Winter Tent Stakes

When snow stakes are needed i bring suluk46 ones.
If i am not sure there will be snow i bring regular stakes and a few feets of dynema to bury what i have : snowshwoes, stuffs sacks filled with snow, trekking poles etc…

Depending on what trail your doing your not allowed to tent in the smokies unless the shelters are full (refering to the AT only).

If you are putting a tent up in the snow and it's deeper than like 2 inches or so then needle stakes are all but useless. If your tents free standing then you might be able to get by with them…maybe.

I use a combination of these SMC T-Anchor – 4-Pack
SMC Sno-Tent Stake Qty 4, both are from REI but there are many other brands.

Groundhog style stakes work ok, but a snow/sand stake are much much better.

Research the conditions well before hand, if there is not 6+ inches of snow then you will need to actually put the stake in the ground which can be a challenge if the ground is frozen, so I usually carry a few groundhogs as a backup.

Then there is also the digging a T style trench and tieing off to a stick or what not then packing the snow around it and letting it freeze.

Hope that helps some.

I live in the Smokies, and very rarely is there ever enough snow to warrant tent stakes- you can usually find the actual ground fairly easily. However, I would advise against using normal needle stakes in the snow- it is kinda like not having stakes at all. I have used the SMC Sno-Tent Stake from REI. They work well enough. Another alternative is to find sticks about a foot and a half long, and tie off to those (stuck almost all the way in the snow). Then you don't have to carry anything from place to place, and they are free!

I have done the AT through the smokies about 4 times now twice in Jan,and twice in Feb and every time there has been lots of snow. Easily 1-3ft in most areas, and alot more in others. ymmv i reckon.

I backpack a lot in that area and I have never felt like I needed snow stakes. There has only been one time where I couldn't find the ground and I just used a regular stake turned sideways as a dead man type anchor. I was a little skeptical at first that it would hold, but after the considerable effort it took to free them in the morning, I will say that they would hold as good or better than any stake in the ground.

In winter snow I use SMC aluminum snow stakes and buried branches. Use a guy line W/ a trucker's hitch instead of a plastic tensioner for ease of line removal from buried branches.

In summer I carry a snow stake as my potty trowel/ultimate hold stake.

As an experiment I once pitched our tent in the snow using dead sticks only. 18" of stick and well-stomped snow. It worked well.

cheers

Thanks for all the help. I'll ditch the needle stakes and carry groundhog stakes. As far as using the stake in snow…It sounds like you bury it in the snow horizontally, and pile snow on top, is this correct? Just doesn't seem strong enough to pitch a taut tent.

FYI, I'm not using the AT except to connect loops. I'll be camping 5-6,000 feet.

Be sure to pack the snow down on top of and around the stake to really solidify it's spot. If you find that it is not strong enough, just go grab some fir branches or something and break off reasonably sized chunks to tie to and bury.

nm

Any tricks for getting snow anchors/stakes back out in the morning?

A snow shovel doesn't work well in ice or hard-packed snow.

But it seems silly to carry an ice axe just for that. Maybe a small hammer or something?

There ought to be a "pick" style digging attachment that you could swap out for the shovel blade on the same handle. Not for self-arrest or anything, just for digging.

Can you imagine the disclaimer required?

Have you read this? Great solutions for all seasons. Cool pictures too.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/ditch_your_stakes.html

> Any tricks for getting snow anchors/stakes back out in the morning?
Well, don't use aluminium ones is the best recommendation. Aluminium bonds to the ice really well, and can be impossible to get out. This applies to the pretty anodised ones too.

Titanium does not bond all that well and is much easier to extract. Very strong too! MYOG articles at
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/make_your_own_gear_titanium_snow_stakes.html
and
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/myog_ti_snow_stakes_part_2.html

A good trick to loosen a stake frozen into the snow is to stamp *downwards* on the head. That is, try to impact it *along its length* and drive it further in. This has the effect of breaking the metal/ice bond temporarily. A strong string loop tied to the stake beforehand can then be used to pull it out.

Cheers