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

Another advantage to Mountain House meals is using the empty containers (trash) as hot water bottles. After dinner, rinse out the Mountain House container and fill with hot water. These feel great for getting the foot box of your sleeping bag warm. Be careful not to crush the container and get your bag wet. They are pretty hard to pop open but it can happen. Another multi-use item for the ounce counters.

It's been mentioned that bladders with drinking tubes can freeze. If you have one and get caught in the cold, empty the tube after each drink by blowing the water back into the bladder. It's not a cure all but it does help.
This also helps in hot weather as the water doesn't get hot in the tube.

^^^^^ This, then unzip your coat, put the tube inside, and zip up.

Almost forgot... keep canister stove fuel, batteries and Sawyer squeeze filter in sleeping bag at night.

Man, I should look for a water bottle cozy that has pockets built-in for all this junk.

Make sure your water filters are empty or drained or don't let them freeze. The ceramic(or whatever its made of) filter can crack.

When we took that trip last fall, that little water bottle filter I carried was cracked when I got home. Pretty sure I let it freeze with a little water left in it on that last day hunting.

That's why I drained the Base Camp at night. It would be interesting trying to filter water with a 3' frozen hose.

That's a great tip on the water filters. I haven't had that happen, but that would not be good.

Always good to have either a way to melt snow or some Potable Aqua tabs as a back-up.

In the absence of a stove, a 3-wick emergency candle will heat up a small tent quite nicely in about 30 min in -10F weather. If you burn it for 0.5-1 hour each night and morning, they last for several days.

That would have been bad enough. It would have been worse to crack a filter as we had no backup! One of us would have been riding a llama out and driving to Ketchum to buy a new one!

Actually, we DID have a backup filter, buried deep in one of those panniers. They're pricey enough that I wouldn't want to waste one, though. Besides, what's a mere gut bug anyway? It would give you a MOST memorable flight home to remember the trip by.

"Actually, we DID have a backup filter, buried deep in one of those panniers. They're pricey enough that I wouldn't want to waste one, though. Besides, what's a mere gut bug anyway? It would give you a MOST memorable flight home to remember the trip by."

Ha! Yeah, I'll hang onto the memories I have thank you. "Exploding" in an airline lavatory while indeed memorable, and likely for everyone aboard , is something I hope only to experience in my imagination.


Ohh, how bad that would be. It's even painful to imagine.

There are a million little tricks that you will learn with experience. A lot of the gear stuff has been covered, so I'll try not to be redundant. It's been awhile since I was into winter camping, but some that I remember are:

Jumping jacks before bed.

Filling a Nalgene type bottle with boiling water before bed, putting it in a sock (I have neoprene sleeves I've fashioned for this), and throwing it to the bottom of the sleeping bag. I used to actually make hot chocolate out of it, then have that to drink in morning on waking (that was before I drank coffee, maybe substitute). Nothing like a warm drink when it's time to get up.

In snow, you are always making water as it is hard to stay hydrated. Put your extra water bottles upside down in the snow and bury them. That way they don't form ice on top when you open them.

Be careful with that first drink of choice. You don't want -10deg whiskey hitting your throat!

Sleep with your extra cloths in your bag. On cold nights, put your boots in your bag with you. Frozen boots suck. Your body will do a good job at drying out damp gloves/socks etc during the night.

Don't count on making time like during the summer months. You have to carry so much more gear and the going can be much slower.
Carry a shovel. There are many designed for this purpose. Building a wall to block wind, emergency shelter, fire pit, level tent pad, etc make this necessary.

Bury sticks in the snow to tie your tent off to--"dead man" anchors.

Be careful with your stove. While melting water, the base can heat up and let it tip over. It sucks to have an hour worth of snow melting dump over. Bring plenty of fuel. Oh, and test your stove at low temps before going. They don't all behave at low temps!

Sleds can be great for carrying gear if the terrain allows. Put your ropes through pvc, maybe 5' long. Cross them so they form an X and tie them to your belt or pack.

Kc nailed it about a quality.insulated.pad. also jet boils don't work.so.well.in.cold. I haven't tried my sol.yet. obviously need a zero degree bag or better. A fat chick obviously is a game changer as some have mentioned.

There is a lot of great advice here. If it is really cold, try to take a tent with a wood stove in it. Cold weather camping can be luxurious with the right heated tent. Plan on doing your cooking on the wood stove and forget about hauling along another stove. Eat hearty, especially for the evening meal. Keep your clothing dry.

If you don't have a stove heated tent it is important to stay busy. Use a campfire for heat, cooking, staying busy and drying your clothing. Reflectors behind your back and behind the fire are helpful. Two mats under your sleeping bag; something like ensolite next to the ground and air/foam on top.

I used to do a lot of winter cross country ski trips and did fine with nylon mountaineering tents, good sleeping bags, layered clothing and plenty of food.

Just cook with it upside down, once you invert the cannister it'll burn great!

Wouldn't that be broiling?

You didn't say if it was backpacking or simply camping. Will assume the former.

Devote a pair of good socks to sleeping only. Dry your daily socks by the fire or in your sleeping bag if needed. You may need to devote an entire base layer to sleeping use only.

Get yourself a 20oz bottle of gatorade. Drink it while hiking. Use it for a pee bottle at night. Disgusting yes, but it makes a world of difference. Full bladders make you cold! With the bottle you just roll over, unzip, and you are done pretty quick and never leave the bag. If 20 oz is not big enough, you get an A+ for your hydration efforts! Trying to execute this using a normal water bottle is a self-correcting error ...

Keep a bag of M and Ms handy. If you get chilly in the wee hours, this will help a lot. Sleep with a good hat on.

And of course, if you don't have an adequate pad, you are screwed.

I remebered another one!

I know a lot of you have the NeoAir Xtherm. It actually matters which side is up - shiny towards you. I made tgis mistake once because I was setting up in the dark. Though it only got down to 28� F, I got cold under me

When the Xtherm's are the right side up, they work well even when only 1/3 inflated to at least 19� F => verified last night

The reflective thing on the Xtherm really works. I'm think of trying it uninflated with a double bottom hammock.

Put your whiskey bottle in a snow bank to keep whiskey liquid!