Winter Camping: Lessons with Three Season Tents

We kicked off the New Year with a snow camping adventure on Mt. Rainier. The key goal for this adventure was to test out some new cold weather gear and layering systems. Be careful what you wish for - we got our test.

We arrived at Longmire in Mt. Rainier National Park at 10:00am on Saturday morning to collect our Wilderness Permit. We were advised that there were only two other parties with overnight permits on the Mountain that evening. This was of little surprise as the weather forecast promised an overnight low of 18 degrees, winds up to 20 mph, and snow arriving on Sunday afternoon. We knew we wouldn't have much company with that combination of conditions.

We set out from the Paradise parking lot by 11:00am after a slow and careful drive up from Longmire. Do not underestimate the driving conditions you will find in Mt. Rainier National Park during the winter months. The Park has a very different idea of road ploughing and the roads can and should be expected to be icy and snow covered. This weekend was no exception. We were in no hurry though as we were not planning to hike too far on this particular adventure. The temperatures and wind chill at 6,000 ft were plenty sufficient for our purposes.

Mt. Rainier Under a Blue Sky

The sky was incredibly clear as we set out toward Alta Vista. Do not let the picture fool you though. The predicted 20 mph winds were very present and frequently gusting at much higher velocity. We had a strong feeling that we were going to be in for it. We headed up toward Alta Vista with the intention to set up camp well below and to the West of Panorama Point.

Our first order of business after selecting our site was digging out a solidly built tent platform. We dug in approximately two feet and built a four foot snow wall to surround 50% of the tent body. Our lthree season Big Agnes Copper Spur puts up with conditions like a champion but can be quite noisy in high winds. We felt the strong need to do what we could to protect the tent and ourselves from the wind and driving sugar snow. The clear and dry conditions combined with the wind resulted in tiny pellets of snow flying everywhere. We staked down the tent securely with our snow anchors and finished our wind wall as quickly as possible. The finished construction can be seen on the lower left of the photo below.

Big Agnes Copper Spur Hiding Behind the Snow Wall

The temperature had dropped to below 20 degrees by the time the tent was fully pitched and the site secure. We were grateful to have allowed enough time to complete our setup, inside and out, before the sun started to set. We were warm and cozy inside our nylon fortress well before it was fully dark at 5:30pm. This feeling grew as we watched the thermometer continue to fall and watched unprotected water begin to freeze. It quickly became too cold to have any exposed skin even inside the tent. I crawled into my sleeping back in down booties, full face balaclava, fleece gloves, down pants, and mid-weight down parka.

I was fast asleep by 7:00pm lulled by the sound of the wind on the tent. I was woken periodically throughout the night though by stronger wind gusts and what I initially believed to be cold condensation on my face. Wrong. Despite our best efforts to securely stake down the tent and seal all vents and vestibules the snow had begun to sneak inside of the tent. The wonderfully ventilated mesh of our three season tent became an entry point for snowflakes. We woke up at 2:30am to discover a fine dusting of snow inside of our the tent. There was no choice at that point though but to seal up the sleeping bag a bit tighter and ride it out. It was 10 degrees inside the tent. This picture was taken *after* shaking snow off of the sleeping bags throughout the night.

Snow Isn't Supposed to be Inside the Tent

We were kept safe and warm through the use of our parka as a sleeping layer, down booties, and balaclavas. It would have been a miserable night without each of these items. We waited only until the road to Paradise re-opened in the morning at 9:15am to break camp and clear out as quickly as possible. The first moments inside the Paradise Visitor Center and out of the constant wind felt like bliss.

This trip taught us where the limit is between three season and four season shelter systems. We are now the proud owners of a brand new Marmot Thor 2p Four Season tent. This will be our new friend, at a weight increase of three pounds, for future snowy and windy adventures. This seems to be a fair trade-off to keep the snow outside of the tent walls where it belongs. Further research has also taught us that the one - two foot gap between the snow wall and tent should have been much closer.

Thank you to Mt. Rainier for continuing to be a powerful teacher. I am always grateful for adventures like these and opportunities to learn new lessons without significant consequence. That Mountain will not need to tell us twice. She won this round. I cannot wait for the next re-match.