Emergency shelter for mid/late season

[WCT3]

Epic Outdoors had a good podcast with a guy who survived getting stuck in a freak snowstorm during second rifle (ep 294). I don't usually like these guys that much but this one's worth a listen

 

[Lionhound1975]

I always carry my Seek Outside DST tarp in my pack for even day hikes in the summer. It has been very useful for waiting out some fast-moving storms (below tree-line) that dropped 2 inches of rain in an hour. A tarp with a SOL or similar bivy is well worth the weight anytime you go into the forest or mountains.

For winter trips in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, where I might end up having to stay the night on a mountain and where nighttime temperature lows go below 0 F, I starting carrying the SO Guardian and an ultralight Ti stove, I know it seemed like overkill but especially when i was out with my wife or son, having a system that I could burn wood while staying dry and warm in a storm was worth carrying less than 5 lbs. Part of my reasoning was that I was in a part of the world with no realistic SAR response and probably no one is going to respond to your Garmin in-reach emergency signal.

If you are going to be on exposed ridges I would not use a tarp, bivy, or a floorless shelter but would bring a proper tent. Slingfin has some stand-alone tents that weigh less than 3 pounds and will handle anything short of gale-force winds. They have some other models that will handle full on gale-force winds, but they are going to be 4-5 pounds.

When I was younger I ended up spending a few nights on mountains due to my overconfidence in my own skills and figuring the odds are super low of not being able to get back to my vehicle before nightfall. Freezing my ass off wearing a garbage bag poncho or having rain gear wet out two hours into an all-night storm while trying to get a fire going underneath a tree in a cold rain convinced me that carrying the extra weight of an emergency shelter appropriate for worst scenario conditions was worth it.