Join us for 2 days of winter camping, backpacking & snowshoeing with a pulk sled in the deep snow of the Adirondack mountains.
For this winter camping adventure, we’ll be using a DIY pulk sled to setup up a base camp in the Giant Mountain Wilderness. Day one will be dedicated to building camp and settling in, followed by a summit attempt of Giant Mountain on day two.
Our winter pulk sled will be used for group items such as campfire cooking gear, stoves, steaks and other food, additional firewood, our tent, etc. In addition to the sled, Mike, Frank and myself each have a backpack for personal items such as cold weather clothing options and other gear. A list of notable gear can be found at the end of this post.
Route Overview – Roaring Brook to Giant Mt – Sintax77
No permit is required to camp in the Giant mountain wilderness, but there are rules and regulations regarding backcountry camping. You can find more information on the Adirondacks Park Giant Mountain Wilderness website here.
For this Backpacking Trip, we use a Pulk Sled to go Winter Camping in the Deep Snow of the White Mountains.
Mike and I originally planned to do a long overdue return trip to Mt Crawford for some winter backpacking and camping, but as is usually the case, the notorious weather of the White Mountains thwarted our efforts. With a higher summits forecast from the White Mountains Observatory calling for -60° wind chills due subzero temps combined with high winds and gusts upwards of 90 MPH, we opted to stick to the lower elevations instead. So we shelved our higher elevation idea to camp on Mt Crawford, and instead started scouting for a new location on the fly.
Basically, we were winging it in terms of trip planning, but fortunately I was armed with a full set of White Mountains AMC maps to keep up safely prepared on whatever trail we ended up cast upon by the winter hiking gods.
In the video we do some snow campsite selection and setup, tons of firewood collection, snow furniture building, campfire cooking, trail sledding on the rather steep Airline Trail, and overall just plain having a fun time out in the snowy woods of New Hampshire for a few days.
Downloadable GPS data for this trip and others can be found on the Trip Data Page.
Winter Sled Camping Route Overview – Sintax77
Time of Year Mid February
Parking Location Appalachia Trailhead Parking Lot
44°22’17.6″N 71°17’19.9″W
Trailhead
Appalachia Trailhead on Presidential Hwy (Hwy 2), Randolph, NH
Trails Used, Day One
Valley Way Trail
Randolph Path
Airline Trail
Setup Camp near Airline Trail
Located in the middle of the triangle formed for the Airline, Randolph Path, and Valley Way Trails.We used this campsite with significant snow pack on the ground so leveling out a decent platform for a tent was no problem. Based on my experience in this general area on previous summer trips, I would assume it would not make a very accommodating tentsite without snow, due to the steep and rugged terrain.
Day 1 Mileage: 2 miles Day 1 Elevation Gain: 1,122′
Winter Sled Camping Day 1 Elevation Profile – Sintax77
Trails Used, Day Two
Airline Trail
Return to vehicle at Appalachia Trailhead Parking Lot
Day 1 Mileage: 1 mile Day 1 Elevation Gain: 6′ (pretty brutal, I know)
Winter Sled Camping Day 2 Elevation Profile – Sintax77
(we were using white gas)
Tent
(Yellow pad used for bench, I stacked it on top of a 
pad for sleeping at night)
Sleeping Pad (Mikes sleep pad)
Backpack (Mike’s pack)
Snowshoes (my grey snowshoes)
(Mike’s snowshoes)
(Fire starter used on day 2)
listed on Amazon.