What do you Recommend for Camping in Cold Temps?

[ppine]

Pad, feathers and a hat. Make sure your clothes and bag are dry. Eat a warm meal before going to bed. Sleep with a nice girl and lots of dogs for warmth.

 

[Mr.E]

Hi Everyone,

I'm more of a hiker/climber but recently i've been doing some camping.
I'm from Scotland so its usually Freezing!

Last week I was up Glencoe where the temp dropped down to -5C during the night. It was killer as I was way unprepared.

What do you guys recommend is essential when camping in these temps?

Do you use a air bed or just a matt? Do you recommend any sort of in tent heater?

Thanks,
Andrew

I love winter camping. I wear layers of clothing and have been known to take 2 sleeping bags, one inside the other. I wear at least 3 pair of socks while sleeping. In my bag I keep a full canteen (or bottle of water), a propane tank, and a "Thunder Jug".
The worst part of winter camping is getting up in the middle of the night to go pee... So, I don't. I pee into the thunder jug. Keep in mind, your body burned a lot of calories getting that liquid up to 98.6F and it's a waste to piss it off into the woods. Put the lid on the jug and keep it in your bag with you. It makes a big difference, IMHO.

I am fortunate to have a certain kind of US Army inflatable mattress. It has about 1/4" of foam rubber on the inside and it keeps me up off the ground and cozy.

Now, when you wake up in the morning to go make coffee you'll be glad you had the propane and water in your bag. Why? I'm glad you asked. The water is pretty obvious I should think. I mean, if you didn't keep it in your bag it'd be solid when you woke up and then it'd be a while before you had your coffee. But Propane? You bet! If you leave your propane tank out in those temps you will have zero pressure and you'll be luck to get enough flame from your stove to do anything... much less, boil water. You'll have to build a fire and set your propane tank beside it to warm up the propane enough to get enough pressure to create enough flame to boil water. Whew! Helluva way to start the day.

I told you that so I could tell you this: I can't think of anything more impractical than a tent heater... or any heater... if it's propane powered. (The ones with which I am familiar are propane).

Remember PV=nrt Pressure times Volume = number of moles times r (constant) times temperature. *EDIT: I woke up this morning and realized I'd left V out of the equation so I had to fix it!

If it's warm enough outside that your propane has enough pressure to work well, then it's warm enough that you don't you don't need a heater.

If it's cold enough that you need a heater, your propane likely won't work very well.

What's the point?

My 2 cents

 

[themanikin]

when camping in the winter if your not freezing i think your doing it wrong .