• Washing your sleeping bag: “Natural oils and dirt from grimy hiking pollute the down and make it lose its natural loft.”
• Rejuvenating rain jackets: “Specially formulated tech-washes are available from companies like Nikwax.”
• Tuning your stove: “Any stove with a remote fuel canister that has a pump needs to have the pump cup oiled.”
• Sealing your tent: “Seam sealing your tent is easy and permanent, and a one-ounce tube of Seam Grip is enough to seal the critical seams on most two-person tents.”

Winter Burn Barrel

Steve Howe, Rocky Mountain editor of Backpacker magazine, provides sage advice around the basics of preparing for your first winter camping expedition. The highlights of his seven-part how-to series include snow shelters (beginner & advanced), gear basics, weather planning, avalanche preparedness, safety skills, and making sensible decisions:

“Choose your trip wisely. Spend some time thinking about where you’d like to go. Use this time for motivation, fantasy, and good planning. You won’t have to get all punch-it-into-the-hinterlands misanthropic, because five-star spots that are a zoo in summer are deserted in winter. Pick a beautiful, sheltered destination that doesn’t involve steep avalanche-prone hillsides, or ice-choked stream crossings, and isn’t far from retreat.”

photo credit: karendotcom127

Adirondack Descent

Headed into northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), Gustave Axelson of Men’s Journal writes about the new (but old-school) trend of winter camping without all the high tech gear: toboggans, canvas tents, wool jackets, and “three growlers of India pale ale.”

“We were embarking on a four-day winter camping trip into the boreal heart of the Boundary Waters. But instead of the finest high-tech Gore-Tex parkas and windproof mountaineering tents, we were outfitted with technology from a century gone. I was here to try out a new style of winter camping, which is really an old style of winter camping called snow walking.”

photo credit: Jeff Pang

photo credit: Alan Vernon.

Southern Utah’s Monument Valley, an arid plateau (Colorado Plateau) known for its desolate landscapes and iconic sandstone buttes, offers adventurers largely unexplored camping, hiking, and horse riding opportunities–learning more about Navajo culture and history and the Four Corners region also should mark any well-traveled itinerary.

Bruce Hathaway of Smithsonian details seven great travel tips for the area:

“Monument Valley is not like a national park. There aren’t signs and rangers all around explaining the landscape and wildlife. Service isn’t always snap-snap, and many visitors will have to adjust to the slower, quieter pace of many Navajo. You’ll enjoy your visit much more if you watch the Westerns filmed in Monument Valley and read the books before you go.”