Winter Camping

Last week we spent Thursday night sleeping on the mountain… well more like “in” the mountain than “on”.  We headed up the mountain at 3pm and spent the next two and a half hours digging our homes for the night.

These were ‘snow caves’ that sleep between two and three people and are far more comfortable than they may sound!  They’re hard work to build but if you do it right you’ll end up with a surprisingly warm shelter with a flat ‘bed’ and space at the front to undress/dress. There were eleven of us, including our guide and instructor Dave Richards, so there were four caves  in total.

Once the caves were built – just before it turned dark! – we built a fire and had a supper of sandwiches, fruit and s’morgs (marshmallow, chocolate & biscuit contraptions popular with Canadians).

My beers were too cold to be enjoyed much but thankfully Wouter had brought some whisky that kept us warm. It was snowing hard so when the fire had burnt down we retreated to our snow shelters and with tired muscles quickly and easily fell asleep.

In the morning we woke to 20cm of fresh powder and so skied or rode fresh powder to our breakfast at the mountain base area!

Our Winter Camping experience is preceded by an indoor training session so that everyone knows how to create the perfect shelter, and all equipment is provided. This experience is available on our 11-week Ski Instructor courses or snowboard instructor courses