Winter camping tips

[Mike]

Do you have any winter camping tips to share?

I am thinking winter as in Cold Weather. I am sure winter might not mean cold weather to all folks who live in southern climates.

Here are some ideas to get started:

1. Boots get cold in the snow. If you have a pair of oversized booties, line the inside bottoms with cut-outs of closed cell foam insulation from an old sleeping pad. Wear these around camp instead of boots.
2. In a small tent, a tea candle lantern will add a significant amount of warmth. More importantly, it will keep the frost from forming on the inside of the tent. Be sure to use a reliable candle lantern and not a raw-flame candle inside the tent.
3. Butane lighters don't work in extreme cold. Bring matches instead. If you have a lighter, keep it in your pocket close to your body so that it is warm and will light.
4. It takes a tremendous amount of fuel to cook and heat water in extreme cold. it is also more difficult to find downed burnable wood if the forest has a blanket of deep snow. Bring at least twice as much fuel as you would for summer. Plan your meals for minimal cooking - preferably hot meals only need to have water added or heated - preferrably boil-in-a-bag.
5. Washing pots and pans in extreme cold is impractical. Plan to heat your meals without messing up pots; Boil-in-bags, instant foods (add boiling water), No-cook meals (sandwiches, etc) with a hot drink, etc. Use teflon pans and wipe clean, etc.
6. In deep snow conditions, the amount of time and energy needed to hunt and gather dry firewood is often more trouble than a fire it is worth. In extreme cold, fires really do not provide much warmth except to the front of the body - and many a pair of shoes have been burned by winter campers inching too close to the fire without feeling the heat. Consider camping without campfires in winter. Hit the sack early and do you story telling from sleeping bags.
7. Bury your drink bottles in deep snow with the mouth of the bottles pointing downward to prevent freezing.
8. Beer tends to cool you down too quickly and too effectively in extreme cold conditions. I like beer, but recommend leaving it off your menu in extreme cold conditions.
9. A hot water bottle at the feet of your sleeping bag is so incredibly effective for warmth generation and retention that it should be considered a must. Be sure that your water bottle can withstand hot water and maker sure that the lid is reliable even it you sit on it. The best I have found are the thick green plastic military issue that you might still be able to get at the Army Surplus stores.
10. Ounce for ounce, cubic inch for cubic inch, nothing beats down clothing for warmth and pack-ability, no matter what claims manufacturers of synthetics say.
11. In extreme cold, never pound stakes into the ground - they are near impossible to get out of frozen ground. Instead, tie guy-lines to sticks and branches and bury in snow. For want of snow, tie rags to the guy lines, stretch them out, pour water on them, then stand on them while they freeze to the ground.

[Mike]

Re: Winter camping tips

Hogsnapper, I was counting on you replying because you have such a wealth of experience.

My winter camping does not include showers or washing dishes because I camp in a tent or snow trench and the temps are usually between -15 F to 20 F degrees.

Washing dishes is pretty much out of the question because at temps below zero, water freezes so fast and it is hard to wash dishes without getting your hands wet, so I use paper.

In fact, if I pump the stove at night, it will lose pressure by morning due to the vacuum that is created by the falling night temperatures.

Up here in winter, the sun goes down no later than 5:00 PM and standing around in the cold dark with the wind blowing isn't very fun for very long and Usually, the temperatures drop ten degrees soon after the lights go out. So we don't usually stay up until 9:00. THAT is the challenge, because if you crawl into bed at 7:00 PM with a belly of hot food and after a day of skiing, it is hard to keep from falling asleep. That means waking up at 3:00 AM bored out of your mind waiting for morning.

There are no birds chirping here in the dead of winter, BUT I did hear wolves howling at camp a couple nights ago at 3:00 AM. There were very near my camp and it did get me thinking "what do I do if..."

[GlitterHiker]

Re: Winter camping tips

I can add an item to that ritual: For me, the cold morning temps are brutal to me. My body temperature is very low in the morning. So, when preparing for sleep, I put the next day's clothes in my tent too. (I need more than my sleeping clothes to face a cold morning and there are certain items I like to freshen up so to speak.) I change into my day time clothes right away, before I crawl out of the tent, while I'm still warm.

[Mike]

Re: Winter camping tips

I know this might be controversial, but a good tool for really cold weather is a shot of whiskey or brandy right before bed. One shot or two at the very most. Experienced campers will tell you that alcohol is dangerous in winter because it lowers the body temperature. True, but... a shot of whisky just before bed really shakes off the cold makes you feel warm all over, and helps you sleep through the cold night in a sleeping bag on the ground. I carry about 8 ounces with me. That is four jiggers - enough for two or three nights on a solo tour or... less if you share.

I wouldn't get into this habit at home, but for deep winter camping, a jigger of whisky when you crawl into the sleeping bag can really throw off the night cold.

By the way, it also helps me tolerate my damned dog's farts because he sleeps in the tent with me. I usually end up sharing my human food with him instead of just his dog food and that throws off his digestive system and I pay for it. Sometimes I could swear I hear my dog laughing after he blows one of those terrible stinkers.

[Mike]

Re: Winter camping tips

I can add an item to that ritual: For me, the cold morning temps are brutal to me. My body temperature is very low in the morning. So, when preparing for sleep, I put the next day's clothes in my tent too. (I need more than my sleeping clothes to face a cold morning and there are certain items I like to freshen up so to speak.) I change into my day time clothes right away, before I crawl out of the tent, while I'm still warm.

Yes, naturally, you want your clothes in the tent with you. If your sleeping bag is big enough, stuff your clothes into a bag and put them inside your bag by your feet. This will keep your clothes warm and your feet warm.

If you don't have room inside your sleeping bag, you can put your clothes in a bag under your feet outside your sleeping bag. This will keep your clothes from freezing.

Of course, I always fill my sleeping bag stuff sack with my clothes and use it for a pillow ( I never bring a pillow), but this technique will not keep your clothes warm.

[Mike]

Re: Winter camping tips

BOOTS:

A common problem in freezing cold conditions is having your sweaty boots freeze during the night.

To avoid this, strap your gaitors onto your boots like you would if you were wearing them. Fold the gaitors over the top of your boots. Then wrap your boots in your jacket and put them near your legs or your feet. I am not sure why, but the trick doesn't work well if you keep the boots near your upper torso.

It really works well if you can train your dog to sleep on top of your boots/gaitors/jacket (assuming you have a dog).

Just before you put your boots on in the morning, blow hot air from your lungs into your boots - about ten blasts per boot. This will dispell the cold inside your boots and help keep your feet from getting too cold when you put them inside your boots.

[Mike]

Re: Winter camping tips

Ha ha, Hogsnapper, I sure do enjoy you posts and interesting advice. I would like to see how you take a shower outside in -10 degree weather. I would probably pass and just be stinky. How do you heat water for a shower under those circumstances? Wow, I can't even imagine taking off my clothes outside in -10 degrees inside a shower tent. Holy mackrel.

I should clarify that a lot of my winter camping is remote camping that I backpack-ski to, so I have to leave a lot of the luxuries behind. In fact, I am re-thinking things and trying to decide which pots to leave out of my next trip - figure out a routine and menu where I can make tea and cooking in the same pot without dirtying up the pot.

The four to five foot high campfire sounds inviting, but on this most recent trip, it was just too hard to find that much wood within a dragable distance to camp. Most of the downed wood is buried in snow, so you have to look for standing deadwood. I carry a full size rag-tooth saw and can cut through most logs, but after I consider all the energy and time put into building a big fire, these days I decide against it - especially when I go solo. This last time, I did build a small fire, but it was so much work with such little contribution to comfort that I didn't build a fire the second or third nights and I didn't miss it.

Your rock inside boots is a pretty good idea. These days, you have to be careful with that one because boots are made with glue that will soften or delaminate with heat. Right now, we are under a couple of feet of snow and rock hunting isn't so easy anyway. The last thing you want when you are miles out in the bush in deep snow is to have a boot failure. I was skiing and my binding broke on this trip. I had to walk back four miles to camp through the show and it was exhausting.

[SpencerGrant]

Re: Winter camping tips

Do you have any winter camping tips to share?

I am thinking winter as in Cold Weather. I am sure winter might not mean cold weather to all folks who live in southern climates.

Here are some ideas to get started:

1. Boots get cold in the snow. If you have a pair of oversized booties, line the inside bottoms with cut-outs of closed cell foam insulation from an old sleeping pad. Wear these around camp instead of boots.
2. In a small tent, a tea candle lantern will add a significant amount of warmth. More importantly, it will keep the frost from forming on the inside of the tent. Be sure to use a reliable candle lantern and not a raw-flame candle inside the tent.
3. Butane lighters don't work in extreme cold. Bring matches instead. If you have a lighter, keep it in your pocket close to your body so that it is warm and will light.
4. It takes a tremendous amount of fuel to cook and heat water in extreme cold. it is also more difficult to find downed burnable wood if the forest has a blanket of deep snow. Bring at least twice as much fuel as you would for summer. Plan your meals for minimal cooking - preferably hot meals only need to have water added or heated - preferrably boil-in-a-bag.
5. Washing pots and pans in extreme cold is impractical. Plan to heat your meals without messing up pots; Boil-in-bags, instant foods (add boiling water), No-cook meals (sandwiches, etc) with a hot drink, etc. Use teflon pans and wipe clean, etc.
6. In deep snow conditions, the amount of time and energy needed to hunt and gather dry firewood is often more trouble than a fire it is worth. In extreme cold, fires really do not provide much warmth except to the front of the body - and many a pair of shoes have been burned by winter campers inching too close to the fire without feeling the heat. Consider camping without campfires in winter. Hit the sack early and do you story telling from sleeping bags.
7. Bury your drink bottles in deep snow with the mouth of the bottles pointing downward to prevent freezing.
8. Beer tends to cool you down too quickly and too effectively in extreme cold conditions. I like beer, but recommend leaving it off your menu in extreme cold conditions.
9. A hot water bottle at the feet of your sleeping bag is so incredibly effective for warmth generation and retention that it should be considered a must. Be sure that your water bottle can withstand hot water and maker sure that the lid is reliable even it you sit on it. The best I have found are the thick green plastic military issue that you might still be able to get at the Army Surplus stores.
10. Ounce for ounce, cubic inch for cubic inch, nothing beats down clothing for warmth and pack-ability, no matter what claims manufacturers of synthetics say.
11. In extreme cold, never pound stakes into the ground - they are near impossible to get out of frozen ground. Instead, tie guy-lines to sticks and branches and bury in snow. For want of snow, tie rags to the guy lines,

1. cheap lingerie stretch them out, pour water on them, then stand on them while they freeze to the ground.

Pretty nice information. I love camping in winters so I asked experts to make light weight warm clothes for me. Rest all is same as you mentioned

[Mike]

Re: Winter camping tips

Apparently, winter camping isn't over yet with the big snowstorm in the midwest this week - and it is May already. I remember skiing in mid-May in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. That might not be too unusual in the upper elevations of the Rockies, but it is pretty rare in the midwest USA with elevations under 2,000 feet.

Anyway, this winter I remembered a long forgotten rule: Do not pound tent stakes into frozen ground. Why did I forget this and pound tent stakes this winter? Learn and learn again.

Of course the reason is that the tent stakes will freeze into the ground and be nearly impossible to remove. You can ty banging them a little deeper to bust up the connection to the ground, but it is always a difficult thing.

So, if you are camping in frozen ground territory, use logs or snow bags or something like it to hold your tent in place. Don't pound tent stakes into frozen ground!