Conditioning is any form of exercise done to improve overall physical fitness, stamina, and athletic performance. In our case, it is for the purpose of getting ready for backpacking in the mountains. The conditioning needs to prepare us for both uphill hiking and carrying a winter backpack.
For many hikers in the Seattle area, conditioning consists of short weekend hikes on trails near the city, such as Cable Line Trail (3 miles, 2,020 ft gain), Mount Si (8 miles, 3,150 ft gain), and Tiger Mountain (15.2 miles, 2,300 ft gain). These are great conditioning trails, but they require time to get there and complete. I enjoy hiking these trails, but a quicker, more routine-based approach is more practical and easier to sustain.
Make it Regular
Regular walking provides both physical and mental health benefits. It is an accessible form of exercise for people of all fitness levels. It can improve cardiovascular health, strengthen bones and muscles, help with weight management, and boost mood and cognitive function. Getting these types of benefits only requires about 150 minutes of walking per week, or about 30 minutes per day 5 times a week.
Putting together a first aid kit is a process that often involves modifications depending on many considerations. Priortize safety. Think about your first-aid risks before each trip and adjust your first-aid strategy based on:
Activity and environment
Duration and distance
Group composition
Pre-existing medical needs
Weight
How do these considerations affect what goes in your first-aid kit? Activity and environment matters because if you are doing high velocity activities such as mountain biking or skiing, there will be a greater need to carry items such as a Tactical tourniquet or an emergency dental repair kit. There is less need for such items if you are snowshoeing. Likewise, there is little to no need for insect repellent or mosquito nettingin winter or snake bite concerns. Duration and distance effects how often you may need to change bandages (number of bandage changes you need to pack). Group composition matters because if there are children or women, this can affect medications and issues such as unexplained abdominal pain. Pre-existing medical needs, such as allergies to bee stings (Anaphylaxis risk) or diabetes (Hypoglycemia risk) involve packing prescription items such as an EpiPen and Insulin.
Winter Backpacking Safety Protocols are guidelines and procedures intended to protect individuals from harm in various settings. The development of these protocols is an ongoing project that begins with this centralized outline with links to safety information on this website.
The purpose of the safety outline is help winter backpackers easily access information that will to help them prepare for safer and more enjoyable winter backpacking experiences. This project will include creating new posts to fill in currently missing information on this website. Periodic updates will be added to older posts to highlight safety issues and include new information learned from experience.
Sometimes the unexpected happens. An intense lightning storm was spotted approaching our campsite at 2:30 AM. We were on an exposed ridge and had roughly 30 minutes to wake the entire team, pack, and evacuate the ridge.
Snow Avalanche avoidance begins with careful route planning. Each planned route involves important safety considerations and exploratory tests. No route is without risks. The information below is basic and not comprehensive. It is intended as an outline of the main dangers and precautions that can be taken.
In addition to selecting routes with less risks, every trip plan needs to consider weather and avalanche forecasts. Weather conditions leading up to the planned event must be monitored and existing snowpack conditions need to be considered.
It is common for skiers and snowshoers to find avalanche debris that occurred when the slope was less stable. Wet slides such as this one are often shallow and slow moving.
Ideal Routes
Ideal routes are typically those with lower slope angles and dense forest leading up to broad, open ridgelines. If the slope is below 30º there is insufficient slope for a snow slab to glide. A forest helps anchor the snow and hold it in place, reducing avalanche risks, and a broad ridgeline provides a path that is wide enough to avoid cornices. Finding low-slope angle routes is not always possible and that’s when plans need to adjust to find a route through anchor points such as trees.
Campsite sellection
Ideal routes also allow sufficient time to reach the intended camp area. The ability to reach camp depends on the conditioning of the group, the distance, and the snow conditions. Several days of 18-inch snowfall can create thigh-high snow and make traveling even three miles an all-day effort, whereas traveling on hard consolidated snow is relatively easy.
An ideal campsite will depend on the preferences of the group. For me, it is on top of an open ridge or wide summit. This is ideal because this is where the best views are to be found. It is also safer because you are less likely to be in the path of a potential rockfall or avalanche. Snow-loaded trees falling over is another hazard to avoid.
The main challenge of ridge-top campsites is the winter winds and Springtime lightning exposure. For high winds, you must build a snow wall and for lightning, you usually have to evacuate the ridge as quickly as possible. Lightning is somewhat rare and more easily avoided by rescheduling based on the weather forecast. Avalanche and rockfall are more persistent winter terrain hazards. The ability to get out of avalanche and rockfall terrain and reach a safer campsite needs to be calculated into the plan.
Some backpackers and hikers are introverts who like their solitude. As an organizer, you want to get everyone to respect the group and be a team player. This will increase safety. There are specific things you can do to build a team mindset.
First, create a group structure. Emphasize that it is a group event. Designate a navigator to lead the group and a sweeper to check on anyone in the back who is slower or having difficulty. Having a navigator and sweeper helps create a group structure. The navigator is usually the first person to observe challenging conditions on the route. When this happens it is important for the navigator to discuss options with the sweeper. The sweeper is the person who has the best observations about those in the group who might need help struggle the most with the route.
Second, keep people together. This will help them get to know each other. People care more about people they know. They become more patience and more helpful when the person slowing down the group is a friend. The key is to stay together—ride together, hike together, eat together, and camp together. There is always time around camp for people to wander around and have solitude.
Anytime you are spending hours on large snow fields or glaciers, especially in the spring and summer, you are at risk of severe sunburns from reflected sunlight. Snow and ice can reflect up to 80% of UV rays. Exposure is increased at high altitudes where the thinner atmosphere offers less protection. The risk exists even in cloudy conditions.
I don’t represent any brands or receive any financial benefits from any of the gear I recommend on this website. All gear reviews and recommendations are personal and free from influence. I also don’t use any affiliate links.
Reflected UV rays can cause sunburn even in whiteout conditions.
In Washington State, intense sunburns and eye injuries are common during the summer on popular routes, such as Camp Muir and the South Climb of Mount Adams.
Sunburn Prevention
The goal is to cover exposed flesh and protect the eyes completely. Avoid short-sleeved shirts and short pants. Reflected UV rays can burn you where you least expect it such as on the bottom of your nose and upper lip. Wearing a sun hat does not protect your face from the UV rays reflecting up from the snow.
Headlamps are one of the ten essentials. The type of headlamp you use and how you use it will affect your safety and the safety of others in your winter backpacking team. Hikers often select headlamps based on weight rather than waterproofness and functionality. Be careful not to sacrifice safety.
For winter backpacking purposes a headlamp should provide a range of specific functionalities (discussed below) and the user should follow practices that ensure the headlamp is not lost or inoperable when it is most needed.
Basic Headlamp Skills
Learn to operate your headlamp without looking at it.
Test your headlamp and familiarize yourself with its features and settings before your hike.
Attach your headlamp to your helmet using the four external headlamp clips.
Ensure the on/off button is positioned facing up.
With the helmet on your head, reach up and activate the headlamp, then switch through the variable brightness levels, red mode, and strobe mode, and adjust the up-and-down angle.
Ideally, you can teach yourself how to operate your headlamp while it is out of view on your head and when you are in difficult terrain and weather conditions.
Winter backpacking is much safer if you are in a group but how do you find other people interested in this activity? If you live in Washington State, join our winter backpacking Meetup. If you live elsewhere, the tips outlined here are for you.
This information is specifically for backpacking in the winter conditions of the Pacific Northwest and Cascade Mountains.
Pain in our feet can take the joy out of backpacking, slow you down, and prevent you from completing the hike. Think of your footwear as a system of socks, shoes, and traction that needs to work comfortably and efficiently together in winter terrain. If one or more parts fail, our movement is slowed and we become susceptible to injuries such as falls, blisters, and sprained ankles. If this system is not in sync we expend energy inefficiency.
It is not always easy to predict snow and terrain conditions. Having the necessary footwear system is essential for warmth and stability.
Our winter backpacking group hikes year-round in the Washington Cascade Mountains in different terrain and weather conditions—from rocky coastal terrain to icy mountain slopes. For some trips traditional hiking or trail running shoes work fine and for others more rigid boots are necessary. You may choose to use different footwear for different events or you may want to buy one pair for all your needs. In rare cases, you may even want to bring two pairs of shoes such as a comfortable flexible shoe and a stiffer boot, such as, on a long dry approach that then turns into hard snow. However, given the extra weight, a single all-purpose boot is ideal.
Main Requirements
Our group is mainly hiking below 8000 feet on snow and ice, and smooth and rocky terrain (scree and tallis) in temperatures 5º F and above. Typical distances range from some deep snow events that are less than 7 miles round trip to longer mixed dirt and hard snow events that can exceed 12 miles per day.
Gossamer Gear’s The One and the Durston X-Mid 1 Solid: First Impressions
I’m not recommending trekking pole tents for winter or deep snow events. This review concerns ultra-light tent options for long-distance backpacking in the summer and fall and in moderate weather conditions.
In the last few years our winter hiking community has been doing more non-winter events—overnight coastal trips and section hiking the PCT, as well as other summer and fall trips not involving snow. We are in the process of learning more about ultra-light summer gear.
For these milder-weather events, trekking pole tents offer a significant weight reduction by eliminating tent poles and using trekking poles instead. Late summer and early fall are times when ultra-light backpacking methods work well. For this reason, I started looking into trekking pole tents that I could recommend to other hikers in our group. After researching available options, I reached out to Durston and Gossamer Gear to see if they would allow me to try out their tents.
In the winter most everyone is using a free-standing tent, but in the summer hikers are eager to switch to trekking pole tents to reduce weight.
