Winter Mountaineering Clothes and Gear for the White Mountains of NH

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Winter Hiking Clothing and Gear for the White Mountains of NH

When gearing up for winter day mountaineering in New Hampshire’s White Mountains you need footwear, clothes, and traction aids that can be utilized throughout a variety of temperatures, wind speeds, solar, precipitation sorts, and floor circumstances. For instance, typical winter climate contains:

  • Temperatures: from 40 levels all the way down to 10 under zero (Fahrenheit)
  • Wind speeds: as much as 40 mph (over that, you get knocked down)
  • Daylight: from intense sunshine and snow glare to heavy clouds or dense forest cowl
  • Precipitation sorts: together with blowing snow, freezing fog, sleet, freezing rain, and rain
  • Floor circumstances: starting from deep snow to reveal rock, naked floor, packed trails, powder, frozen our bodies of water, and tender or laborious ice

Layering Garments

As well as, it’s essential gown for a variety of exercise ranges, corresponding to when you’re exerting your self and producing plenty of physique warmth or when you’re at relaxation and must bundle up.

The really helpful strategy for winter dressing is so as to add clothes layers once you get chilly and take off layers once you begin to sweat. Sweating needs to be prevented in winter as a result of moist or damp clothes, notably baselayers, will chill you once you cease shifting. Take off layers should you begin to sweat or decelerate your tempo to generate much less physique warmth.

When beginning a hike in winter, you’ll most likely be sporting gloves, a hat, lengthy sleeve jersey, lengthy underwear, boxer jocks, hardshell or softshell pants, a fleece pullover, a hardshell jacket, heat socks, insulated boots, and excessive gaiters. After about quarter-hour, you’ll most likely take off your hardshell and unzip your pants to vent physique heat. That’s known as layering and it happens when somebody in your group shouts out “layer break!”

Essential: Don’t put on cotton on winter hikes as a result of it takes so lengthy to dry. The identical holds for clothes fabricated from wooden fibers together with modal, rayon, viscose, Tencel, and lyocell.

A hooded fleece is a versatile layering piece. Mt Madison in March.
A hooded fleece is a flexible layering piece. Mt Madison in March.

Winter Day Mountaineering Gear Checklist

The next day winter day mountaineering clothes and kit will maintain you protected and comfy in below-treeline circumstances. Under-treeline hikes are normally protected by forests and are hotter and fewer windy than above-treeline hikes, that are on prime of uncovered mountains or ridgelines.

  • Footwear
    • Insulated mountaineering boots
    • Heat socks (sock liners non-compulsory)
    • Excessive gaiters
  • Hats
    • Light-weight fleece or wool hat
    • Heavyweight fleece or wool hat
  • Gloves
    • Light-weight fleece or wool gloves
    • Waterproof shell mitts or gloves, with insulated liners
  • Jackets
    • Puffy insulated jacket with connected hood
    • Waterproof and windproof jacket with connected hood
  • Pants
    • Rain pants which can be waterproof and windproof with full-length zippers alongside the edges
    • Softshell pants which can be reasonably windproof
  • Mid-Layer Insulation
    • Fleece jacket, fleece pullover, fleece vest, insulated vest, or softshell jacket (no less than one, probably a number of)
  • Base-Layer Insulation
    • Lengthy sleeve jersey
    • Lengthy underwear (good for individuals who run chilly)
    • Boxer jock underwear to stop chafing, wool or artificial solely
  • Spare Clothes (non-compulsory, however typically helpful)
    • Lengthy sleeve jersey
    • Lengthy underwear
    • Additional pair of socks
  • Winter traction aids
    • Microspikes
    • Snowshoes (relying on circumstances)
    • Crampons (relying on circumstances)
  • Water Bottles
    • Two or three 1-liter wide-mouth water bottles (hydration system hoses freeze up and needs to be prevented)
    • Water bottle insulation, if bottles are saved outdoors your backpack
  • Backpack
    • 35-45 liter backpack with aspect compression straps or a shovel pocket for attaching snowshoes and microspikes to the pack
    • Additional webbing straps as wanted for attaching extra gear
  • 10 Necessities
    • Map
    • Compass
    • Whistle
    • Headlamp (1 or 2)
    • Private first help equipment
    • Hearth beginning supplies (wax in paper egg containers make the very best firestarter)
    • Small knife or multi-tool
    • Gear restore provides
    • Excessive-energy snacks that gained’t freeze
    • Sun shades and sunscreen
    • Rest room paper
  • Survival Gear – this may be distributed amongst mountaineering group members, or carried if mountaineering alone
    • Sleeping bag
    • Sleeping pad
    • Light-weight bivy sack or tent physique with out tent poles
    • White gasoline range, gas, pot, range base
    • Group first help equipment

Additional Gear for Above-Treeline Day Hikes

If you happen to’re headed above treeline on a day hike, you’ll usually need to carry further wind safety in your face and beefier traction aids, like full crampons. Avalanche instruments are not often wanted within the Northeast until you’re mountaineering in high-risk mountain areas.

  • A face masks or mixture face masks/balaclava
  • Snow goggles
  • Crampons
  • Ice ax (relying on the route)
  • Avalanche shovel, beacon, and probe in hazardous terrain
Dressed for wind. North Kinsman in February
Dressed for wind. North Kinsman in February

Winter Mountaineering Clothes and Gear Shopping for Information

Whereas gear lists are helpful, I’ve additionally offered some recommendation under about what to search for when buying gear for winter use to steer you in the precise path concerning the capabilities you need in winter mountaineering gear. I’ve used each single merchandise listed under so I do know what’s good and what’s not good.

Insulated winter boots

Most individuals day hike in “tender” insulated winter mountaineering boots that shouldn’t have a detachable liner and are suitable with microspikes, snowshoes, and crampons which can be suitable with non-rigid boots.  These can be found with 400-gram insulation and 200-gram insulation. This refers back to the thickness of the insulation used, not its weight. Boots with 400-gram insulation will maintain you heat to twenty under zero levels (F), whereas boots with 200-gram insulation are good to about 10-20 levels above zero levels (F). These temperatures assume you’re strolling, not standing round. If you happen to plan on mountaineering the place temperatures get under 10F-20F levels, I like to recommend 400g insulated winter boots. In any other case, a 200g insulated boot needs to be ample.

We advocate:

You can even put on mountaineering boots which have a inflexible sole able to getting used with crampons for mountain climbing and mountaineering. These are more durable to stroll in for any distance, however some can be found with detachable liners that are helpful for winter backpacking as a result of you’ll be able to dry them in a sleeping bag at night time. Keep away from so-called Pack Boots, that are much less comfy for vigorous mountaineering and are too giant to be used with microspikes and most snowshoes.

Heat socks

Most hikers put on heavier wool socks in winter than throughout different occasions of the yr, however that is an space of private desire, and the sock “methods” individuals use fluctuate extensively. Sock liners are non-compulsory however may be useful in case you are blister-prone. No matter mixture you utilize, make it possible for there may be loads of area in your boots to wiggle your toes round as this will increase blood circulation and foot heat.

We advocate:

Excessive gaiters

Excessive gaiters assist stop snow from getting into your boots or making your socks moist and supply further insulation under your knee. If you happen to use crampons, in addition they defend your ankles from self-inflicted wounds once you tire. Keep away from gaiters that shut with zippers as a result of they break rapidly. Search for gaiters that seal round your leg utilizing velcro as a substitute.

We advocate:

Hats

A minimal of two hats is really helpful for winter day hikes: a light-weight wool or artificial hat for high-exertion actions and a hotter, heavier-weight hat for later within the day when temperatures drop. You’ll most likely sweat no less than considered one of them out.

We advocate:

Gloves

A minimal of two pairs of gloves is really helpful, though hikers usually convey three or 4 pairs if their arms sweat loads whereas mountaineering. Experiment with this. You’ll be glad to have extras should you moist out your gloves with sweat.

One pair of gloves needs to be modular with an unlined outer waterproof/breathable shell layer and an inside insulating glove liner. Mitts present extra heat than gloves, however gloves present extra dexterity. One strategy is to make use of an insulating fleece liner glove inside a water-resistant mitten shell to offer dexterity and heat. When buying a modular mitten system (mitten plus liner) or a mitten shell, I like to recommend getting ones with wrist gauntlets, which can insulate your wrists and maintain your arms hotter. In case your arms are too heat with a mitten shell and liner and so they begin to perspire, you’ll be able to take away the mitten shell and pack it away till it’s wanted.

We advocate the next modular mitt methods and mitten shells:

I normally carry a number of pairs of cheap REI fleece gloves or Decathlon liner gloves, so I can swap them out if one pair will get moist or soaked by perspiration. Trace: Purchase a number of pairs, all in the identical colour, so you’ll be able to swap in a alternative should you lose considered one of a pair or put on it out.

If it’s essential grip an ice axe in your hikes, you’ll additionally need to store round for an insulated high-dexterity glove so that you maintain the choose within the ice-axe ready-position. A mitten shell doesn’t present sufficient dexterity to wrap your fingers across the choose and a glove liner doesn’t present sufficient insulation from the chilly metallic. Black Diamond has some good gloves for this, together with the Black Diamond Punisher Glove and the Enforcer Glove.

Short Food break on Mt Moosilauke in February
Sporting puffies throughout a brief meals break on Mt Moosilauke in February

Puffy Insulated Hooded Jacket

If you’re taking a break throughout a winter hike and have stopped shifting, it’s greatest to tug a giant puffy insulated jacket out of your backpack and put on it over your different garments to remain heat. You’ll desire a parka-weight jacket and not a light-weight 3-season jacket. This coat needs to be sufficiently heat that you might stand round in it for a number of hours if somebody in your group has an accident and it’s essential stick with them till assist arrives. You need one thing with an built-in hood that may actually maintain you toasty heat in frigid climate.

We advocate:

Light-weight insulated jackets just like the Mountain Hardwear Hooded Down Ghost Whisperer 2 are too light-weight and are extra appropriate as a mid-layer.

Mt Israel, December

Arduous Shell or Rain Jacket

You additionally need to carry a windproof and waterproof rain jacket/or hardshell with an adjustable hood that may be worn if you are mountaineering. They don’t have built-in insulation, however they’ll defend you from excessive winds and lure the warmth held by your mid-layer clothes. Search for jackets with no less than two exterior pockets to stash hats and gloves. Hardshell jackets or rain jackets with pit zips present probably the most flexibility for regulating your temperature. For instance, the Out of doors Analysis Foray II with full torso-length aspect zips is a wonderful choice that I take advantage of in winter. The ladies’s model known as the Out of doors Analysis Aspire II Jacket.

Arduous Shell Pants or Rain Pants

Hardshell or rain pants are fully windproof and waterproof. Many individuals discover it useful to make use of pants which have full zips alongside the edges to assist vent further warmth whereas mountaineering. Ankle zips are required at a minimal, so you’ll be able to put them on or take them off with out having to take off your boots. Take a look at this out earlier than you hike with them. Most hikers who put on hardshell pants as their major pant layer, additionally put on lengthy underwear beneath them for heat. Marmot Precip Full Zip Pants are a superb, economical full-zip waterproof pant choice.

Softshell Pants

Many hikers, myself included, choose sporting softshell pants in winter as a result of they’re extra breathable and form-fitting than full-zip hardshell pants. If that’s the case, you continue to must convey a pair of laborious shell pants for defense in opposition to sustained precipitation and excessive winds since most softshell pants are water and wind-resistant however not waterproof or windproof. Softshell pants are usually a lot hotter than hardshell pants, so that you usually don’t must put on lengthy underwear with them besides in very chilly climate. REI makes a cheap softshell pant known as the Males’s Activator 3.0 Pant (and Ladies’s Activator 3.0 Pant) that I take advantage of and advocate.

Mid-Layer Insulation

There are numerous choices out there for mid-layer insulation and it’s greatest to experiment to determine what you want greatest. Midweight fleece jackets, hoodies, pullovers, or vests are all cost-effective and well-performing choices as a result of fleece will maintain you heat when it’s moist and wick moisture away out of your pores and skin and base layers. The identical holds for wool sweaters should you choose it over fleece. There are lots of producers that promote fleece clothes. You can even increase a mid-layer with a softshell jacket or an insulated vest for extra heat relying on whether or not you run scorching or chilly.

Listed here are a few of our favourite layering clothes and ones that we advocate:

Base layer insulation

Most winter hikers put on a wool or artificial base layer consisting of an extended sleeve jersey, lengthy underwear pants, and a few sort of boxer or bikini underwear below that. Your entire base layers should be artificial or wool and never cotton as a result of they’ll dry quicker and gained’t trigger chafing in the event that they get damp.

An important think about selecting a base layer is that it needs to be wicking in order that it transports sweat away out of your pores and skin to the following highest layer of your clothes. Light-weight and skinny layers do that higher than heavier layers, however once more that is an space of private style. Patagonia Capilene Light-weight, out there in jerseys and lengthy underwear, is a wonderful choice. A Smartwool Merino 150 LS Baselayer shirt can be a good selection. If you happen to run actually chilly, strive a fishnet-style jersey from Brynje. They actually do work!

Route-finding in winter is very different than in the summer
Route-finding in winter could be very completely different than in the summertime.

Spare Clothes

It’s necessary to convey some spare clothes on longer hikes (jersey, lengthy underwear, socks, gloves, hats) in case yours get moist, both from sweat or since you’ve had some sort of accident, corresponding to falling right into a stream. That is pretty frequent when you need to do any stream crossings on a hike and a snow shelf you’re standing on collapses into the water. It’s additionally good to have a dry layer to vary into if it’s essential cease for an prolonged time and the garments you’re sporting are damp with sweat.

Winter Traction-Aids

The traction aids that you simply convey on a hike are more likely to fluctuate, relying on the climate and whether or not you’re mountaineering on a path that others have hiked beforehand and packed down. Most hikers carry microspikes on all hikes as a result of they supply further traction on packed snow and ice and so they’re fairly light-weight. Snowshoes may additionally be required, notably on much less traveled trails or after a snowfall. Heavier-duty crampons may additionally be required for steep routes coated with rock or thick ice, whereas snowshoes present floatation for mountaineering via unconsolidated snow. It’s not unusual so that you can have to hold some or all of those on a hike, relying on the place you go and what number of different individuals use the paths you observe. When shopping for snowshoes for mountainous terrain you need ones which have a televator carry below the heel, which makes it simpler to climb hills. We advocate the next traction aids, that are suitable with all kinds of winter boots.

Water Bottles/Water Bottle Insulators

Hydration reservoir hoses freeze very simply in chilly temperatures, so it’s greatest to hold two or three 1-liter wide-mouth bottles on winter hikes since narrow-mouth bottles additionally freeze shut extra simply. If you happen to carry your water bottles outdoors of your backpack, it’s greatest to retailer them the other way up in an insulated sleeve so the cap gained’t freeze shut. White wide-mouth Nalgene bottles are the very best for winter use as a result of they don’t crack.

For insulation, strive insulated Nalgene water bottle sleeves or 40 under Neoprene Bottle Boots. Insulated Hydroflask 32oz. metallic bottles additionally work however are heavier. You can even retailer your bottles in a wool sock inside your pack, surrounded by your down parka. Boil your water earlier than placing it into the bottles and it’ll keep heat for a superb a part of the day. Add tea, electrolytes, or different flavorings to make it fascinating to drink so that you keep hydrated.

A synthetic vest keeps the torso warm. Mt Moriah in March.
An artificial vest retains the torso heat. Mt Moriah in March.

Winter Dayhiking Backpacks

You’ll desire a 30-50 liter backpack for winter day mountaineering since you’ll be carrying extra further garments, meals, and water than the remainder of the yr. Winter packs ought to have numerous exterior attachment factors, daisy chains, and aspect compression straps to which you’ll connect traction aids corresponding to snowshoes, crampons, or microspikes. These are both too giant to pack inside a backpack, they’ve sharp factors that may slice up your further packed clothes, or they are going to be encrusted with snow and greatest saved separate. A full complement of traction aids can add as a lot as 6-8 kilos to your backpack load, so that you’ll desire a pack with a body that may carry the additional weight in your hips and never in your shoulders.

Daisy chains, that are webbing loops discovered on shoulder straps or the edges of a pack, are good for hooking gear, together with water bottles or Nalgene bottles full of bite-size snacks you could shake into your mouth. It’s additionally handy to have a prime lid on a winter backpack with a number of pockets to retailer gear you need simply at hand like your headlamp, further hats, extra snacks, and gloves.

The next backpacks are wonderful for winter day hikes:

10 Necessities

The ten necessities are simply as necessary in winter as throughout the remainder of the yr, maybe extra so, since winter mountaineering requires extra self-sufficiency.

A map and compass are necessary as a result of it’s straightforward to lose one’s manner, path blazes are sometimes buried in snow, and there are far fewer landmarks seen in winter when the whole lot is roofed in white. A plastic whistle is best than a metallic one which can freeze to your lips, and helpful should you get misplaced as a result of it’s louder than a human voice. You need to use lithium batteries in your headlamp and different digital units as a result of they’re immune to chilly temperatures: nickel-metal hydride and alkaline batteries drain a lot quicker in chilly climate. Rechargeable headlamps are additionally okay since most have lithium batteries. You may also need to carry two headlamps since you’ll be mountaineering after sundown as a result of there are so few hours of daylight.

Whereas you should buy business first help, gear restore, and fire-starting kits, they’re additionally straightforward to make by your self at residence. It additionally helps to convey some sort of multi-tool or plastic ties with you on a winter hike to restore gear, particularly traction aids which take numerous abuse. Solar safety, together with sun shades and sunscreen, is necessary to hold as a result of it’s very straightforward to get a sunburn, from mild mirrored off the snow.

Survival Gear

If you happen to’re winter day mountaineering alone, it’s necessary to convey further insulation together with a sleeping bag and sleeping pad to be able to stop hypothermia in case you are immobilized and it’s essential survive till assist arrives. A 20-degree sleeping bag, a foam accordion sleeping pad like a Therm-a-rest Zlite, and a light-weight bivy sack will normally suffice to maintain you alive should you additionally placed on the entire clothes you’re carrying. These may be cut up amongst completely different hikers if touring as a gaggle.

If you need to spend an sudden night time out, you additionally must have a way of melting snow to create ingesting water. Whereas carrying a liquid gas range like an MSR Whisperlite and a cookpot is probably the most dependable manner of doing this, a Jetboil also can work should you can maintain the gas canister heat. Hypothermia is accelerated by dehydration and may have dire penalties. When mountaineering in a gaggle, this gear is normally distributed between group members, in any other case, you’ll most likely want a much bigger backpack to hold all of it.

Full face protection on Franconia Ridge (March)
Full face safety on Franconia Ridge in March

Additional Gear for Above Treeline Hikes

For above-treeline mountaineering, your largest priorities are further wind safety in your face and additional traction to stop uncontrolled slides on ice and snow. The simplest option to defend your face is to make use of a balaclava with a completely built-in facemask just like the Serius Comboclava. You’ll want to mix that with ski goggles to guard your eyes from blowing snow and forestall them from freezing shut. Follow sporting these earlier than you get above treeline as they’ll fog simply.

For further traction, you’ll need to purchase toothier crampons and probably an ice ax. This can be a pretty superior stage of winter day mountaineering, so it’s greatest to discover ways to use these instruments from a professional teacher, both a mountaineering information or in one of many winter mountaineering faculties run by out of doors golf equipment within the northeast such because the Appalachian Mountain Membership or the Adirondack Mountain Membership.

See Additionally:

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Concerning the creator

Philip Werner has hiked and backpacked over 8500 miles in the US and the UK and written over 3000 articles because the founding father of SectionHiker.com, famous for its backpacking gear opinions and mountaineering FAQs. A devotee of New Hampshire and Maine mountaineering and backpacking, Philip has hiked all 650+ trails within the White Mountains twice and has accomplished 10 rounds of the 48 peaks on the White Mountains 4000 footer record with over 550 summits in all 4 seasons. He’s additionally the creator of Backpacking the White Mountain 4000 Footers, a free on-line guidebook of the very best backpacking journeys within the White Mountains in New Hampshire and Maine. He lives in New Hampshire. Click on right here to subscribe to the SectionHiker e-newsletter.

Up to date December 2023.

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