premium in winter, but winter cooking gear can be bulky. With the exception of my fuel bottle and insulated cup, my entire cook system fits in my stove pot, which keeps it nice and compact. At 1.3 liters, the pot is about as small as you can go for melting snow, since you can only melt one bottle's worth at a time.

Navigation

Navigation needs can vary widely in winter. While a map can suffice if you're on a well used trail system and visibility is good, trails become much more difficult to find in winter when they're covered in snow, the horizon is fogged in, and the snow is so deep that the blazes are buried under your feet. I always carry a compass for route finding, but it takes some practice to be able to use it effectively in winter, which is a lot more like off-trail navigation, than it is three-season navigation.

I also carry a whistle, something I carry all year, which is good for signaling companions when you can't see them, like in dense fog or heavy vegetation. A whistle carries farther than the human voice and you can blow on it without becoming exhausted.

name	description	weight/oz.
Fox 40 Plastic Whistle	Really loud whistle	0.1
Suunto M3 Compass	Adjustable declination	1.5

While I do use an iPhone for GPS navigation during the rest of the year, I switch to a Garmin eTrex 20x GPS unit in winter because it's waterproof, has a better battery life than a phone, and most importantly, it can be used while wearing heavy gloves. The GPS unit is not part of my base gear list, because it's often not needed.

Electronics

It's important to use Lithium Ion Batteries to power electronic devices in winter because they don't freeze like alkaline batteries, which contain a water-based electrolyte solution.

I like to bring a high-powered headlamp on winter trips because we often hike at night, what with the shortened daylight in winter. I also find shadows very distracting when I hike on snow at night and a bright headlamp helps chase them away.

My Black Diamond Icon headlamp (320 lumens) is powered by 4 AA batteries that last a long time, usually all winter. It also has a lock mode which I view as essential, so it won't turn on accidentally and lose power. I also carry a very small Petzl e+lite headlamp, also with a lock modem, mainly for use in my tent, which is easy to stow in my sleeping bag for easy access at night.

name	description	weight/oz.
Black Diamond Icon Headlamp	/w 4 x AA Lithium Ion Bateries	6.8
Extra Camera Battery		1.3
Canon Powershot S120 with Battery		7.6
iPhone w/Lander Case		5.9
Petzl e+Lite Headlamp		1.8
SPOT GPS Satellite Messenger	Emergency PLB and Check-in Messenger	4.1
Spare Batteries and Camera Stuff	Lithium ion batteries	6.3

I always bring a pocket camera because I take a lot of photos, as well as a SPOT GPS Satellite Messenger. The SPOT lets me send out periodic "OK" messages, which my wife appreciates and would be useful in an emergency to contact Search and Rescue if I'm out of cellphone range. I also carry a phone because it's a better way to contact search-and-rescue if a cell phone signal is available. I also read books and take notes on it.

First-Aid

I use the exact self-assembled first-aid kit in the winter that I carry the rest of the year. Nothing special: Benedryl, Aspirin, Advil, ear plugs, Leuoktape for blister prevention. Some other odds and ends. You can find a complete list of my first aid contents here: Homemade Ultralight First Aid Kit.

name	description	weight/oz.
First aid kit	Self assembled	6.6

Packing

One of the keys to reducing your winter gear weight is to keep the volume of the backpack you need as small as possible. That means carrying highly compressible gear and learning how to attach gear to the outside of your backpack using its external attachment system. The weight of your gear is important of course, but if you can keep the volume of your pack under 60 liters, you're going to be way ahead of the game. This may require some compromises on your part, for example, not backpacking when temperatures are less than zero degrees, but you can't have it both ways.

name	description	weight/oz.
Hyperlite Mountain Gear Stuff Sack	cuben fiber stuff sack	0.5
Hyperlite Mountain Gear 3400 (55L) Southwest Pack	cuben fiber pack	32.4
Lowepro Dashpoint 20	WP Camera Pocket. Attached in shoulder strap.	1.9
Mini-biner	Attach swiss army knife to pack	0.1

My winter backpack is a cuben fiber Hyperlite Mountain Gear 3400 (55L) Southwest backpack, the same pack I use for longer multi-day backpacking trips the rest of the year. I can fit all of the gear, food, fuel, and water I need for winter backpacking inside it or attached to the outside of the pack with extra room to spare. I've used slightly larger backpacks in the past, but this one weighs significantly less, just over two pounds. It opens from the top with a roll top, which I find useful in winter because I can quickly find the gear I need.

While cuben fiber fabric is waterproof, cuben fiber backpacks are not because you need to make holes in the fabric to sew on the shoulder pads and hip belt. I line my pack with a white trash compactor bag to keep its contents dry, and while I use stuff sacks or Ziploc baggies to organize gear, I pack a lot of clothes in my pack loose. I find that this reduces the pack space required by my clothes, eliminating the air gaps between other bulkier items inside my backpack. Experiment with this and see what you prefer.

Shelter

My goto shelter in winter is a freestanding Black Diamond Firstlight Tent which I think is the best lightweight all-round winter backpacking tent made. Weighing just 43 ounces, it's truly freestanding so you can set it up just about anywhere. It has very steep walls that shed snow well, good head room, and has plenty of interior space since it's designed for two (very friendly) people.

name	description	weight/oz.
Black Diamond Firstlight Tent	Freestanding, 4 season tent	43

I don't carry any tent stakes to pitch this tent. If I need anchors, I take apart my poles and use them as stakes (shown) or anchor the other guy out loops with other gear I carry, like snowshoes, crampons, or an ice axe. I rarely even bother to sinter (harden) the snow under the tent and just set it up. Since it's freestanding, I can pitch it in less than 2 minutes, climb in, and change into dry clothes without standing around and getting cold. Freestanding tents are priceless in winter but few truly freestanding tents are made.

Sleeping

It's not unusual to sleep for 12 hours on a winter backpacking trip, so you might as well make the most of it and be comfortable and warm. The key to this is bringing a warm sleeping bag and a thick sleeping pad with a high R-value. Many people like to bring two sleeping pads in winter and combine them to get the R-value (which is additive) that they need.

The R-values for sleeping pads aren't tested uniformly the same way across manufacturers, but they're the best measure of thermal resistance (insulation) available to consumers, so useful for guidance. I think an R-value of 5 or 6 is ideal for winter camping, so that's the amount of sleeping pad insulation I shoot for, and experience has proven this out.

name	description	weight/oz.
NEMO Sonic 0 Sleeping Bag	Roomy winter bag	42
REI Compression Sack	For sleeping bag	3
Therm-a-Rest Xtherm Sleeping Pad	R value=5	15
Therm-a-Rest Zlite Sleeping Pad	Doubles as sit pad	8.1

I bring an insulated Therm-a-Rest XTherm inflatable mattress (R-value =5 ) for comfort and a shortened foam Therm-a-Rest Zlite sleeping pad, which serves as my sit pad during dinner, when we sit on snow to cook and melt snow for drinking water. You don't want to forget a sit pad on a winter backpacking trip or you'll freeze your ass off!

I put the Zlite under the XTherm at night for additional insulation. Foam pads like this are also preferred for shielding accident victims from hypothermia from the ground, which is why you see so many winter day hikers and backpackers carrying them on the trails. It's good to have at least one in your group.

As I mentioned previously, I downgraded from a -25 degree sleeping bag to a 0 degree sleeping bag, when I realized that I don't really enjoy backpacking in sub-zero temperatures. It took me a long time to realize this – nearly a decade. But after I switched to a 0 degree bag, I was able to switch to a smaller volume backpack, and so on, shaving more weight from my gear list. I still carry enough extra insulated clothing that I can take my 0 degree bag down to -10, but I'm also likely to postpone a backpacking trip if the weather forecast is that cold at night.

Traction

I always bring microspikes, snowshoes, and trekking poles on winter backpacking trips, so they have a permanent spot on my winter gear list. It's important to replace the summer baskets on your trekking poles with snow baskets for winter travel. They really are an essential flotation aid for winter hiking.

name	description	weight/oz.
Hillsound Trail Crampon Ultra		16.8
MSR Evo Ascent Snowshoes 22 inch	Bomber snowshoe	64
Pacerpole Dual Lock Poles	Carbon fiber w/snow baskets	20.8

The MSR Evo Ascent Snowshoes I use are intended for climbing mountains and have a televator wire that lifts up under the heel to make them easier to climb slopes with. This unibody plastic snowshoe is also much better off-trail than a snowshoe with an attached fabric deck, because branches can't become caught between the deck and the frame. I do a lot of off-trail hiking in winter and there's a slight weight penalty (just a few ounces) for using these snowshoes instead of decked ones that are slightly lighter.

Extra Gear – As Needed

When I don't need this extra gear, I'll leave it at home. It consists of extra traction, navigation, a shovel for digging out camp kitchen or vestibule trenches in deep snow, and wood preparation tools for when we want to make campfires.

name	description	category	weight/oz.
Hillsound Trail Crampon Pro	ratchet style crampon	traction	24.9
CAMP Corsa Ice Axe	UL Ice axe	traction	10
Garmin eTrex 20x GPS	w/ lithium ion AA batteries	navigation	4.6
Voile Telepro Avalanche Shovel	digging snow furniture	shelter	29
Silky GOMBOY 240 Pruning Saw	wood prep	shelter	9.4
Mora Companion Knife	wood prep, includes Kydex sheath	shelter	4.1

The shovel, saw, and knife are best thought of as group gear and we distribute them around so one person doesn't have to carry all of them. The decision on whether to bring crampons or a GPS has a lot to do with the terrain where we plan to hike, the weather forecast, and trip reports that document local conditions that are posted by other hikers and backpackers.

Wrap Up

Using a Cuben fiber Duomid in Winter took too long to set up for me, so I use a heavier freestanding tent instead.

My winter backpacking gear list is pretty streamlined and lightweight and should provide you with a good template of the gear required for winter backpacking and camping. While I could still "spend" its weight down more by swapping out my freestanding tent for a tarp shelter and other ultralight substitutions, I'm not really inclined to race to the bottom like that any more. I have used floorless cuben fiber shelters in winter and not found them to be particularly comfortable. It also takes a while to freeze in deadman stakes so you can stake them out, time I'd rather be spending out of the wind and changing into dry clothes inside the freestanding I carry instead.

My advice – figure out what is right for you to be safe and comfortable, and suck it up if it weighs a bit more than you'd like. Winter backpacking gear IS heavier than three season hiking gear, but if you can get your full-out pack weight for a two night trip under 40 pounds, including food, water, and fuel, that's a good target weight to shoot for. Reducing your gear weight for winter backpacking is a worthwhile goal and does pay dividends, but it takes some time to accomplish it, so keep at it.

Philip J. Smith's Blog

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Lightweight Winter Backpacking Gear List: Explained