Snow Deadmen
Snow camping can be fun, if you're properly prepared! Sleeping in snow caves and the like can be quite comfortable, even in the most severe conditions. But you should always carry a suitable tent, or at least an emergency shelter just in case you don't have time to build your snow shelter.
OK, so you've got your tent and want to set it up. OOPS, your thin metal tent stakes won't hold in the snow! Oh well, back to the snow cave making. But, if you had brought your snow deadmen, you'd be ready to get into your warm sleeping bag as soon as your tent was up!
So what's a 'deadman'? It's a stake or other form of anchor that is intended to hold in loose soil, sand or snow. Some improvised examples include ski poles, skis, tree branches, etc buried horizontally in the snow with guy lines tied to your tent stake loops.
You can buy 'deadmen' such as the following;
These high-tech anchors have great holding power compared to their weight and are easy to bury (they come with a small bracket that allows you to drive them in with your ice axe), but they are expensive! 4 of them sell for about $25.
These wider, longer stakes have large holes to allow snow or sand to pack around the stake and a hole at the top to attach a guy line. They sell for about $2.50 each.
As you'll need about 8 'deadmen' per tent, the added cost of the commercially available versions is a problem for many Scouts. Luckily, you can make your own from free, or at least low cost materials.
Fabric anchors are commercially available, but they can be made for free from almost any surplus fabric and a length of cord.
Fabric anchors work equally well in snow and sand!
A local Unit reports that they recently made over 50 snow deadmen from 2 - 5 gallon paint buckets and less than 200 feet of para cord.
The buckets were cut into 4x6" pieces with 1/2" holes in the corners to anchor in the snow. A 3' length of para cord was secured through 2 holes near the center. Grey buckets and black cord were used to help find the anchors in the snow. For the price, these are the way to go!
Let us know what other ideas your Unit comes up with so we can share them!
This page revised November 26, 2006