This was a rough week. We had just pulled Bennett from his Pre-K due to issues at the school and were planing to put him in the public kindergarten after Thanksgiving. That was a tough decision, but one that had to happen. I had a really busy week with work and Meg was headed to Co Springs with her mom and sister for the weekend. I had planned to take Friday off, but by Thursday night it didn’t seem like the trip was going to happen. I hadn’t even figured out where I wanted to go either. After working Friday morning I decided it would be best to just do a short winter/snow overnight where the avy risk was low and I’d be relatively close to the truck if any critical gear failed catastrophically.
I settled on Lost Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness which appeared to be about 2 miles in from the Hessie trailhead outside Eldora, CO. This area is just north of the Eldora Ski Area. It appears they close the Fourth of July Road at the Hessie TH for the winter too. That might make for an interesting trip later on this winter.
Hessie TH (winter) to Lost Lake next to Eldora Ski Area west of Boulder, CO. Gaia Maps has it as 2.1 miles one-way.
The wind was fierce and the snow was blowing when I arrived at the Hessie TH around 2:30p. I started having doubts that this was a good idea, despite knowing that the weather forecast was supposed to be clear throughout the night and pretty nice the following day. The forecast low was 15 degrees and the winds were supposed to be around 30-40 mph. I knew I’d be fine with the temp, but the winds made me nervous. The last thing I want to deal with is a catastrophic tent failure in the middle of the night. As soon as I started down the trail and into the woods the trees blocked the wind quite nicely and I figured I’d be fine as I wasn’t going to be in an exposed area.
I arrived at Lost Lake after about an hour of uphill trudging through the snow. I should have donned snowshoes, but instead opted for microspikes and slowly made my way up the hill. My pack was definitely heavier than usual (~35 lbs w/snowshoes, food, fuel, water). Despite the blustery conditions I still ran into quite a few other folks out snowshoeing with their dogs on the trail. I think it’s probably a pretty popular day hike/snowshoe in the winter. Only being 2 miles up the mountain I arrived at Lost Lake, scouted out a decent campsite, and set up my shelter before dark.
I pulled out the venerable Mountain Laurel Designs Duomid which I’ve had for several years but haven’t used much. I attempted to bury a few deadman anchors in the snow, but it wasn’t deep enough in some areas so I just pounded a few stakes into the ground. I didn’t want to take any chances with the high wind forecast either.
I think the temp dropped below freezing while I was setting up camp and my sweaty R1 pullover was frozen solid by the time I started to make dinner. Speaking of which, dinner was interesting. I brought my standard Skurka beans, cheese, & rice, but I heated it up and melted snow for water using my recently acquired MSR Whisperlite white gas stove. It’s a little finicky and much heavier than a canister stove, but it works. I didn’t have any problems lighting, priming, or pressurizing it, but I can see how if the plastic pump fails you’re screwed. Not sure how I feel about that. The priming fireball is quite interesting as well. Not safe for use in or near your tent! Canister stoves are super simple to use and with the copper pre-heat strip they can work quite well in sub freezing conditions.
The other new addition to the stable this year was my Prolite Plus large self-inflating sleeping mat. I feel like I’m sliding backwards on the UL continuum here, but comfort is critical to good sleep and I’m tired of sleeping on my noisy NeoAir XTherm. I know they say the noise goes away, but that’s just not true. I’ve slept on that thing dozens of nights and I never feel good on it. The heavier, larger Prolite is the bomb. It is thinner too, so there’s more room inside my MLD bivy sack. To be fair, I don’t like the larger packed size of the Prolite (the XTherm is the size of a Nalgene bottle) or the weight, but sleep quality wins out here.
I also christened my new MLD Spirit 28-degree synthetic quilt. I only have Katabatic Palisade 30-degree quilt, but I’ve read that many UL winter backpackers highly recommend using a down inner quilt and synthetic outer quilt for below zero winter conditions. The theory is that your perspiration will move through the down inner quilt and freeze only on the outer synthetic quilt (where the perspiration meets the cold air). That way your down bag doesn’t wet out and freeze. I love down for sleeping bags, but I have had issues with wetting out from perspiration and condensation. The synthetic quilt can handle moisture much better and I think it worked. Despite lots of condensation inside the tent both quilts were very dry in the morning. I stayed super warm as well. I didn’t have a thermometer but the forecast was for 15 and I’m sure the wind chill took it closer to zero. I didn’t notice. Warmth wasn’t a problem. I read somewhere that two 30-degree quilts can actually take you down to -15 degrees. That’s great, but I think I’ll stay inside at that temp. The nice thing is that now I have a spare UL 3-season quilt for Meg, Bennett, or anybody else who goes backpacking with me and I don’t have an unnecessary, expensive, heavy -15 degree bag weighing down my pack or credit card.
Forgot to mention earlier, but after setting up camp my feet started to freeze. I was still in my Altra Lone Peak trail runners, Darn Tough thick wool socks, and Rocky Gore-Tex socks. That combo keeps my feet dry and toasty while moving in winter, but not in camp. I had purchased Montbell down booties earlier this year and brought them along, but I failed to account for the convective heat loss through the (lack of) soles. I made a note that I needed to cut out insoles out of Reflectix material when I got home. Reflectix is the “bees knees” of insulation. I use it to insulate my water bottles in the winter and it works surprisingly well.
Despite freezing feet, I was otherwise pretty toasty. My Montbell parka kept me super warm with just a t-shirt underneath. Paul Magnati’s (pmags.com) recommendation to use cheap Army-issue wool glove liners with non-insulated over-mittens also worked very well. This method doesn’t sound warm, but actually is warmer compared to using heavier winter/ski gloves that ultimately wet out from sweat and then freeze. I used my Kinco ski gloves the last time I went winter camping and was miserable (hence, why I haven’t been winter camping again in almost 8 years). If my hands were sweating in the mittens I just took them off and wore the wool liners and let them air out. I’ve since picked up a few more pairs of the $4.99 Army-issue wood glove liners as they are great for around town and even for cold weather cycling. I remember using them extensively in ROTC, but not so much on active duty (I was in Texas). I will warn you that they are very scratchy wool, but it doesn’t really bother me. They work. Period.
The night was long and the winds howled for most of it, but I made it through. I brought ear plugs and an eye mask and I think they both really helped. I’ve always struggled with sleeping in the backcountry; it doesn’t matter how fast/far I’ve gone or how tired I am, I just can’t fall sleep. I hear it’s a pretty common condition and most folks recommend melatonin or Advil PM or booze, but most sleep aids make me feel like crap the next day. I think the combination of 1. the quiet and larger Prolite Plus pad, 2. ear plugs, and 3. eye mask really helped. I’m not sure I would have ever fallen asleep without the ear plugs as the winds were clearly in the 30-40 mph range. Luckily I was blocked from them with some good terrain and tree coverage, but it didn’t quiet it down much. I started worrying about a tree falling on me, but then I realized that if that’s how I was going to go, so be it. It’ll happen someday and I’m not going to worry about it.
Overall it was a great, albeit short, overnight trip. Stayed really warm (except for my in-camp feet issues) and my gear worked supremely well. I believe this was a solid confirmation that I’m ready to head out deeper, further, higher into the backcountry this winter (check out TGR’s Jeremy Jones trilogy of Deeper, Further, Higher when you have some free time - highly recommended).
As John Muir said, “the mountains are calling and I must go”. Where to next?
