Cold-weather Camping

by Ted Alan Stedman

An overnight storm has cloaked the Colorado high country with a mid-winter mantle of white. Silence is absolute in this setting, which might seem uninhabitable and inhospitable. But not to Tim Baldwin.

Under a cobalt blue sky, he tunnels out from his snow-covered tent to fire up the cook stove and swears he’s having the time of his life.

“The winter environment is challenging but amazingly beautiful,” says Baldwin, a mountaineering and wilderness instructor for Colorado Outward Bound School, who camps out in any season.

“Winter is a time for solitude and spectacular scenery,” he says. “It’s a great playground on skis and snowshoes, and you can go practically anywhere its safe beyond trails.”

Outdoors in winter is no place for people who dislike cold weather, but outdoor enthusiasts shouldn’t shelve winter in favor of milder seasons. “There is no reason to be cold if you do it correctly,” Baldwin says.

Doing it correctly is Baldwin’s business. Each season, Baldwin, 32, marches into the winter high country with 10 students—usually teenagers from all walks of life—to complete 23-day courses designed to teach winter camping and survival skills.

Though students generally are beginners, most graduate to become bonafide winter warriors. “The mountains and camping are foreign to them,” he says. “In the end, they learn that winter rejuvenates their spirit and they relish the opportunity to try their skills.”

Instead of viewing winter snow camping as an exercise in pure survival, Baldwin focuses on the positive aspects. No crowds and lesser human impact on the environment all are pluses, he says. “And it’s rewarding and fun when you can laugh at the cold and stay warm and comfortable.”

Make no mistake, though. Laughing at sub-zero temperatures takes careful preparation, and Baldwin makes sure students can recite the fundamentals of winter camping in their sleep, easily remembered in the COLD credo:

C—keep yourself clean and free of snow.
O—avoid overheating that causes perspiration and bone-chilling cold.
L—wear loose clothes layered to trap heated air.
D—keep dry.

Other tricks can take the sting out of winter camping, Baldwin advises. Always dress in synthetic layers, including polypropylene long underwear that wicks moisture from the skin, an insulating fleece mid-layer, followed by a waterproof-breathable shell.

At night, always sleep in a stocking hat and clean, dry long underwear. And use a mummy sleeping bag with two sleeping pads.

Eating particular foods are good for “stoking the body’s furnace” for maximum heat output, Baldwin says. Start with cereal bars, bread, and other carbohydrates that convert quickly to heat. For a longer “burn,” eat proteins or anything fatty.

“There’s almost no food that’s not desirable,” he says. “Hot gooey deserts ... even butter. They’re all on the winter camper’s menu.”

Ted Alan Stedman is an outdoor journalist and photographer based in Denver.

first appeared: 2/24/2002