Probably once a year I get back to camp at 4 AM or so, bloody and wandering through griz country. Wonderful times….usually not in a foot of snow though.
I have spent a few unplanned nights in the woods away from camp, for various reasons. The ‘worst’ was once when fog came in and I couldn’t see where I was at, nor which drainage I needed to take to get back. It was about 0 degrees and I just hunkered up underneath a big tree, threw all my extra layers on as well as my cheap aluminum safety blanket over me and proceeded to (mildly) shiver all night. It wasn’t the Waldorf Astoria, but it wasn’t all that bad. I started hiking again once I could see the next morning.
I have never once felt I was putting myself in danger. I have been in more ‘trouble’ in the heat than I have in the cold. Hell, most of the time my ‘camp’ is just a tarp and a sleeping bag and if it is early season, I quite often don’t even have the tarp on me.
