Winter Camping

drbandkgb

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Anyone do any cold weather camping? I havent since I was a kid.. My son asked me the other night about camping in the cold..
 

Macland

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
There's a slight possibility I may be going in a few weeks. But my now pregnant and protective wife will probably veto that because I'll have to drive 7 hours to camp.
 

Macland

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Yeah. Her brother really wants me to go and I had told him I'd be able to go back before we'd found out we were pregnant. Oh well though. I still want to do some winter camping though.
 

TheFauxFox

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Huntsville, AL
I was supposed to go camping tonight, in fact, but we had to bail since our middle-o-nowhere campsite is under about 2ft of water from the rain we just got. Maybe next week though. Last year, it got to 15 degrees overnight. Camping, IMO, is better in the cold. More challenges, more fun, FEWER MOSQUITOES.
 

farley27

Test Drive
Founding Member
Location
PA
Love cooler/cold weather camping! You can actually enjoy the warmth of the fire, sleep better, no bugs, and more whiskey.
 

RATTFINK

XN OG Admin.
Founding Member
Location
Conroe, TX
I love cold weather camping. Wet cold weather not so much.

Just make sure you have the appropriate sleeping bag for the temps. I have a North Face mummy bag for 0*F.
 

Macland

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
I guess camping in CO during the summer is kinda like camping here in the winter lol. So I guess on some trips it would qualify as cold weather camping. A good sleeping bag is a must, which is something I need to get.
 

mnutz

Test Drive
Founding Member
Location
Midwest
Winter camping, my favorite thing. I love hiking way into the mountains in the dead of winter, been doing it solo for 20 years. You learn a lot of little tricks after awhile. I've been tent bound in some pretty serious storms for a few days! Don't buy a blue tent, you'll go crazy staring at it! Keep a pee bottle in your bag so you don't have to get up and get out. Just make sure you can tell the difference in the dark between it and your drinking bottle! Wear all synthetics, go as light as possible with your gear, make sure someone knows where you are and when you are coming back.

Start with some safe shakedown trips to work out your system and make sure you understand how your body will react. You can even start out in your backyard. I've taken my wife on backpacking trips with me when I wasn't affected by the cold at all, and she seriously thought she was going to die. This was nighttime temps around 10 below zero, at 11,0000 feet elevation. She couldn't have had any better gear, her body just does not handle the cold well. Everyone reacts differently.

If you can work it out, you can experience some wonderful times in the wilderness in the winter.
 

Ricel

Wheeling
Founding Member
Location
Rhode Island
I love cold weather camping. Wet cold weather not so much.

Just make sure you have the appropriate sleeping bag for the temps. I have a North Face mummy bag for 0*F.

I picked up a pink -15* a couple years back at a silent auction for 35$. No one knew what it was!

Def, need the right bag.youll wake up without toes.
 

Jmac289gt

Sliders
Founding Member
Location
Dickinson, TX
I have not done much camping at all, in fact just a couple of trips but I already know that summer camping is not for me. I like kool weather so you can enjoy a nice fire at night and sleep good, then the bugs like everyone else mentioned is another reason.
 

dhyde79

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Amarillo, TX
I like cold camping, I sleep MUCH better. and I'm a tent camper, and have this sleeping bag, when it's all put together it's more like safe to -30F or somewhere in that neighborhood, and with the goretex shell on the outside, it's all but sealed from the elements. (protip: if you're tent or less camping in a sleeping bag in wet cold weather, if you have one of these sleeping bags or similar design, sleep opening down, face up, it'll ensure you aren't breathing your moist breath onto your pillow which you can freeze to if it gets cold enough, and also ensures that *IF* you end up iced in place, you can wiggle around and push yourself up, get free, and you'll have the opening in a way that you can get out of if you need.)
 

rokdaddy

Wheeling
Founding Member
Location
New Mexico
...protip: if you're tent or less camping in a sleeping bag in wet cold weather, if you have one of these sleeping bags or similar design, sleep opening down, face up, it'll ensure you aren't breathing your moist breath onto your pillow which you can freeze to if it gets cold enough, and also ensures that *IF* you end up iced in place, you can wiggle around and push yourself up, get free, and you'll have the opening in a way that you can get out of if you need.)

Thanks, Mr. Hyde... I just sprayed my garage with Coca Cola. I'll be cleaning it up for days I'm sure.

-Rok
 

dhyde79

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Amarillo, TX
You laugh, picture multiple people doing the inchworm in those bags trying to get out because either our tents had collapsed from the snow and ice or we'd done what I said, and were nearly buried.... It was a hilarious visual.....
 

mudchet

Got Mud?<br><img src="http://i164.photobucket.com/
Founding Member
Location
Brentwood, TN
I grew up in Michigan and would head up to the Upper Peninsula between christmas and new years for some camping w friends. It was easily 5 degrees, no telling how cold w the wind chill. Everything liquid will freeze, including beer. With the right knowledge and gear it can be enjoyable. Without, it can be agony. I have done both.

I have backpacked in the Sierras and Tetons in cool, wet weather and for me that is worse. When it is really cold, stuff doesnt get wet. 25-35 degrees and wet is tough weather is stay comfortable in when you are backpacking or camping.

I did a backpacking trip in the smokies and one night we had about 8" of wet snow. The next day was tough. Every branch you touched dumped a load of snow on you. We had one guy in our group that was hypothermic by the time we got to camp that night. We had to fill him w warm liquids and change his clothing into dry stuff for him because he was becoming unresponsive. Staying dry is key.
 

rokdaddy

Wheeling
Founding Member
Location
New Mexico
protip: if you're tent or less camping in a sleeping bag in wet cold weather, if you have one of these sleeping bags or similar design, sleep opening down, face up, it'll ensure you aren't breathing your moist breath onto your pillow which you can freeze to if it gets cold enough, and also ensures that *IF* you end up iced in place, you can wiggle around and push yourself up, get free, and you'll have the opening in a way that you can get out of if you need.)

You laugh, picture multiple people doing the inchworm in those bags trying to get out because either our tents had collapsed from the snow and ice or we'd done what I said, and were nearly buried.... It was a hilarious visual.....

I can only hope that intelligent folks with a mind of their own, would never consider sleeping backwards in a winter rated mummy bag.

Regardless of what they have read on the internet.

-Rok
 
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dhyde79

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Amarillo, TX
I can only hope that intelligent folks with a mind of their own, would never consider sleeping backwards in a winter rated mummy bag. Regardless of what they have read on the internet. -Rok

Until you've used that bag, don't knock it.

It's designed in a way that if 2 snaps come open, the bag isn't "windproofed" anymore because the top more or less hinges (so you can get out of the goretex shell quick fast and in a hurry, whilst readying a rifle.

Remember, it's made for the military...(so arguably, intelligent folks with minds of our own wouldn't have been outside trying to "camp" in a field with an impending winter storm warning when they could've driven their happy asses back to warmth in less than 5 minutes).

The "mummy" part of it is the goretex layer only, the outer and inner bags are a hybrid between a mummy and a normal bag, they don't come up around your head, just up around your shoulders. We all found that the "upside down" trick worked wonderfully because the body weight kept snaps from inadvertently coming open, as well as giving you warmth over your head...and the whole "not freezing your air flap shut" thing...
 

2011XTERROR

Wheeling
Location
Texas
Uh, c'mon up to Amarillo this weekend and try to claim we don't get cold...predicted windchills of -20F Sunday through Monday...

lol well anything south of fort worth isn't cold. i guess the pan handle can get chilly. but then again i am easily 7 hours south of you lol
 

rokdaddy

Wheeling
Founding Member
Location
New Mexico
The "mummy" part of it is the goretex layer only, the outer and inner bags are a hybrid between a mummy and a normal bag, they don't come up around your head, just up around your shoulders. We all found that the "upside down" trick worked wonderfully because the body weight kept snaps from inadvertently coming open, as well as giving you warmth over your head...and the whole "not freezing your air flap shut" thing...

Ok, now I get what you have... the Gore Tex part is just a snap together bivy sack.

I've never seen a sub zero bag that leaves your head exposed, does the Gore Tex trap enough warmth to keep you comfortable at -10 degrees? I've seen those advertised on Sportsman's Guide and on Ebay and I've never looked into them, but now that I have, they appear to be made from good stuff. Gore Tex and Polargard HV aren't cheap materials.

Initially, it sounded like you were describing a traditional mummy design. It would be a really bad idea to try to sleep face up, opening down with a conventional sub-zero mummy bag.


-Rok
 

dhyde79

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Amarillo, TX
Ok, now I get what you have... the Gore Tex part is just a snap together bivy sack. I've never seen a sub zero bag that leaves your head exposed, does the Gore Tex trap enough warmth to keep you comfortable at -10 degrees? I've seen those advertised on Sportsman's Guide and on Ebay and I've never looked into them, but now that I have, they appear to be made from good stuff. Gore Tex and Polargard HV aren't cheap materials. Initially, it sounded like you were describing a traditional mummy design. It would be a really bad idea to try to sleep face up, opening down with a conventional sub-zero mummy bag. -Rok

No, they're a 3 layer bag, green by itself is down to 30 or 40, black by itself is to 0, combine you're good to -30 and the goretex layer is a wind/weather barrier for any/all layers. If you're in a good tent you don't need it...the top of the regular bag cinches with an elastic shock cord...so, it'll choke down to a regular mummy, but if you don't, it's almost as open as a standard bag....

They normally run $280-$400 new, most surplus sites will sell good used for $175-200 and if you're a ninja you can get palletized lots of em from government liquidation sites for cheaper than you can buy a single bag....
 

SkyPainter

Test Drive
Location
Stoneham, MA
New "Xer" here. I do a lot of winter camping, but in specially designed hammocks. I know, I know. But we use down "Underquilts" under the bottom (never gets crushed by your body, so it still insulates fully) and "Topquilts" rather than cumbersome sleeping bags. Wrapped in a down Burrito! Use a tarp over the top like a rain fly. Mine also have integrated bug netting for the summer. We have an active forum over on http://www.HammockForums.net

All we need us two anchor points - trees, posts, Xterras....[emoji4]

Here's from a meet (we call them, "Hangs") this past winter. Should check it out!

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SkyPainter

Test Drive
Location
Stoneham, MA
More from the winter hang. If anyone near Boston or the North Shore wants to check all these rigs out, we have a hang planned at the Harold Parker State Forest in Andover the last weekend in June. Should have all my Raingler nets on the new X by the, too!

~ SkyPainter

"Never knock on Death's door. Just ring the bell and run. He hates that!

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