Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Hunting in the snow?

Being from the Texas Gulf Coast, the deepest the snow ever gets here is about 4" on the ground. And, that's in the drifted areas.

I see pic's of you guys hunting in the snow covered mountains. I have seen pics of guys sitting belly button deep in the snow with a big grin on their face. Judging by the pics it appears the dry snow is not an intrusive cold such as snow & water. I have seen pics where guys dug a "grave" and slept in it with their sleeping bags. I have a hard time comprehending the differences in climates & how you could actually be sleeping in/on the snow and be comfortable.

Can I get some feedback on how you think this differs from a wet humid climate. As a southern man I see snow and I think freeze-my-butt-off cold. I have been in a dry low humidity cold in the Texas Hill Country where the overnight lows dip into the teens. My comparison was that 40 degrees on the Gulf Coast feels about the same as 25 in the Hill Country.

I am originally from TX/LA and moved up here to MT quite a while ago. A few years ago I went down to LA in December to hunt ducks. 30* and 90% humidity down there feels like 0* and 0% humidity up here. The cold goes bone deep down there and still cold with layers. Up here, layers cut the wind and keep the cold out. Ive been out for hours on end plowing snow with my 4wheeler in -30* and stayed warm but almost froze to death duck hunting for a couple hours at a time down in LA.

You and I both know the bone deep cold here is brutal.

Heck, I've been using skis & snowshoes to get into the backcountry in winter for camping since I was a teenager, 40 years ago.

Snow caves & snow trenches can be real comfortable for sleeping. Important thing to do is remain dry. If I'm dry and my bag is dry, I'll be a happy camper all night long in my snow trench or snow cave. With a snow trench, I'll put my skis & ski poles across the top to support a tarp, and then pile a little light snow atop that - or mother nature will pile some snow on it for me. That makes a pretty good roof.

Under the bag will be a good insulating pad, closed cell foam. I'll use one in the summer, and two in the winter. Really ought to upgrade I guess, but two pads works fine for me.

I'll stop up the opening with my backpack, not a real tight seal, but good enough. Have a cold-air sump dug right outside the entrance.

At night, a candle lit inside, and put on a shelf cut into the snow, produces an amazing amount of light and warmth. Often I'll also boil up a quart of water on my white gas stove just before turning in for the night, and put the hot-water filled quart bottle inside my sleeping bag with me. Works great!

Important to have the leather boots inside something overnight to keep them from freezing. If the sleeping bag is big enough, put the boots in a waterproof stuff sack, and keep them inside the sleeping bag. They'll be fine in the morning. Otherwise they'll be frozen stiff, and very difficult to lace on in the morning.

While traveling through the day, I'm producing enough body heat that I'm fine. Have different layers avail, often I'm really warm/sweating while covering miles on snowshoes or skis.

Winter. A great time to be outside! In fact, I'm about to toss the skis in my truck and head out for a few hours of cross-country skiing. Good stuff!

Guy

Its not comfortable. Its tolerable in the sense that it doesn't kill you and thats about all.

Here in Washington, we get the dry cold and the wet cold. I'd much rather be in cold temps & dry snow than in the drippy nasty wet snow outside my house right now...

It isn't the cold that is hard to endure, it is the heat. Sure, you see smiles on guys faces as they bundle up and face the cold, but there is nothing to smile about when it gets over 80 degrees.

This is a day of 25 below that did warm up to about 15 below or so by the end of the day...Smiles all around...

I'd rather have the cold & powder snow than warm & wet snow.

I've been out the last week after cows and, right now at 7000-9000 feet where I'm hunting it's warmed up from 0-5*F to right around 32* F during the daytime, turning our nice 2-foot dry powder into wet, quad-sucking 2-foot heavy water. Snowshoes help, but I can't wait for it to get cold again!

You hunt the high country of Colorado you will be in snow.

There are many kinds of snow.

I find cold but light powder snow an absolute pleasure to hunt in. If falling one can simply brush it off. Easy to get around in and extremely quiet. Meat stays clean and down hill drags are not much of an issue for elk sized critters. Short of wallowing in the snow, ones outerwear etc can stay dry as long as temps remain low.

Wet heavy snow and above freezing temps are not too bad either if one has a warm dry camp to return to in the evenings. If deep, however, getting around in such can be a real pain, and some thought must be put into staying dry. Regardless of conditions, I always have a rain coat. It can also be a chore to keep ones feet dry. I was up in hip deep wet snow two days ago to relieve the forest of a Christmas tree. Talk about exhausting, but we got one.

Snow that has thawed and then refrozen is a total pain. Not a temperature issue, but just tough to get around in. Crusts will support one for two steps and then drop one through on the 3rd step. Very noisy if one is doing close order dark timber work. That's not an issue though if one is in big sky contry and stalking game on opposing ridges etc. If one is 100+ yards away from game, they'll likely not detect the noise.

I one dresses appropriately, he can be fine in any condtion. With the dry snow, just layer up with boots etc that will keep the snow out. Be smart and unlike kids, think about staying dry.

With thawing wet snow, rain gear may be needed if one is under dripping forest canopies. I'm going to give my recently retired fabric chest waders a try next season. If they will keep me dry for 6 hours of chest deep wading, wet snow ought to be a cinch.

Layers, wool, gloves or mittens, down, rain gear, felt lined packs, and the means to start fires and spend the night if one has to. Above all try to stay dry. If stand hunting, then simply enough layers to stay warm with little to no activity.

A good survival education can be had by reading the exploits of Mawson, Scott, Shackelton, Peary, Amundson etc. They were tough but also smart people.

Coming from NW PA, I'm not stranger to cold/snow/humidty. I find 0 deg in Colorado more comfortable than 20 deg in NW PA. Among the most miserable days on record happened to me 2 weeks back - 35 deg freezing rain. I got soaked to the skin 2 miles from the car in steep terrain with lots of mtn laurel choked creek bottoms - and several to go through to get ot the car. It took 3 days for my clothes to dry. It plain sucked.

Give me low humidity and cold temps any time..........

Reloader28 -

As an example of wet vs dry cold, my daughter grew up in western Oregon where 30 degrees was exceptionally cold. She moved to Colorado to go to college and she's made it real clear she's not coming back. 10 degrees there is just cold, 25 degrees here hurts her to the bone. She said no way she'll ever live west of the Cascades again.

I notice much the same thing living west of the Cascades but going east to chase rabbits and coyotes in winter. 25 degrees right here is plenty chilly. Always feel cold and wet. Over east, 10 degrees is pretty comfortable after a day or two in it.

So .. yeah, humidity is a huge factor.

I'll take cold temps and dry snow any day over temps around freezing. It is much easier to stay dry in cold temps. Of course, once it gets below about -10 you really have to layer up, then it is easy to sweat too much when working. I would say I would take -10 to +20 over 27-40 deg. Also equipment failures start to pick up in the negative temps.

Guy, good tips on staying out in the snow. There are alot of little tricks that make being out in the winter quite tolerable. Just little stuff, like putting the hot water in the sleeping bag. I used to do that, then run some laps to get my body heat up while the foot of the bag warmed up, then sleep like a baby--night time bathroom breaks aside! Little tricks like putting your spare water bottle upside down in the snow at night make the difference from merely surving to having fun.

Winter camping in MT, sitting at the fire pit:

Reloder28:

Sleeping in a snow trench can save your life if you have to spend an unplanned night out in the winter mountains. Say the temperature will drop to 10� and there's 15 MPH wind. These are very common conditions in the Rockies and not very extreme. The wind chill will be about -5�F and that can kill you fast if you're not prepared. Snow maintains a pretty constant temp of about 25�F. So if you dig a trench in the snow and cover it with a tarp, the temp in the trench will be about 25�. If you crawl into the trench with all your clothes on, you'll be able to survive the night because you have increased the temp by 30�. It actually can approach comfort if you also have a bivvy bag and ground pad.

Here's an example to illustrate the point. Two years ago, one of the guys brought some ice cream bars to elk camp. He thought that they would keep fine in the cooler if left outside and buried in snow. But they all got soft. Ice cream freezes at about 20� and snow maintains a pretty constant temp of about 25�. So the ice cream never got cold enough to freeze.

As 1minute mentioned, snow can exhibit a lot of different characteristics. Some situations may be tolerable, and other snow conditions may be miserable to deadly. BTW a good pair of gaiters makes a lot of difference until the snow gets above your knees.








KC

This is all very very good information & quite enlightning.

KC, what's the purpose for the gaiters? I see them on the Sitka website but don't understand the application necessity.

Gaiters keep the doggone snow from filling your boots while walking in the deep, loose stuff!

Gaiters = good piece of gear to have.

A lot of it is what you are used to. Every time I get by the Airport door in Houston I wonder if people live there by choice or judicial mandate. A positive mental attitude to be happy in the cold goes a long ways.

I hate hunting/hiking in snow.
I'm good for a couple inches, but that deep crap kills me.
Gaiters help, but don't do anything for having your feet slip that little bit every step. Or the weight of the snow on your feet.
It might have something to do with me being four feet tall, but anything more than just a skiff for tracking and spotting game is a nuisance to me.

Snow and Elk Hunting just go together. The cold out west sure doesn't feel like the cold here in TN and VA. My buddy was Elk hunting a few years back in Colorado and a few of the Local where making fun about the Heavy coats they had with them and they where just wearing sleeveless vest. He told them you go back to TN and when the temp reaches the same is it is here you will throwing them little vest away and buying you a heavy coat. I will bet you money on how long you will hunt there the way you are dressed. They didn't say anything else.

Would walking in the deep snow be the same as trying to slop through the marsh of the duck hunting venues? If so, I couldn't do that either. My bad knee is worst when trying to pull up my foot from the bog. I don't duck hunt anymore due to that problem.