Shelters are a critical consideration for any cold-weather outing. Your first winter campout should be in a cabin or other fixed shelter. With experience, you can progress to tents, then thermal snow shelters.
Your first cold-weather camping should be at a location where cabins are available. The staff cabins at Camp Hi-Sierra are available in winter. Yosemite's Curry Village tent cabins are perfect for first-timers.
A good winter tent will have strong poles to handle wind and snow loading, guy ropes for additional strength in high winds, a rain fly that extends to the ground, and vestibules for an entryway out of the wind where boots can be removed.
Bring clothing and boots into the tent at night and keep them next to you to stay warm, or they will freeze and become very difficult to put on in the morning.
Tent Styles:
A-Frame Tents — A Scouting America design developed by the Northern Tier National High Adventure Program. Double entrances work well for weather protection. Accommodates four campers with room to dress inside and store gear in tunnel doors.
Dome Tents — More stable in wind and heavy snow than A-frames. Rounded sides provide more room alongside each camper for gear.
Modified Dome Tents — Lower profiles allow them to slip wind more easily, standing up better to winter storms.
Regular tent pins do not work well in snow. Use special snow stakes — typically 1-foot long, 2-inch wide aluminum sheet metal stakes, slightly curved. They can be pushed into snow at an angle, or buried sideways with the cord attached at the middle. Packed snow congeals and firms up within an hour (below freezing), securing the tent.
In extremely low temperatures, water vapor from breathing and perspiration collects inside the tent and freezes. A frost liner — a lightweight inner tent of porous material suspended with about 2 inches of space from the tent walls — provides insulation and catches frost that can be removed each morning.
CAUTION: Open flames should never be used in any tent. Carbon monoxide is colorless, odorless, and deadly.