Here are 10 winter hiking and backpacking gear maintenance tasks to put on your to-do list this December. With the winter hiking and backpacking season starting, it’s worthwhile to repair your existing hiking gear and switch to a few winter-specific items. Winter can just be brutal on clothing, footwear, and gear but the stuff is expensive, and these days, scarce, so it pays to extend its lifetime. In my stomping grounds, you can tell the more seasoned hikers from the newbies by the number of repairs that they’ve made to their winter gear over the years.
1. Add snow baskets to your trekking poles.
Snow baskets provide flotation for your trekking poles and prevent them from sinking deeply into the snow when hiking. It’s important to put them on before the first significant snowfall. A lot of inexpensive trekking poles don’t come with trekking pole baskets, so it’s best to pick up a pair that do, or to purchase a set of baskets for your poles if they’re sold separately. If you find that you lose snow baskets because they fall off (black diamond snow baskets are notorious for this) try supergluing them to your poles.
2. Sharpen crampons and microspikes.
Winter traction aids such as crampons and microspikes get dull with use, particularly when you walk across rock. This is unavoidable in mountainous terrain, so it pays to sharpen your traction aids manually with a file so they have a better bite in ice. The sharpening process is remarkably easy and just requires a common 10″ Mill bastard hand file. Just sharpen the thin edge. Don’t sharpen the sides of the spikes because that will make the metal thinner and weaker. As to the correct method, just make sure that your file strokes go in the direction away from the pointy base of the file, so you are pushing it away from your body. Don’t use a powered grinder, as it may heat the metal and ruin its temper. You want to sharpen the point until it’s equivalent in shape to the tip of a ballpoint pen. When the spikes get too worn down, it’s best to replace them with a new pair. Crampons and microspikes are safety gear. Don’t skimp on getting the best.
3. Pre-fit new crampons and snowshoes before winter hikes.
If you’ve bought new boots, crampons, or snowshoes, it’s important to pre-fit them at home before you go on a winter hike to make they’re all adjusted correctly. No one wants to sit at a trailhead in the freezing cold while you adjust the length of your crampons or get your snowshoes to fit your new boots right. Some crampons also require special tools to adjust which you may not have carried with you. Do this at home beforehand.
4. Replace or repair gaiter instep straps.
The instep straps of high winter gaiters can wear out over time or get pulled out if the seams holding them onto the gaiter let go. Some high gaiters like Outdoor Research’s Crocodile Gaiters have replaceable instep straps, while others you can simply replace with a piece of elastic cord. Otherwise, you may have to replace the gaiter entirely if the instep strap cannot be replaced or repaired. (Hint: buy ones that have replaceable instep straps).
5. Switch to lithium headlamps or flashlight batteries.
Lithium batteries operate at a high level of efficiency down to -40F below while alkaline batteries begin to perform inefficiently when temperatures drop below 32F and cease functioning at 0F degrees. If you still use a headlamp or flashlight with general-purpose AA, AAA, etc. batteries, you want to switch to lithium batteries during the colder months.
If instead, you use a headlamp with a built-in lithium battery, I’d even suggest packing a second rechargeable headlamp with a built-in lithium battery so you have a backup in case yours runs out of juice or your partner needs one. You can’t really do the latter by just carrying extra batteries or a power pack because charging a lithium battery in the cold will destroy its performance permanently unless it’s specially designed. Most aren’t.
Spending an unexpected night out because you can’t see, called being “benighted” in search and rescue circles, isn’t really an option in winter unless you’re carrying all of the necessary backup insulation for a night out. That extra headlamp really comes in handy sometimes and will keep you moving until you reach a safe destination.
6. Repair your winter boots.
If the soles of your winter hiking footwear have started to separate or peel off, this is a good time to glue them back together using Shoegoo, Gear-Aid Shoe Repair Glue (formerly known as Freesole), or AquaSeal Shoe Repair. For example, the front toe kick on my insulated Oboz boots was peeling off, so I glued them back on and they’ve been good to go ever since. You can often extend the life of your winter boots, or any other shoes for that matter, by gluing together seams that have started to loosen or separate, or by coating the front of a boot with a thin coat of Shoegoo as a toe-kick if it’s showing a lot of wear. All of these shoe repair products are urethane adhesives that bond permanently to soles and heels and dry as clear and flexible rubber that won’t peel or crack. Winter boots are expensive and hard to find this year due to supply chain issues, making it even more worthwhile to repair what you own already.
7. Service your liquid fuel stove.
Liquid fuel stoves including the MSR Whisperlite (all models), MSR DragonFly, or MSR XGK-EX are good for snow melting because they work in colder, subzero temperatures (Fahrenheit) than canister stoves. These stoves burn different forms of gasoline which may include impurities that can gunk up the inside of the stove over time. While you can enjoy years of use from these stoves, it’s good to check, clean, lubricate, and replace worn-out parts on an annual basis. MSR sells a basic annual maintenance kit for this purpose as well as more elaborate stove-specific kits for more involved maintenance tasks. Since you depend on these stoves for drinking water, it’s worth the extra effort to pamper them once a year or before long trips. Tip: When winter backpacking with others, carry two stoves that can burn the same fuel type. I’m not sure what other liquid fuel manufacturers require in terms of maintenance. It’s probably worth finding out if you don’t know.
8. Restock your snowshoe repair kit.
Snowshoes break and when they do, you want to be able to cobble together a field repair so you can get back to the trailhead without post-holing all the way. There are several types of common breaks that you can prepare for, including snapped pivot pins, binding strap breaks, and snowshoe frame breaks. Pivots pins, called clevis pins and rings, let the footbed tilt up and down when you walk. They can fatigue and snap. When this happens the best repair is to replace the pin with an equivalent one obtained from the manufacturer or a clevis pin you buy at home depot. They just cost a few bucks. The same goes for snapped binding straps. You can usually buy these online or just get them from the manufacturer by calling customer service. Finally, you can usually splint a snapped pipe-style snowshoe frame with a hose clamp and some duct tape, at least to get you closer to your car. If you have MSR snowshoes, they sell an MSR Showshoe Repair Kit with a few of the basics.
If you’re assembling a snowshoe repair kit from scratch, carry the items mentioned above and a multitool and carry them whenever you go snowshoeing. If you like more extreme winter hikes, they’ll come in handy for you or other members of your group.
9. Make more long-burning wax firestarters.
We carry emergency firestarters in winter to get a fire going in case one of us has an accident and needs to hunker down until search and rescue can arrive. The biggest factor in getting a winter fire lit is to have a long-burning firestarter. The best way to make these is to fill used cardboard egg cartons with a combination of sawdust or wood chips and wax. You then cut the carton apart to make separate firestarters. The cardboard acts as a wick and will burn for about 10 minutes.
10. Pack cold-weather survival gear in your car.
Someday, your car or truck isn’t going to start after a winter hike or you’ll get stuck in deep snow. Rather than freeze to death at the trailhead waiting for a tow to arrive, if you can even contact one, it’s best to pack a sleeping bag and sleeping pad so you can sleep in your vehicle if you have to. Here are some other items that can come in handy in winter to get unstuck:
- a shovel to dig out your car if it’s buried in the snow
- a tire iron and a small hydraulic jack to change a tire
- an electric tire pump to reinflate flat tires or ones low on air
- sand for traction on ice and weight over your wheels,
- a battery-powered lantern
- an emergency blanket
- a small propane stove and fuel
- an axe to clear trees or branches blocking the road
- traction boards to get unstuck
If you hike in the backcountry, all of this stuff becomes handy sooner or later. I’ve used every single one of these on past winter hikes in New Hampshire and Maine, for example.
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