Winter camping trip in Rockies with new Eddie White drop point

S

statius

Joined
Jan 1, 2008
Messages
127
Hello all. I got to do some winter-camping this past weekend. Myself and two friends snowshoed about 5k to a site in the rockies of Peter Lougheed Provincial Park here in Alberta, Canada. One friend injured his knee on the hike in and was basically sidelined for the rest of the day. Myself and my other friend proceeded to build a quinzee, which took many hours. We piled the snow about 7-8 feet high, then let it sinter. After a few hours we hollowed it out. We sloped the ramp upwards to create a sleeping area higher than the entrance. This kept in the heat quite well. Using my Suunto watch, we found the temp inside the quinzee hovered around -2 C all night, while it dropped to -20 C outside. It was quite comfortable!

I brought along my new Eddie White drop point in buffalo horn for the trip. It came in handy for a variety of tasks, from opening food packaging to making kindling for our very necessary fire. Eddie's knife is great, and was a joy to use. Here's some pics, and thanks for looking:


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WOW .... those are some awesome shots !
Can you provide some more info on the Eddie White ?
 
Nice knife and excellent pics:thumbup: Do you know the name of the mountain behind you?
 
Man that 4th pic is AWSOME the 5th pic is a close second.. The foot trail makes it look lonely.... Thanks
Would you mind sending me the 4th & 5th pic i would love to use is as a screen saver...
Sashaa1@hotmail.com

Sasha
 
AMAZING photos. Those shots of the mountains with the dark sky are breathtaking - they really give you a sense of the power of the natural world.

Great looking knife, too.

I would love to hear more details about the trip!

Thanks for sharing.

All the best,

- Mike
 
Excellent shots - and wow, talk about a never ending winter!
 
wow man, great pics, looks like it must have been an excellent trip.

Thanks for sharing.:thumbup:
 
Beautiful knife! Awe-inspiring pics! Cozy shelter! WOW!

Could you give us some specs on your knife?
 
KuRUpTD said:
WOW .... those are some awesome shots !
Can you provide some more info on the Eddie White ?
Click to expand...


It's a 4.5", 154CM, 3/16 thick drop point blade with Buffalo Horn handles. Red spacers, SS pins and lanyard liner. Came with a custom fitted sheath. Eddie does great work at a great price. All his knives (as far as I know) are made by stock removal. Hollow ground.
 
Awesome trip! I think I've gone crazy enough to do some winter camping in the mountains... Maybe next winter I'll bust out to the rockies with some snowshoes and a very hefty sleeping bag for a spell. Amazing stuff.
 
Great pictures but that place is not for me. I had to put on a sweater just looking at them.
 
Awesome scenery. I like the knife too. Can you provide more info on the gear and, of course, on what you brought for food?
 
Rockywolf said:
Awesome scenery. I like the knife too. Can you provide more info on the gear and, of course, on what you brought for food?
Click to expand...


We went a bit overboard being as it was only a short hike. This was more of a 'make it enjoyable' trip. Could have gone with a lot less.
Gear:

two foam sleeping pads (wanted to use pine boughs, but couldn't in good conscience do that, being in a Provincial Park and all).

-12C rated synthetic sleeping bag. More than enough in the quinzee. My 0C down bag would have worked for temp, but probably would have got soaked and become useless (quinzees get damp and humid).

Pocket rocket stove and small gas canister.

2 pots and 1 frying pan.

eddie white knife.

headlamp (for digging the quinzee and general night activities)

Clothes:

two pairs of polartec long underwear.

once polartec long-sleeved undershirt.

one pair of polyester dress socks (base)

two pairs of heavy wool socks (one for switching into at night)

one pair of Prana polyester/spandex infused hiking pants.

one pair of light, water-proof pants (for digging the quinzees; gotta stay dry!)

One Patagonia wool sweater.

One light fleece jacket.

one light down jacket.

one light, waterproof jacket for wind/wet protection.

one pair of Scarpa M3 hiking boots.

Rented some snoeshoes.

one wool hat

2 pairs of gloves, 1 pair of mits.

Food:

3 chicken breasts
bacon
6 pack of beer
coke
bagels
granola bars
oatmeal
rice-a-roni
lipton soup

(we each brought some food, and ended up with WAY too much)

One thing I would note: layers, down, and wool are the way to go. NO cotton. I was only cold at one point, and that was on my back just before bed (I had a draft up there from my jackets and shirts being a tad too short to stay tucked in). Remedied by going to bed and becoming instantly too warm!
 
Wicked looking trip, amazing scenery and that knife looks neat, got the specs on it?
Hope your friend got out okay.
I have slept in a similar design, but used shovels, put packs on top of snow, shoveled snow on top into big tough mound then dug under took packs out and hollowed area wgere packs were into a sleeping area, three of us tried sleeping in it, it stormed and rained during the night, it was -1 degrees C inside according to my Suunto, and i am thinking around - 15 with wind chill outside, it was OK, however it did settle some during the night and the roof dropped about 5 cms (couple of inches), still stable but would not want to spend a long time in there.
 
Wow, those are some amazing pics! Looks like a great time.
I always loved the look of those knives.
 
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