Curious what you guys do for prepping the site for a floorless wall tent?
In the past all of my winter trips to the BWCA I have packed down the tent area with my snowshoes and wait for it to solidify.
I have a 7 day trip planned for next week where I'm going to use a cot for the first time on snow and I'm now rethinking about maybe digging the spot out. I did make some floats (small plastic squares) to set the cot legs on in preperation of setting it up on snow to help alleviate sinking down.
I've recently read where some dig the snow out to the ground in the BWCA. My concerns are that the ground will thaw out and become muddy from the tent stove. I do have a mat I lay down that covers 80% of the ground, but not all. I also have a dog, so mud is a concern.

I usually dig down and then pack the remaining snow/dirt/leaves. As I use the area, it packs down hard, freezes, and becomes a reasonable floor. I use a welding mat 6x5 under the stove and 4 rubber car floor mats around as needed.

I usually just pack down the snow. I am usually also on the lake, not on the ground.

Pack everything down and then dig out the stove and entry area.

Campcraft: "Pack everything down and then dig out the stove and entry area."

This is generally what we do but we also camp on the lake most of the time. We used to dig out a little more when we camped on land and we never had trouble with mud. Now we basically just dig out the stove area so we can make sure it is stable. If you dig everything out and then place the tent down you run the risk of the tent freezing to the ground/ice with all of the thawing and refreezing.

Just do like one unnamed guy does, he cuts down living spruce branches and makes a floor.

Don’t do this...