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Field Notes: Careening into Winter


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Home Forums Campfire Editor’s Roundtable Field Notes: Careening into Winter

Viewing 7 posts - 26 through 32 (of 32 total)
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  • #3792078
    Ken Larson
    BPL Member

    @kenlarson

    Locale: Western Michigan

    Are you eve going to talk about your insulating jacket: Timmermade SUL 0.75 Down Sweater?

    #3792894
    Ryan Jordan
    Admin

    @ryan

    Locale: Central Rockies
    #3793092
    Stephen M
    BPL Member

    @samson1951

    Ryan, Would you consider substituting Arms for Andes Alpaca Wool Thermal Leggings
    250 Lightweight for Senchi Alpha 60 pants? I’m considering doing that and wondered about your thoughts about what conditions you might make the switch.

    #3793124
    Ryan Jordan
    Admin

    @ryan

    Locale: Central Rockies

    The Senchi pants are HOT when worn under my cold-weather softshell pants. It needs to be pretty chilly to make that combo work. The alpaca leggings make a more comfortable leg base layer across a wider range of temps. Plus, they’re more durable, and on some trips, I like to wear leggings under running shorts, and the Senchi has too much porosity to make them comfortable in cold wind as an outer layer.

    #3794398
    Rob Hoeffler
    BPL Member

    @nextturnrob

    In order of preference, what would have other tents you had wished you had taken? How do you think Slingfin would have been.  Thanks, Rob

    #3794490
    Ryan Jordan
    Admin

    @ryan

    Locale: Central Rockies

    Rob, for camping where I have some natural shelter (treeline or lower), I think a double-walled, solid inner, two-trekking pole shelter like the Tarptent Dipole DW or Durston X-Mid Solid would be fine.

    For above-the-treeline use in bad weather (high winds and blowing snow), I lean towards a true double-wall solid inner tent where all mesh can be sealed. My personal preference is for two vestibules (one for gear storage, one for cooking/entry/exit. I like a to-the-ground fly, lots of guyline attachment points, a fly that attaches to the poles, no pole hubs (all poles should terminate at the ground), and pole sleeves instead of clips. All of this points to wind stability and snow-loading strength. The lightest shelter I’ve found to meet all of these criteria is the Slingfin Crossbow.

    But the Crossbow is definitely a “specialist” shelter. It’s a legit mountaineering-class tent *IF you extensively guy it out. If you don’t, then there are plenty of lighter options. If you’re looking to use the Crossbow without the guylines, then you’re probably carrying more weight than you need to. I don’t see this as an all-purpose winter tent.

    I think the Tarptent Dipole DW or Durston X-Mid Solid are probably better choices for an all-purpose winter tent if you’re looking to save some weight and have “enough” stability to hold up under a few inches of snow and some strong wind gusts here and there. But then again, a small pyramid can usually deal with those kinds of conditions as well. The tents are much warmer when it’s really cold, and that’s kind of nice.

    If I’m not expecting much wind or snowfall, I still like bivies and tarps, even in winter.

    #3800912
    AK Granola
    BPL Member

    @granolagirlak

    Beautiful! Good to know all the details about the Notch Li. I haven’t tried it in snow but it wouldn’t work for our minus 10F right now anyway.

    Flu – how about a flu shot? I haven’t had flu since the 80s even with plenty of exposure working with the public every day.

Viewing 7 posts - 26 through 32 (of 32 total)
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