Forest Camping in a Windstorm

I try to avoid camping under trees that might drop branches.  Even worse is if the tree falls over.  You can often see that a tree is unhealthy.  Dead branches.  Fungus growing out of it.

The trees provide protection even if you camp further away than the falling tree would reach.

Ridges and valleys can provide shelter.  If you camp at lower elevation it’s better.

I look at weather reports and try to avoid heavy winds.

I first thought this might be another thread about Forrest Fenn :)

I hammock-camped a lot of the first couple years of backpacking and that trained me to look carefully at the limbs/trunks of trees.

Aside from those hazards I like how I can tie my tarp/shelter off to trees, logs, boulders, etc. in a forest. These can all provide very strong points to tie off to and potentially a wind break. A fallen log or boulder seems a perfect tie out for the foot end of a cat-cut or flat tarp because it provides a secure wind break (and ideally, a tie-off point).

Got caught in a storm with high winds last summer, so I set up next to a boulder as a windbreak, but a wide pine helped.   Heard oak can be the worst with heavy limbs/trunk.

Problem also becomes burnt forest in the winds.  Hearing some groans and cracks during dinner in a burned forest, I ventured onward to set up at night.   Some fellow hikers camped in the burnt trees and stayed up all night .. listening to limbs fall all around them.

It’s hard to get much sleep in conditions like that, and my dogs definitely don’t like it. All you can do is try to pitch the tent in some boulders or willows, or in a depression. But honestly, it’s pretty miserable.

I live in the PNW, so sometimes there is nothing but forest to sleep in during a wind storm. Here’s some tips that I use:

1. Find the largest, oldest conifer tree and sleep right at the base of it on the downwind side. It will protect from branches and smaller trees hitting you. And if the large tree falls over, if you are close enough to the trunk, it will be far less likely to crush you. Larger trees tend to uproot instead of snapping. When they uproot the root ball holds the trunk of the tree up off the ground. Since large conifers here don’t have branches at the base in most cases, you might get rolled out of bed, but not crushed or skewered.

2. Cedar trees are some of the safest trees. They don’t snap or uproot as easily as others, and the lower branches that are big and dead, are often pretty light and crumbly by the time they fall off.

3. Alders and Maples are death zones in wind storms. I refuse to ever sleep under them, even if there is no wind at all. They just topple over and drop branches without provocation at times.

High winds is pretty normal parts of the year in Southern California. I really don’t think much of it.  I definitely wouldn’t camp in an area with a lot of widow makers.  I would prefer a sheltered spot, say behind rocks, but happily camp in the trees if they all look healthy, though perhaps not directly under one. Unless the weather is threatening with the wind, I just cowboy camp.  Tent will act like a sail and being next to the ground will have less wind anyway.  If I need to put up my shelter, I normally carry a tarp so I spread it pretty flat and wide with large rocks on the stacks. I may need to crawl under it, but it’s better than hearing it flap hard in the night keeping you awake from the noise and worry about it possibly tearing.

Thanks a lot for your advice! I will remember it when I will be in a similar situation next time!

RE Oaks – I was at Sespe hot spring the weekend after a couple was nearly killed (but successfully medi-vac’d) by a 8″ diameter dead oak branch. It severely injured the man and moderately injured the woman. The lower camp has several camp pads right between several old, large, dying oaks with widow makers hanging everywhere. We had 10-30mph winds that night and I had to choose a random spot in the woods at the edge of the lower camp to find a hammocking spot I was comfortable with. That is, no large dead branches above me.

In general, it seems the odds of a medium-large branch falling is much higher than an entire tree falling over. Therefore, I prioritize finding a spot without large branches or any dead branches directly above me that could cause serious injury.

About 20 years ago there was a similar windstorm in the BWCA that had 100mph straight line winds and knocked down thousands of trees. There were injuries but no deaths luckily. Look at the density of fallen trees in these pics – https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/07/04/bwca-boundary-waters-blowdown-anniversary

Thats about as extreme as you can get and no one died, so that makes me feel a little better about my luck, but you must be vigilant.