unsystematic

07 Jan 2010

It’s gonna be cold!

A year ago, a group of us decided to hike to the summit of Mount Mitchell, which happens to be the highest point east of the Mississippi. We knew it would prove to be quite a challenge, dealing with the blistering, biting cold of winter, and of course below-freezing temperatures. After spending a night at base camp, we hiked halfway up to the summit and set up camp. We spent the second evening warming by the fire and enjoying a few spirits. The middle of the night brought a change in the weather, however, and we woke up the next morning to a ground cover of snow and ice. We decided to be safe rather than sorry, and hiked back to base instead of trying to make it to the top. This year, we shall try again – and I’m keeping fingers crossed we can make it this time!

REI has a yard sale twice a year in which they sell items that members return. It just so happened that this season’s yard sale in Charlotte would be New Year’s Eve. Perfect – I would be there visiting Melissa! I combed the sale items and found a few missing pieces to my gear collection. I still needed to decide on a tent, however. We had a few options – rent a tent, borrow a tent, buy a tent, buy a bivy, or buy a hammock. Jeff uses a bivy so he was already set. Melissa and her brother decided to use bivys. In case you don’t know what a bivy is, it’s basically a tent in the shape of a sleeping bag. It’s a sack that goes around the bag, zipping up completely, providing a lightweight windproof, waterproof shelter.

With everyone from last year’s group using bivy sacks instead of tents, and after recalling Jeff’s ease of setting up his “camp” last year, I was sold on getting a bivy for myself. I even picked out the one I wanted before visiting REI last weekend. I spent hours researching the best bivy for me, and I chose this one because it was both light in price and in weight. However, in all of my research, I neglected to notice one very tiny detail … it was on backorder.

When I got to the tent section of the store, it was pretty obvious there was a problem, given the empty space where my bivy should be. My heart sank. But not to worry – there is another REI in Charlotte, and several REIs in Atlanta. Someone else would have it, and I’d get it there.

Except, it was on backorder everywhere. And the only available bivy was $219. Made of gortex and with its own rainfly, it was a sweet bivy. But, it was $219.

I hadn’t counted on this and spent a few moments stressing at the store before my friends and the very helpful REI employee reminded me I still had several other choices.

The next best option was to rent a tent from REI. At $48 for the four days, it was certainly the most affordable choice.

And it was a two-person tent, meaning slightly heavier than what I really needed for just myself, but if someone needed to, they could crawl in and stay warm with me. After all, there would be two others who would be trying out new sleeping methods who might not be able to handle it. It’s nice to allow someone that other option.

However, the two-person tent was already rented out, so I needed another solution.

I checked the other rental options - the single person tent was already rented, and the 3-person tent was just too much weight for what I needed. After having a heavy pack last year, I learned the hard way that a lot of weight and climbing a mountain are not the best combination.

So, with rental and bivy options off the table, my next choices to look at were tent purchases or hammocks. I considered a hammock – Melissa and Kevin both purchased hammocks and had planned to sleep in their bivy sacks in the hammock – but without a bivy, it would just be too cold. I briefly considered forking over the $219 for the one bivy available, but the REI employee pointed out some tents that were on sale that might suit my needs. In the end I ended up selecting this tent, a one-person, 3-season tent that was on sale for $100 cheaper than the available bivy.

The good thing about having a tent, while others have bivys, is that if we were to end up in harsher conditions than expected, we could all sit in the tent and keep each other warm if necessary. Obviously not ideal (it is a one-person tent!) but it’s good to have different options. My new tent weighs 3.2 pounds, about 2 pounds more than the bivy I originally wanted, and costs about twice as much, but I am happy with the purchase and can’t wait to test it.

And of course, there’s the beloved REI return policy, which is 100% guarantee – meaning if I come off that mountain really wanting a bivy still, I can return it and purchase my bivy on backorder. Lesson learned about waiting too long to buy gear, too!

And speaking of cold, the weather forecast has had Mt. Mitchell barely over 0 (that’s zero) degrees F this past week with a 40% chance of snow the entire time we’re up there. Makes me really glad one of my purchases this weekend was a  North Face Snoeshow sleeping bag, rated comfortable at 0 degrees.

Tonight, I’ll be leaving after work to meet Melissa and other friends in Asheville. From there, we’ll take the 4-wheel drive vehicles to the trailhead. We’ll sleep at base camp then begin the six-mile hike to the summit in the morning. We have a Friday night spot in mind, the same place we camped last year, which has decent coverage from the wind, a fire pit, and a stream nearby (which hopefully won’t be frozen over.) We have a second group that is beginning the climb Friday night after work, and they will meet us up there either in the middle of the night Friday or mid-morning Saturday, depending on the conditions of the trail. After we meet them, summit!

Sometime this weekend I’ll be standing on the highest point on this side of the Mississippi River… I’ll tell you all about that when I return!