Camping in the snow?

[AlwaysOutdoors]

Does anyone here really like to camp in the snow? I like it when the weather cools down and can even take it when it get a little cold, but not snow. Just wondered how many here actually go camping with snow on the ground?

[Eaglescout 49]

I love winter camping. Unfortunately, severe diabetes and a bad ticker mean that I shouldn't camp alone and especially in the winter in North Dakota. My regular camping friends are simply not interested and regard my enthusiasm for tenting in subzero weather as just another sign of mental instability.

There's almost a sense of purity when it's 20 below zero or colder. You wake up in the morning, take a deep breath and burrow even further into your sleeping bag. Eventually you realize that spring is months away and you simply have to get up. You find your clothes, which you have thoughtfully put in the bottom of the sleeping bag, put them on and emerge into this white, white and very cold world.

A fire, a cup of hot coffee and a bowl of hot oatmeal with brown sugar remind you that life is good.

Opportunity for activities are more restricted, but the opportunity for contemplation is much greater. I hope you will take the opportunity to camp in such conditions, but be careful -- subzero temperatures are not to be taken lightly.

[briansnat]

I've done it a few times and enjoyed it. I've found that I need different tent stakes though. Big, wide ones like people use for camping in the sand.

[Lorax]

With the right gear, winter camping is awesome!

Learn the art of making a properly constructed snow cave for an even better experience.

[ponderosa]

We did it all the time before we had kids. I love being cozy in a good sleeping bag, while knowing that on the other side of that thin nylon tent wall, it's 14 degrees outside. It's very quiet, and the solitude is lovely. We haven't tried tent camping in winter with our little ones. I think it would be tough to keep them warm and dry, but mostly, I have no idea how we'd entertain them in a little tent for the five or six hours of darkness before bedtime. We sometimes rent a ski-in forest service yurt or cabin to get our winter overnight fix. They usually have bunks and cooking gear, so you don't have to haul too much stuff. We have a bike trailer that converts to a ski trailer to pull the kids and part of the gear. It's really fun, especially the yurts, which feel almost like a tent but with some luxuries.

[paloma]

Won't you get buried beneath the snow if you sleep in a tent? I'm afraid I may not be able to get out in the morning. I prefer to stay in a cabin if I have to camp during winter. It would be safer for me.

[ponderosa]

4 season tents are designed to shed snow and wind. In a serious storm, it may be necessary to get up a few times in the night to push snow off the tent, but not usually.

[Tubby]

I don't mind the cold, but I don't like to camp in snow. It's a bit different. But since I don't get a lot of snow where I live, it's not a big problem unless I have a destination in mind that has snow.

[Grandpa]

I don't mind cold winter snow camping at all. Used to enjoy it immensely. But I'm not too keen on the fall and spring wet slushy stuff. Which is what a lot of you in the marginal snow zones have experienced. To each his own but I bet a lot of you that think you don't like snow camping would change your mind if you got a chance at the colder weather. Colder is warmer because you stay drier.

[Judy Ann]

But sometimes colder is just plain cold!