Ok, gang, here's the skinny on winter camping.  Do it right and you're always warm (sometimes too warm!), dry and in command.  Heck, the Inuits have been doing it this way for centuries! It's as much a matter of skills as of things.  Sure, you need the right gear, but mostly you need to know what you're doing. I've winter camped in northern Minnesota and in Spitzbergen, Norway (74 degrees N. Latitude), in tents, under tarps, and more comfortably in Quinzies (sort of like a snow cave). Inside temperature of a snow hut will be well above zero even when the outside temps are 30 below. There's an elegant kind of snow camping too:lately, there's been a re-birth of interest in using double walled canvas tents and sheet metal wood stoves.  It's T-shirt weather inside when it's minus 20 outside.  The wonderful thing about winter camping is that a state park, for example, which is absurdly crowded in summer, is a remote outback camp in winter.  Before you thumb your nose at snow camping, try it.  But first, learn the ropes.  My book, "Camping's Top Secrets", 3rd Edition has a lot of practical tips for winter camping. Cliff Jacobson

I would have to side with Madness, unless it is fairly warm with spring like temps then it's crazy to go camping in the cold