Winter Backpacking Solo: Minimal Gear, Snowy River, Overnight Camp Underneath Snow!

I've experienced this river in every season now and I've got to say winter is by far my favorite. The amount of solitude you can get out here when there's 10-foot ice walls on either side of the river nobody's coming out snowshoeing through these things. Hiking next to this river you definitely need to wear a good pair of snowshoes and to stay far enough away from the banks because like I said there's ice piled up everywhere one wrong step is not a good day. I have enough experience solo camping and winter camping that I'm comfortable enough to come out here with minimal gear and carrying minimal gear does a few things for me. It allows me to hike farther without getting as fatigued. It allows me to stay up above the snow instead of punching through with all this heavy weight on my back and it also lets me enjoy nature more by being more reliant on using materials outside and by using some of the little bit of knowledge that I do have. So for this overnight trip I've got a lightweight backpack It's a Fjällräven Free Loop 55 and I wanted to save on weight and bulk with my sleeping kit So I opted for a negative six Celsius top quilt and then I've got a basic Summer liner that goes inside of it. I just brought a six by eight sill nylon orange tarp on this trip It can be used for a couple different things I can set it up as a quick lightweight shelter and or because of the color I can use it for signaling if I needed to It's gonna get down to negative eight Celsius tonight, but right now it's zero degrees So it's quite warm in the Sun therefore layering your clothes is a huge deal I like to wear long johns underneath and then pants that have a zip where I can air myself out and Then layers on top a t-shirt a sweater a puffy a toque gloves things that can be taken off Put back on as the weather changes throughout the day and night. Oh, this can't be very safe Yeah, I know they're all caves, but I think I found a decent spot I have an idea for what I want to do for a shelter. The snow is a great insulator I have a little bit of a lacking sleeping bag Not really, but I want to make a shelter that's a little bit warm now I can use my tarp and that's totally fine, but let's dig out underneath the snow you'll have to use the snowshoes because we don't have a shovel we're going minimal gear on this and Try and build like a trench and then we'll either put the tarp on top throw snow on top or do boughs we'll see how she goes but that's the plan for today that's the kind of shelter I want to sleep in you know again it'll be utilizing both things lightweight gear and or knowledge or just just knowledge and materials from the outdoors which is both are cool in my opinion so you have to see how much we can get done with the snow shoes gonna take some doing good thing is snow seems like it'll be deep enough to get fully underneath it and I'm not that big I don't need that much space, right? Oh, she's deep. Oh Yep, no question there. Oh This is uh, this is a lot of work I love the idea of minimalist camping right and I've done that throughout the years We're doing that on this trip and you'll be able to see that throughout the video We left certain pieces of gear at home to make ourselves more comfortable on the trail To be more in tune with nature using using nature for us this day and age though Everybody brings electronics out to the woods right not just me not just people who are content creators and filming but people who want to be safe they have gps they have a sat phone they have um even as easy as a rechargeable headlamp there's so many things nowadays that need to be charged out in the woods and that's just a reality right i myself have three cameras on this trip so as far as the minimalist gear i did go but i am a content creator i need to charge my cameras and show you things as do other people so i'm very very excited that Anker Solix partnered with me on this trip they sponsored me a C 300 DC power bank. Now this thing's got a huge capacity it boasts 90,000 milliamps of power and offers a way better value and superior power than purchasing nine 10,000 milliamps power banks. With its handy strap attached it's very portable. With its compact portable design this power station is light convenient and very travel friendly. This thing's crazy it's got seven ports multiple ports have higher output to simultaneously power multiple devices and it's great solution for your power needs it's got this super convenient nightlight with three modes on it that pops up very helpful for me so click the link in the description find out more I'm not done I want to see is roughly the same size it needs to be this little mummy cave coffin deal snow coffin we'll call it no not quite long enough snow shoes work all right but my feet were the winner in this one we got a bunch of snow underneath us too we're not on the ground at all so you have a lot of good insulation over a foot on the sides and the top for sure oh oh gosh I need to make a spot to climb in probably gonna put on that side and just go feet first in a little step way in then I can weasel my way into my bag and snake down in there weasel my way in and snake down in exhaustion okay this works oh boy so I got my sleeping pad here but I want to try something different on this trip. I've never used this super bivvy It's like a throwaway one like the Mylar ones I think I have used one in the past like maybe one time but certainly not this brand and this one not this one because I'll never get this back into this bag when It's tomorrow when it's time to pack up But I don't want to just lay my sleeping pad on the ground and I didn't want to pack in a big bivvy Well this could also be a double-purpose thing being orange like this signaling actually it could be a water collection in an emergency it could be water protection it could be warmth it could be signaling pretty useful actually okay I've got to make it wider yeah that's the ticket Joe I guess they make sleeping pads bigger than old Joe is all right dig her out a bit more okay see how that looks that's kind of what I want too okay that'll work and I'll throw my sleeping bag inside the bivi and everything actually maybe I'll do that before I put the top on before I build the roof I didn't bring an axe trying to go minimalist or a little bit less gear so I brought a decent-sized belt knife and it will do the job for me for sure so we'll put this in after some of these boughs are frozen into the ground underneath I prefer to take that was off the bottom of a tree like this as opposed to taking down a whole tree but but this should be plenty for what I need. Now this is possible without a tarp, and it's possible without boughs. So I'm using both, because that's what makes sense to me today. All right, put the tarp on, start packing it down with snow. Now again, the reason I'm putting snow on top is for insulation and wind protection. I think it's important to peg out, basically with snow, the corners of this, and all the edges and stuff so it doesn't sag. I'm just pushing snow down on the edges, and that's gonna freeze in there and solidify and stuff. so we'll be no worries. I feel pretty good about that. a couple little more spots I wanna cover up with more snow, but as long as nobody comes hiking through here, I'll be all right, you know? Concerned, plus I'm gonna leave that little bit of orange up there, just in case, you know? But, it's pretty good. It's probably nice and warm down in there. Let's take a look. Gonna be a little snowy getting in. Oh yeah, smells nice and everything with all the balsam and spruce. Oh, this is lovely. There's absolutely no wind under here. It's silent, it's deafeningly quiet. This is awesome, I'm happy. I am happy. Very cool. This is where we're sleeping. Get in there, old girl. You're gonna go. She's going regardless. I am very happy I brought the bivvy. Get me dry. Let's go check out the size of these ice cliffs. This is all ice, I think. But if I stay close enough to the shore, it'll be fine. Oh look, an iceberg. Sick, nice. Just 360 in over there. Very cool. Ooh, chasm, icy. Icy. Don't worry, folks. I'm pretty confident here. Wouldn't be doing it if I wasn't, you know? And I've never been wrong before. Oh man, living on the edge here. This is awesome. I absolutely love it here in the winter, I swear I do. Like, where are the people? There are no people. Okay. There's animal tracks down there, but that's about it. This is sick. I'm on a big ice shelf. There's another big one down there. It's gotta be the same size as this. I don't have to have snow shoes, thank God. one just fell right next to it look at that this is awesome sure i'm glad i didn't bring wolf uh i wanted to do a actual solo trip and he would for sure go down and jump on things like that thinking it was safe and like who knows you know what i mean with the the temperature and the current and like the overhangs and stuff it's just in my opinion not the place for a dog to be running around off leash at least not wolf uh so that's again and i did want to do a true solo trip i have a lot of camping trips coming up i swear i do and uh wolfie's involved in them all as he should be it looks like i gotta paddle this now i gotta get myself a dry suit like i'm in the middle of getting one uh if anybody knows any hookups on one let me know but i need a dry suit for this year for sure so anyways if i get one soon i'll do this river soon that's a chasm and a half there's water flowing underneath it i'm glad i didn't go on the tip of that one just the tip would have been bad I'm gonna come back here with my saw because this is usually I think is water nobody can access it and pick and get the firewood there's all really really really dry dead good spruce oh my goodness oh that could have been down so bad but went down my leg went down there all okay very good be careful here okay cool we can get down to the water here oh there's a bug oh my gosh oh I have to show you I have to show you the bug I'm gonna climb back up and down just to show you the bug. Makes me happy to see the bug. It's a sign. It's a sign folks! See him? See him? Well that's pretty awesome. Go on, be a bug now. Alright, time to get out of here. Go back and grab our mug. This is a good day. The reason I'm doing all this instead of just melting snow, we all know snow would take a lot longer to melt into water, keep adding snow, and then to boil that water. Whereas this I'm literally just scooping and boiling okay so this area is probably this area is probably ten feet from my shelter the wind isn't on a basically this way path and going that away so I kind of want there's a little bit of a well there's a tree down underneath the snow here so there's a hump where I can build a seat I have a sit pad I can sit there kind of rest my feet underneath me comfortably I haven't been able to sit down normally all day which is fine but I'd like to tonight so something like that oh boy something like that there I'm trying to make the fire have as best chance as it can I don't know that I'll have a huge fire tonight something to cook on sit by for a little bit but yeah anyways make it as easy as I can to make this fire get rid of most of the tops top layer of snow burn down right next to the rock here like this that wouldn't be so bad. Yeah, I can stuff the bottom logs way down here. Oh my gosh! These bird sparks. I love these Hestra gloves. I've been using Hestra gloves for years and years and years. These are the Fall Line gloves and I've had them for a few years now. But they're good because you can touch hot stuff, work around fire, and the only downside is they do get soaking wet, but you can also dry them at the fire. So without fear of them, really without real fear of them ruining. If you're careless For sure it can happen, but it's fire. What do you think? What do you expect right? I like these will steam off pretty easy steam off their hose head remotely level That maybe won't roll. Yeah Well, we're waiting for our water to boil slash spill everywhere. I'm going to get my stuff. Oh, I want I brought Dehydrated chili because our freeze-dried chili rather because I was going light so we've made this at home But if you can't do that obviously there are options to buy them I'm gonna eat that up and have some water and maybe my protein bar after but I'm oh I got these Yes, always bring something comfort always bring a comfort food. I love M&M peanuts peanut M&Ms But anyways, I'm gonna chill out now. It's after 5. Just trying to find my spoon. I love this backpack I got it from Doug so very many years ago. It's been my favorite for a long time. It's a very good bag sentimental sentimental value now from where it came from and how many how many places I've had it but she's falling apart so I only use it certain time alright let's check on the spilled water almost oh no just as I said that you'll do a Holyfield you know what happens you didn't want to bring a drill and this pot I don't have any lightweight titanium pots that have a bail on them for some reason I had a couple and I don't know what happened to them or lost bail or whatever so I couldn't find one when I was getting ready for this trip figure ah I used to just me and Ken my old boss Ken my old buddy Ken we used to just stick pots on the coals and that would work but that don't work I didn't wait long enough anyways I'm gonna get more water now I'll be back oh that was a hike a bunch of snow to my water so that I could pour it into the manaljean without putting such hot water in there to do that all the time but i don't think i drank the water i think i'll just dump it out in the morning well all right well that's good for now for that i got about half of the Nalgene spilled a bit more but i do need to get more water again now because i'm super hungry so let's go get more water there we go oh look at all the crap it's got in it i had to get snow this might have spilled like two or three or five five ten more times oh finally look at that so i usually use two pots to make it a perfect amount of water but it looks like this is gonna be about right i can always hopefully there's more water than chili and then i can cook it out yes there is more water than needed cook it out and add this this is a big old this is like one and a half or two but i'm pretty pretty hungry you know and uh i'm excited for it let this sit for a bit and we might throw it back on if we need to with no lid to evaporate some steam and to make the condensation go and bring the water level down this is definitely works I've done it plenty oh time tons of snow flakes let's check this out I remember in Dolly Sods Kyle we and Kyle did a backpacking trip in Dolly Sods I put my water bottle down in this pine forest It was early April, it was like April, put my water bottle down, it was a soft, soft-sided one, open and they There's so many snow fleas went inside. It looked like black liquid was inside. See them. Those are snow fleas. Those are bugs Nice, you know whenever I come across a bug it just reminds me of Kyle so much. I miss you bud. I miss you bug Supper was real good Fabulous now. I'm just gonna have some snow in there I'm just gonna throw that in there so I can rinse it out. I don't have a dirty pot Just hanging out by my camp all night feeling pretty good, feeling pretty good getting getting out I put a bunch of videos out last week or earlier this week, whatever it may be and I feel good I just want to keep going. I just want to keep staying busy doing videos. It's a good It's a good motive to have for me at least. Well, it's pretty cool coming out and doing this I don't know that I've ever really done this exact type of shelter. I've definitely slept in the snow before anyways It was a bit challenging Digging it out with the snowshoes a shovel would have come in handy big time but this was a minimalist gear type thing I didn't want to add one more piece of gear you know what I'm saying and it works fine as well as my feet stomping it as you saw so that was cool and I'm glad I'm super happy it's done I'm excited to lay in it tonight it feels very cozy and comfortable when I went and laid in there and yeah I'm sure I'm gonna have a pretty good night's sleep tonight you know as much as I like bringing Wolfie out and even other people and stuff it's like solitude in the wilderness is just special and like getting out in the winter time doing stuff like this when I said that you're not gonna see anybody around it's it's very rewarding it's very rewarding rewarding and I've been missing it I'm missing it I've been missing it in my life next to a rip roar of a fire there's a ton of snow everywhere I fell through to my knees so many times but I'm nice and warm and the temperatures dropping maybe a cold night there's no snow clouds or anything like that so it will be cold but that's fine I have my I'm happy to see how the insulated thing works out too with the amount of sleeping gear i have and with all of the snow it should be fine i encourage you guys to get out you know i'm saying like regardless is this if this is something that you do regularly or not at all or occasionally um it's time to get over the winter blues for a lot of people for me for sure but even so anytime of year just get out it's good for everything man it's good good up here it's good physically the wilderness has been my savior very so very many times i can't even remember can't even count anyways i'm excited for this year folks i have some real real real big undertakings lots of uh trips with wolfie which he needs and i want time to bond with him and stuff even more he's quite an aloof dog you know what i'm saying like uh it takes a bit to get on his good side we love each other my pad will have lost oh yeah lost a good amount of air because it's sitting in the cold there i'm gonna put my stuff away and put the stuff that I need for at night like a pee bottle and stuff next to me because there's no way I'm climbing over this to take a pee. I'm not coming over to this until the morning after a minute. I've got my pillow there. I'm gonna put all my gaiters and my boots on the ground here and then I'm gonna put my backpack on top of it just so they don't blow away. I'm sure the boots wouldn't but my one boots been undone like 90% of the day but I didn't want to take my gaiters off to fix it And no worse for wear boots these are bathrooms They're very waterproof to have like this like plastic or rubber whatever rubber membrane over the boot itself They don't breathe at all, but in the winter time you don't want that I don't think Okay, now we'll crawl in there, and then I'm gonna have to reach out far to grab the camera Okay, we're getting somewhere Goodbye We're gonna sleep in here tonight. This is what's happening. We are doing all right. This is gonna take some situating I have to get that camera obviously back and shut it off. So I'm not gonna get all situated first I just wanted to show you guys me getting in I can do it. I'll try not to get as much snow in here as possible. Caught you. We in here. We're going to bed Wish you luck. Good night. It's morning. Sure if you can even see me in this thing. You see me? I'm not sure what time it is my phone is uh stuffed in my pocket and it's quite hard to maneuver and get it out I'm all twisted up I slept very warm this is probably one of the warmest snow this is probably the warmest snow shelter I've ever slept in um no question I can see on my lens there's some some frost my camera there's some frost uh it got down it must have got down like i said pretty cold negative eight or so but uh i'm warm i was sweating so good night it was a bit it was a bit cramped like when i would try to roll over i had to kind of prop it up a little bit at some points and push the sticks up with my elbow but it's fine i uh took me a little while to fall asleep but had a pretty decent sleep so i'm gonna lay in here in bed for a little bit longer till it's a bit brighter out and then uh i want to pack down camp and get out of here i would suggest this shelter just be careful when you're doing it like leave a good amount of room uh above the tarp for your head like i did i ended up pulling this down a little bit as like a wind not a wind block but just like a heat shield kind of keep my stuff in or my heat in rather and uh it worked fine very warm very warm i have to shut the camera rough all right we're going to try to get out now without getting too cold or what look that's my camp gloves are solid like brick gloves I need to get a fire going so that I can soften my gloves enough my hands can go inside of them and then so that I can also warm my hands up as I'm packing down camp breaking down camp yeah fire fire today he died I need that oh boy it's too cold too cold whoo I cannot wait for the summer the real spring this is technically spring but I'll look around you know there we go leather again no No more brick, no more concrete, go ahead. Oh, easy one. Here comes the left hand. My left hand is, it gives me trouble. This burns so much I'm gonna use the edge of the old fire pit as a seat. I will, I have a protein bar for breakfast. I brought it because I knew I had to hike outta here. So as far as not eating breakfast is concerned, I do need a little bit of energy to get outta here, I know that. So I got a protein bar, nothing big, but I'll sit here and eat that That's why gloves are malleable. Time for a protein bar. Highlighted them one morning. Feet are on the ground. I'm sitting like chair height. The gator goes on pretty soon. All right, I assume this will be frozen in place. Let's try to get the bag out first. I think the tarp will be frozen, I mean. Like this bivvy, different story without it, and then I just ripped the hell out of it. Oh well. Yeah, she froze in there pretty good. Rip it. Wow, that's really in there. That worked very well. This is something to keep in mind. It's not gonna just pop out easy. Sometimes it's just gonna pop out and camp on people under the snow Sometimes it's just gonna pop out and camp under the snow. Leave my boy Drake alone, you know? Basically camp broken down other than sleeping bags put away and stuff But I think my body heat melted it a bit wider Looks nice and smooth and a bit wider in here than it was. It was good other than the fact that my feet Um, it was a little hilly so I was kind of banana a little bit But not not very much at all. I would I would recommend you know as far as Airbnb's go Top of the line, but this trip was a lot of fun This felt like an old-school trip where I was actually going out They're driving somewhere finding this spot setting up, you know, you know as opposed to like a base camp stuff I think I haven't done this in a while. I really really really had a good time. Alright folks Well, I think I'll call it here so I can pack away my camera and everything hike out easier But uh, thank you very much for coming with me I hope you enjoyed it and I'm gonna see you very soon on the next video. I promise I'm back, baby That was the morning. All right. I'm happy to be back in the truck. Happy to have done that camp