I'm planning a winter camping trip to one of our Old Firewatch Lookouts. Should be 5 to 8 feet of snow below the windblown summit. The 5310 elevation should provide an adequate challenge for my quad on tracks, loaded down with gear. I'll share photos from last Summer.
8
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.It looks spectacular but so cold.
Jolanta
Level 9
Mar 18, 2019
0
This particular destination has a floor, walls, roof and a wood stove. From it's comparatively lofty elevation it also provides spectacular views of 3 local and 1 not so local volcano. It is truly a magnificent place.
@Mindfulness Yes I can tell about the view. How many night do you stay there?
@Jolanta, I have not decided how many nights I might stay. I am a planner, so I am going to do a reconnaissance day trip up the hill to see how close I can get to the lookout. It will determine how I pack and how long I might stay. I just know that I need some quiet and stillness for a few days and nights to rejuvenate my soul.
@Mindfulness I understand what you mean about quiet and the soul rejuvenation. I hope you achieve it, but then with a place and view and nature who would not. Be peaceful and contended.
Have fun, be safe, stay warm!
I think you're nuts, but hey, to each their own!
KKGator
Level 9
Mar 18, 2019
2
Snow camping can be a lot of fun.
@Mindfulness I do not camp.
@KKGator, connecting with nature is always an awesome experience.
@Mindfulness It can be when it doesn't require me to pee outside.
@KKGator, all you need is a popup privy and a lugable lou. Then you have privacy and a place to sit... and it packs very small. Problem solved.
@Mindfulness LOL
I'm sure you'd have a "solution" for every reason I may have for not camping.
However, it doesn't matter. I don't enjoy it, AT ALL.
Damn ..that sounds familiar… My brother had fabricated a steel wood stove, hiked it in ‘in pieces’ (during the summer), and packed ‘the loft’ of a Cascade X Forest Service fire lookout station (base of Mt Hood) with firewood … but we nearly died attempting to get there in the conditions you described.. One of my 3 closest brushes with death.
Take show shoes! We didn’t … he thought the trail would be passable with only boots (as Spring was near). But the elevation gain quickly proved him wrong. I’d never been up there. ..exhausted, taking turns breaking a trail ..wading to our waists in snow, you felt like ‘swimming’ - we could actually see it - around 100 yards away ….but didn’t have the energy to go any further.
We hiked back down by the light of the moon. Got some magnificent ‘film photos’ on the way up. Were so cold ..I noticed cheese falling from my mouth into the snow as I could no longer control those muscles. Fuc…
Often rivals in life, he and I definitely bonded.. He told me years later how impressed he was I agreed to turn back ..with it in sight. Said few he knew would have. A far more experienced hiker than me, having walked the Pacific Crest Trail & climbed ‘our’ Mt Hood several times ..I took his word for that 
Snow (fuckin) Shoes! …poor guy will be haunted by that forever ~
Varn
Level 8
Mar 18, 2019
3
I did consider snowshoes. You confirmed my concerns. Not my first snowcamp. Thank you for your story. I have been there. I was about 11, postholing, waist deep in wet snow with Levi's and bread bags on my feet. We got pretty close before we lost the trail at a switchback.
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