❄️ Overnight Snow Camp: Mylar Shelter + Long Fire + Chili Fiesta
🥶🌨️ Heavy snow, cold temps, and a simple goal: get out into the conifers, build a tight shelter, run a long fire, and stay comfortable for the night.
🧰 Gear was minimal on purpose — small pack, snowshoes, axe, sleeping gear, and one emergency mylar blanket as the main shelter test.
🏕️ Shelter Plan (Simple + Fast)
🪵 Built a compact frame using dead standing wood
🪢 Used basic lashings + improvised “buttons” with snow clumps
🧊 Kept the shelter space small to avoid heating a giant area
🛡️ Mylar worked, but it was smaller than expected, so the setup was adjusted
🔥 Fire Strategy (Winter Reality)
🔥 Built a long fire and dug the fire area down so it wouldn’t melt into a deep snow-hole
🌲 Mostly conifer wood (cedar / spruce / balsam) = burns fast, less coals
🪵 Tons of dead standing wood made fuel easy — but by 3AM the coals were gone (not surprising with softwood)
🍲 Food + Warm-Up
🍲 Heated up Happy Yak – Chili Fiesta
🫖 Melted snow for water + planned a tea
😌 That fire + hot food = instant morale boost
🧠 Real Takeaways
✅ Snowshoes matter in open snow
✅ Small shelters warm faster
✅ Digging out the fire base helps a LOT
✅ Softwood won’t hold coals overnight — plan for a morning relight
✅ Being back out in winter camp mode feels mentally resetting
💬 Question for the community
❄️🔥 If you’re winter camping with mostly softwood around, what’s your go-to method for keeping coals alive longer—or do you just plan for a full relight every morning?