Winter camping and backpacking is often full of hardship with little reward - the pack is much heavier, the going is much slower and more treacherous, the views are often minimal or nonexistent, the nights are very very long, and it's either brutally cold or just miserable and wet. Despite these things, there is a certain charm to winter camping - you can pitch the tent anywhere and make yourself a level platform while not permanently terraforming or destroying vegetation. You can cut switchbacks, or better yet, not even follow the trail.  And sometimes those rare but wonderful good weather days come along - then the payoff is more than worth the hardships.

Read more of Yana's and Carla's TR on NWhikers.net