[pct-l] Tents and Snow

[Brian Lewis]

Hanna wrote:

*I am planing on hiking in 2009 and leaving mid-April, a week or so before
the Kick-off.  I have been trying to decide what style of tent to buy, free
standing vs. not.  Since I will likely be entering the Sierras while there
is still a decent amount of snow, there is a high likely hood that I will be
camping on snow which could make setting up a tarp tent more difficult and
probably necessitate snow anchors.  For these times having a free standing
tent would be much more convenient but I don't know if it is worth the extra
weight.  I don't really have the funds to buy two tents and switch off so I
will likely carry the same tent for the whole trail.  Any insights or advice
on the matter would be greatly appreciated.  I am not hyper concerned with
going ultralite but I would rather carry and extra pound and a half of
something else if I could. *


Mid-April isn't that early a start as to suggest a lot of required on-snow
sleeping.  Granted that this year the Sierras melted out faster than usual,
I started the day after the kickoff this year and never had to sleep on
snow.   I think it's very possible that you could go with a lightweight tent
and rarely if ever have to sleep on snow, depending on how fast you walk the
first 700 or so miles, what 2009's weather brings, and how much you push
things in the Sierras --- i.e., do you decide to start up a pass towards the
end of the day, or make camp and wait to do it the next day.   That
latter never seemed to be an issue for me --- reasonable planning ahead
meant that most of the time the passes came in the morning or early
afternoon and I was back down below snow level when I wanted to stop for the
night.

Like Franco, I carried a single snow/sand stake as a dual-use potty trowel,
but almost never used it as a stake (YMMV).   If I were to do it again, I'd
just carry the same needle stakes that I took this year; in loose soil, use
a big rock.  In snow conditions, fashion a "dead man" anchor using some item
of equipment if you can't find sticks (
http://alpineinstitute.blogspot.com/2008/07/snow-anchor-options-part-i.html
).


Brian Lewis (Gadget, '08)
http://postholer.com/brianle