How To MELT SNOW on a BACKPACKING STOVE for water WINTER CAMPING - On The Trail - Epsiode #99

In deep winter conditions, or the high alpine, melting snow often becomes our main water source. Today I am going to tell you everything you need to know about melting snow. Welcome to snow melting 101 or as I like to call it Snow Ball Soup. There are 5 topics we need to cover in order for you to confidently melt snow in the deepest and coldest environments. They are, in the following order: 1) Conditions 2) Equipment 3) Fuel Consumption 4) Cooking Technique 5) Storage Environment As mentioned, the technique I am going to show you is for sustained freezing weather backcountry trips, where water is not available. Many people do not realize that us winter campers and mountaineers do not always have the luxury of being able to go to a lake or river and scoop up a pot full of water. This might be due to the fact that you are not near a body of water, perhaps the lake is frozen and ice too thick to break, but what you do have around you is snow…and that is what you are going to use to get your water. Equipment In order to be successful at this, you will need: A pot – I suggest at least 1 liter capacity, I actually use a 2L pot. It will give you enough space to pack with snow and then melt down to water. A spoon – You wouldn’t make soup without a spoon correct? You will need something to stir the water and break up the snow chunks while melting. A Liquid Feed, inverted remote fuel canister stove with a preheat loop – I’m not going to go into details on this. Not all canister stoves will operate in freezing conditions. Sure, I could also make an argument that there are techniques for almost all stoves to operate in all conditions, but realistically this is a tutorial, and on a multi-day winter expedition, pick the right tool for the job. Windscreen – Yes, it’s optional but it certainly will help with fuel efficiency, which in turn will save weight, so get one. Fuel canisters – And of course you need fuel canisters, with an appropriate amount of fuel. Which brings us to our next topic. Fuel Consumption On my stove here, generally I can get 8 liters of water from a canister. It of course will vary on so many different factors, so until you get a good handle on the performance of your stove and how well you can melt snow, plan to bring plenty of fuel. If you know how much fuel you use to boil water on a regular day, then melting snow to make the same amount may take upwards of 4 times that. But the easiest way to do this is through testing. Which is what I have done here (show canister) The technique is to weigh a full canister, then use the cylinder to melt snow. Measure how much water you ended up with, and weigh the canister again. You now know how much fuel you will need to bring for a certain amount of melted snow, extrapolate from there. Over the years, you will refine that number and be confident in your fuel consumption. Cooking Technique First, get snow. And form into very lightly packed snowballs. This makes it easy to add to the pot. You will likely have plenty of snow around you, but snow is very low in moisture content so you need about 5 times the volume of clean snow compared to the amount of water you want to make. Here is the secret, in order to melt snow, you actually need water in the pot. If you just pack the pot full of snow and put it on the burner. The snow that does melt, will instantaneously evaporate because it is such a small amount of liquid and the pot is so hot. So add a little bit of snow like shown, and hold it well above the flame on the stove, this will allow you to get a base of hot water, which will in turn allow you to add more snow at once. Continue this technique to increase the hot water from the melted snow. If you add too much snow at this point, the snow will absorb the water and you will be back to no water. So tread carefully. As you get more water, you can add more and more snowballs, breaking them up with the spoon as they go in. It isn’t a fast process, as a matter of fact, you may be at it for hours each day, but a reality for those of us in this weather. You will of course notice that once you get going, you can really melt a lot of snow. Which is why it is important that the majority of your snow melting, takes place once you get to camp. Storage So here is what you are going to do. Get to camp. Set up everything. Start to melt snow. You will make enough water to for your dinner you have planned, aswell as all your drinking water for the next day. That’s right, and how will you store that water? Well, I recommend 2 to 3 liters for a days consumption of water, and you will put that in a Nalgene of sorts, and store it in your sleeping bag for the night. That’s right, you will put the boiling water in a bottle, and then sleep with it. That will do 2 things. It will keep it from freezing, and it will also keep you warm. When you wake up, the water will still be very hot, its an amazing technique to keep you warm when the temps really dip. That covers it.