Winter Camping Secrets

[RioWilson]

We made it back safe and sound. Had a TON of fun. Only real issue we had was with condensation on the inside of the windows - but with two humans, 1 dog, and warm inside and cold outside I think that's inevitable. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions - our 120V ceramic heater and mattress pad heater made it almost tropical inside...

[pete42]

I have camped twice in frezzing weather once not on purpose and once on purpose
first one was in a pop-up with only a ceramic heater, even my hair was cold.
second time was in our Scamp 16 footer same ceramic heater nice and toasty insulation does matter.
I don'tmake it a habit to camp in frezzing temps but I do enjoy the cool fall type camping.

[canned o minimum]

Lucky fer me, I live in SoCal ! Goin campin this weekend( MLK) with the grandsons and my daughter. They will sleep in my TTT and I will sleep in a tent.( My trailer sleeps TWO )They will have the luxury of a heater whilst I will only have a down bag and sum blankets. Won't git to "freezing" at nite( I hope), but we definitely won't have snow !

The boys are 4 & 5 and tho I want them to LEARN to "camp", I also want their FIRST experience to be enjoyable !


I went to "Buckskin" a couple years ago with my teardrop and it got down to 35 or so at nite...in the teardrop it was TOASTY due to the small space inside the trailer. All I used was one small candle an hour before bed and it took off the chill. After a while, I opened the roof vent... it got a bit TOO toasty in thar !

[canned o minimum]

COOL ! ( Tongue in cheek )

[Vindi_andy]

One and only time i went winter camping was when I was in the scouts. I think it was to earn a badge or maybe the leader was just a sadist.

We got to the campgorund and set up no probs. A couple of 2 man tents sleeping mat and iirc 2 sleeping bags, a 3 season maggot bag slid inside a rectangular 2 season bag. The day was chilly didnt get much above 0 degrees C (32 f for our american brethren) if at all no snow on the ground but rock hard was almost impossible to get the pegs in the ground. Built a fire cooked the meal and retired for the night. Overnight the temp dropped to a record low of -25 degrees C (-13 f) slept in several layers and hat. When we woke up there was sheets of ice on the inside of the tent where our breath had frozen. We couldnt pack the tents up they were that stiff.

Damn that was cold, never again.

[dwgriff1]

A few years ago on a trip from SanFranisco to Southern Idaho right after Thanksgiving, I decided to stop for the night at Winnemucca Nevada.

Great idea but it was 6 degrees, and because we had been pulling the teardrop through that kind of weather, everything in the tear was cold cold cold.

We survived the night, but not with extreme comfort!

I will probably do it again sometime, but I'll think it through a bit more carefully before I leave!

dave

[pmowers]

The picture of the fires under the trucks reminded me of our next door neighbor when I was growing up outside Chicago. Swen was from Northern MN and kept a pie pan and gallon can of gasoline next to the back door. When it was really cold, he would pour gas into the pie pan, slide it under the engine and toss in a match.He would then go back into his house to drink his coffee. My mother would watch this and kept waiting for the engine to come through our kitchen window.

My first winter camping experience was also in the scouts. Our troop actually had dog sleds that we used or an exercise in frostbite called the "Klondike Derby", where we would have dogsled races. Since we did not have dogs, we were the dogs. I remember being part of the team, never the driver. Not fun.

Spent nearly my entire military career in field units (I got in trouble in garrison), so did plenty of winter "camping", I can heartily attest to the boots in a bag at the bottom of the sleeping bag along with a canteen of water, and layer, layer, layer both in sleeping and dressing. Do not think that you are going to be warmer going to bed with all of your clothes on, you are bringing a lot of moisture into the bag with you. If you do not want to bring your shoes to bed with you, the pocket hand warmers work wonders, just drop them into your boots and in the morning your boots will be warm and dry.

[Corwin C]

Winter camping is truly a different animal from the usual summer affair. #1 ... stay dry. Layers are important, you will get wet if you "overdress" for the occasion. Wear a hat. Be careful as simple activities in the summer can be dangerous in the winter. Be prepared and have a Plan B (Plan C, Plan D, etc.) if your first plan doesn't work out. My coldest night was at -8F in a nylon tent without a heater of any kind. It can be enjoyable and actually comfortable if you are ready for the challenge. Having a teardrop would make the process MUCH easier and I'm looking forward to the experience when I get mine done.

[Vindi_andy]

Not exactly winter camping but the reason I got into tears was when we went to a Kit Car show with the TV and camped. You can just see the tent behind the TV in my avatar.
The temperature was cool for may below avaerage I think overnight it went down to single figures C. Wife wasnt happy and turned round and said she wasnt camping again so I started investigating small caravans and found tears and Ive been loitering here ever since. One day I will actually build it

Hoping to have it done for Jackdaws meet in july.