Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Any cold weather camping tips?

wool cap = check
insulated booties = check
hot water bottle = check

Have you all any other cold weather camping tips you would like share?

...ones that don't involve a heated shelter, that is

comfortable slippers = check
warm stove or fireplace = check
cup of hot coffee = check
good book = check

Canvas wall tent and four dog stove.

Merino wool base layers.
Smart wool socks.
Pine needle tea.

And of course, a heated shelter.

Electric blanket...

Open lace up boots widely when left overnight, so you can get feet in them in the morning when they are frozen. If you need to make a quick bathroom trip you won't have time to warm them over a fire, etc.

Turn one water bottle top down and place it where at least a smidge of body warmth keeps it from freezing solid. Or take it into your sleeping bag full of hot water when you go to sleep.

Tear open hand warmers-- wonderful. If cold, one in a chest pocket, in the top of a sock at ankle, inside wrist at cuff, etc.

Open gaiters and lay them outside down on the ground to stand on with boots off, to put feet on while while thawing boots, etc.

I forgot about "store water bottle upside down" thing <-- thanks!

This way the ice is at "the bottom" and you can still get at the water that did not freeze.

Oh yeah, "bury water bottle in the snow" to keep it from freezing

Stay dry including rain and sweat. Slow down and de-layer before you sweat, just don't get your inner layer wet.
Use fire, even if you don't have a heated shelter. Keep a fire going somewhere in camp, especially if you can use a natural reflector to kick more heat back to you.
Keep your head and neck warm. It will help with your hands and feet.
My funny guy answer is: Watch "Jeremiah Johnson" and then turn up the heat in the house and crawl back under the down comforter!
Seriously, winter is a great time to be out. Quiet and solitary. Just be careful to no do something stupid and get yourself in trouble.
Take a camera and get some pictures of things you will only see in winter.

With no heated shelter???

Why would you do that to yourself?

You could be sipping on Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve with a buddy around the fireplace in the middle of nowhere, but you want to do it the hard way?



Joking.... Get a cheapy space blanket and pitch it by the fire to break wind, and keep some heat in. A friend of mine does this all the time XC skiing for lunch.

Not sweating up a base layer? I can't do that. I wear a 150 weight with a wind shirt down to about 20-25 degrees if I'm moving, and I sweat through my kit bag and pack. I just towel off and let my nipples get good and hard, then put on a dry Ibex Indie Crew 190 weight and a 320 weight top once I get where I'm going.

There�s an art to keeping warm when sleeping in temperatures below zero. Start by insulating yourself from the frozen ground and then use a really good sleeping bag. I suggest that you use both a closed cell foam sleeping pad and an insulated pad like a Thermarest �Camprest" or �NeoAir� of Big Agnes �Insulated Air Core�. You need a mummy style sleeping bag rated at 0� or colder.

A good 4-season backpack tent with a vestibule will make a big difference. It's important to keep the inside of the tent free of snow and dry. So leave your boots in the vestibule. One big advantage of sleeping directly on the snow is that there won't be any rocks, sticks or bumps under you and the snow will eventually conform to your body contours. If you setup your tent on the snow then first put a light waterproof tarp on the inside of the floor. Any moisture will run under the tarp and freeze between the tarp and the tent floor. Next build a nest inside the tent with extra clothes, stuff sacks, backpacks, etc. This keeps you from rolling off the sleeping pads onto the frozen floor of the tent. Wear only clean dry clothing to bed. Wet clothes, even those wet with only perspiration, will take several hours to dry. Wear your knitted hat to bed as a nightcap. Also sleep 2 to a tent and the extra body heat will make a difference. Bring a wide mouth pee bottle so that you can urinate in the middle of the night without leaving the tent.

If your feet get cold, zip up your coat and slip it over the bottom of your sleeping bag. Or you can put a couple of hand warmer packs in the bottom of your sleeping bag. If your chest is cold, put your coat on inside the sleeping bag.

Bring a good thermos with an insulator. I couldn't find an insulator big enough to take a thermos, so I built my own using foam rubber and duct tape. At night first temper the thermos and then fill it with boiling water and put it inside the insulator and then inside your backpack. In the morning you have hot water for instant cocoa and oatmeal without getting out of your bag.

KC

In addition to the insulated booties, I like to change socks too.

Before I do either, I put both the clean/dry socks and insulated booties inside my jacket to pre-warm them and sit on the foot end of my bag for 15 or so minutes just so that it is not totally icy when I first get in. I find that my overall feeling of cold is more positive if my feet are not totally iced up. If I go into the bag with icy feet, they stay cold for a long while unless:

- I REMOVE my socks so that my bare feet can warm up by tucking it under my knee, one at a time and
- I pump my bag a little bit every so often so that the warmth around my torso can get down to my feet.

I also find that simply changing my sleeping position to my side helps relieve pressure from my "I've got to go right now" bladder in the last hour before daybreak.

Looseness in a bag tends to mean cold spots for me - want the bag to touch me all over. I also try to make sure there is not too much shear/twist or tension in the bag because it tends to compress the insulation and also thus gives cold spots.

Clean dry merino socks, bottoms and tops. I put my jacket or down vest in the bag with me to keep from putting on a cold jacket in the morning. Also put my isobutane canister in the bottom of my bag so it doesn't sputter in the morning. Actually never been out there in much below low-mid 20's.

Check this out. Go to youtube
Search Basic Shelter. From bobby so famous
I built it and slept in 20 degree weather with a military 4 part system sleeping bag
Using a military poncho as a floor and a backpack air mattress. This shelter rocked and it was light to backpack.

Check this out. Go to youtube
Search Basic Shelter. From bobby so famous
I built it and slept in 20 degree weather with a military 4 part system sleeping bag
Using a military poncho as a floor and a backpack air mattress. This shelter rocked and it was light to backpack. Warm all night!!!

Vapor barrier socks, if you can stand to have them against your skin great. Your socks and boots will stay dry. Otherwise between the socks and boot will keep your boots from wetting out, just have to change socks daily.

Leave the water bladder at home the hoses just freeze up when it's too cold.

Have a metal water bottle that way you can use a heat source to melt it after it freezes solid, which it probably will. Especially if it's below 0 and you try to bury it in a snow bank to keep from freezing.

Also agree with KC sleeping on top of the snow is really comfortable and if you're on a bit of a slope you can bank the snow up on one end of the pad to level it out, works great.

Put a space blanket down on the floor of the tent, then put your pad and sleeping bag on top. Put another space blanket over the top of your sleeping bag. In addition to reflecting heat back to you, the moisture from your breath and body will condense and freeze on the top of the top space blanket, and can be shaken off outside in the morning. Keeps your bag from getting frozen insulation, which causes it to lose loft, and therefore insulating ability, and from picking up extra weight on multi night trips.

Sorry Dan, but I prefer to sit by the fire and break wind without a barrier to keep some in, that just don't sound right.

Seriously though, everyone pays attention to the rating of their bag, but pay attention to the R value of your pad and use a thicker one than you would for 3-season camping. Wear a warm hat in your bag, and a neck gaiter or loose-fitting shirt or sweater just bunched up around your neck.

Eat some food that has a high fat content before bed, the calories will help keep you warm through the night.

In a floorless shelter you don't have to go outside for a whiz. Not even out of the bag really.

Have your stove ready to go so that all you need to do to heat up water in the morning is reach over and light it without getting out of your bag.

A candle lantern or other small lantern will heat up a small tent a few degrees, sometimes that helps in the morning.

Fat chick is all you need.

Insulated booties really help for me when sleeping...dry socks for bedtime also. I put the not so dry socks in the bag to help dry them out overnight.

Heated shelter is the ticket though...lol...

Define "cold weather camping"?




balaclava provides more/better head/neck coverage. Wear it when sleeping

change socks often. At least 2X/day. change to dry socks at bedtime.

Manage sweating. Peel layers before getting wet. Stay dry.

Stay hydrated. Easy to say, but 'make' yourself drink water.

Right ... first question ... how cold is "cold?" That can mean a lot of things and the difference between 'em is important. Second question is "where" because that can say a lot about humidity. I can enjoy a dry cold much colder, by thermometer, than I can a wet cold. Next thing up I guess would be whether that cold includes wind or not.

Tom

It sounds like everyone has covered this pretty well, we preach to our Boy Scouts to change out of ALL clothing worn during the day and dress into fresh dry base layers before bed. I'm still struggling to enjoy winter camping.