Get Outdoors - Winter Camping: Considerations

If you have ample time to set up camp, you can create an elaborate set-up complete with igloo, kitchen counter and shelves. Minimally, you must choose a protected site and securely stake down your tent.Choosing your campsite.

When choosing a tentsite, look for shelter. Remember to look up - not just for the usual widow-makers, but also for avalanche slopes and for trees whose branches have accumulated snowloads that could come crashing down on you in a strong wind. A grove of bushes or a huge boulder gives good shelter - without the danger from above. Or you can make your own shelter by building a snow-wall, known as a berm. Avoid cold spots, like the bottom of a canyon where cold air collects.
Before you pitch a tent, tamp down a platform (in your skis or snowshoes) so you don't sink into the soft snow when you crawl into your tent. In very dry, fluffy western snow, help it coalesce by pouring a couple of pots of water on the area and stomping around to make it as flat and even as possible. Wait a half hour or so for the patch to freeze and harden before putting up your tent.
Stake down your tent securely - even if the weather is fair. In addition to snow stakes (which are a little flatter and fatter than fair-season stakes), you can use skis, ski poles, and ice axes to stake out your tent. You can also attach your guy-lines to a "deadman" by filling a stuff sack with rocks (or snow) and burying it in the snow.

Snow shelters and snow caves.

The Eskimo people knew that snow was a good insulator: They used blocks of it to make igloos. Winter hikers use snow shelters, too, although the time these shelters take to build makes them most practical only if you're planning to spend several days camped in one place. In the shorter daylight hours of midwinter, you might find it impossible to pack up your camp, move any significant distance, make a new shelter, and set up camp. But making some kind of emergency snow shelter is an essential skill for die-hard winter hikers.

Igloos: These semipermanent structures are made by cutting blocks of ice and laying them one atop the other in a spiral. Igloos are the most famous snow shelters, but they're also the least practical for backpacking because they take time and some amount of skill to build, and theyrequire compacted wet ice snow - not western powder.
Snow caves: This is the shelter of choice for mountaineers. The ideal location for a snow cave is on the lee side of an obstacle, like a tree or a rock, where snow tends to accumulate. You need a snow depth of at least six feet, and preferably more. The goal is to dig a tunnel into the drift, then dig up and scour out a sleeping shelf and a ventilation shaft.
Quinzhees: These are really snow caves above-ground. They are most useful in places where there is a lot of snow, but not enough for a deep drift. First you shovel snow into a man-made drift, then you dig into it as if you were making a snow cave.

Winter waste disposal.

The only good option for waste disposal in snow-covered environs is to pack it out. Burying your poop in the snow is pointless because it will just stay frozen until spring and then it will reappear in full form. To pack out your poop, you can use a poop tube - either homemade from a PVC pipe, or bought from an outdoor store. When you pee, be sure to do it away from ski trails, and cover up the yellow snow so others do not have to look at it.