Winter Hammock Camping in the White Mountains - first attempt

After previously testing my hammock out on top of my hill I was excited to give winter camping a shot when I ventured up to the White Mountains last week. I had a lot of day hikes planned as I continued to work on completing my winter 4000 footer list (now currently at 23/48) but I also wanted to spend a night in the woods. I ended up planning hikes around the Lincoln, NH/Kancamagus Highway area as it provided easy access to lots of peaks as well as a good spot to set up my hammock without driving hours around the Whites.

On my second day I hiked the Tripyramids in the morning and then I relaxed in Lincoln for a couple hours before returning to the woods around 3 PM. I found a nice spot near a stream about 1/4 mile from the car. While I backpacked in with all my gear I also used the short distance to return to the car to grab some extras such as booties and another quilt. Maybe the hardest thing for me was going to bed so early as I normally go to sleep around 10:30. But once it got dark I settled in to the hammock and actually fell asleep pretty quickly.

This worked out because after midnight it began to snow. It was extremely light and fluffy and almost seemed like rain at first. For awhile things were good but then the wind picked up and at that point my tarp failures became evident. I dozed again and woke to snow covering my quilt. I hemmed and hawed about what to do before finally deciding to pack up around 4 AM (I normally wake up between 4:30-5:00 so I was pretty much up anyway).

While my tarp issues are pretty evident in the video I was super pleased with how the underquilt/sleeping bag performed. Granted it was only about 22 degrees so not super cold but I was cooking in there and even when I decided to pack up my feet were only at the very beginning stages of cooling off. I went to bed with a hot water bottle but removed it around 10 PM as I was just too warm. Overall I consider this a positive test of my gear. Now I need to focus on my tarp in order to ensure I have success in the future. Here's the video: