Tried taking the Blue Ridge Parkway section between Asheville and Roanoke in early March for the solitude, but ended up stuck in a surprise snowstorm at 4,000 feet for 3 days instead.

What happened is my water filter froze solid on night two and I had to melt snow in my cook pot over a tiny camp stove for 8 hours just to stay hydrated, and now I'm wondering if anyone else has a trick for keeping gear from freezing when you're caught off guard by weather that wasn't in the forecast?

3 comments

3 Comments

hannahj497d ago

Oh man, that sounds rough. I've totally been there with a frozen filter and it's the worst. I just put everything in my sleeping bag with me now, even if it means sleeping on top of my boots. That and I always pack an extra empty water bottle to fill before bed so I don't have to melt snow first thing in the morning.

taylor.brooke7d ago

Laughing but only because I've been there. My trick now is to sleep with my water filter and cook stove in my sleeping bag with me - not comfortable but beats the alternative of an 8 hour snow melt marathon.

kelly_rivera7d ago

Putting the filter in the sleeping bag is a lifesaver, but idk, I also started wrapping my whole cook kit in a puffy jacket inside a dry bag at night, and that seemed to help a bit with the stove. Another thing I do now is pre-filter my water before bed and stash it in a wide-mouth bottle upside down, so the lid doesn't freeze shut. The melting snow marathon is brutal, but I found that crushing it into smaller pieces first made it go way faster than trying to melt big chunks.