Small-foot
FNG
I've been telling myself for 2+ years that I need to do this after reading Rachel's post, but getting in freezing cold water and shivering in a tent just isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. Well fast forward and here we are typing this while laying in a my zen bivy after jumping in a creek.
I recently attended the S2H winter course. 7 days in -13 to 45 degrees with lots of shooting, instruction and learning. Anyone interested in improving their shooting skills and hunting success should spend the money and attend a course. For the women reading this, I was the only female out of 8 participants, but my brother and boyfriend both attended which made things a lot more comfortable for me. If any women are interested in the courses and have questions, feel free to PM me. I can honestly say I learned more in 7 days here than I could learn on my own in 20 years. Lots of reps shooting with good mechanics means less conscious thought going into the rep that matters when an animal presents itself. As part of this course, they proposed the idea of doing the Rewarming drill. I was probably the most excited of the group for this…until it came time to actually do it. Then I danced around anxiously with a knot in my stomach whining like a little girl while they explained how it would be conducted.
We completed the static rewarming drill same as @bikinitoboots meaning jump in the water, get out and ring your clothes out as best you can quickly, get your puff suit on, hike to the tent, climb in your sleep system and start piling on calories and hot liquids, put a Nalgene full of hot water in your bag with you and start to cook the moisture out of your base layer into the mid and puffy layer and out through the sleep system to dry out and stay warm.
Weather: 25-30 degrees and windy as hell
Started around 10:15pm and instructors called it around 2am
I run pretty chilly if I’m static and I heat up real quick if I’m moving, so layers for me are an ongoing battle to find what’s best. I was nervous that I was going to be miserable and freezing. I’ll be honest, other than initially getting out and to my pack to get my puffy suit on - which was pretty rough, like fingers barely working by the time I got my jacket zipped - I was only chilly a few times. I think I started to shiver once when we were heating more water for the Nalgenes we kept inside our sleeping bags, which by the way is a game changer.
I also learned a good lesson about stoves during this. I was using a Soto stove while my partner was using a jetboil. Well at one point my water bubbled over the pot, melted the snow, tipped my whole set up and then I burnt the shit out of my hand trying to save the water from ending up in my bag or under my sleeping pad. Lesson learned, I will probably be getting a jet boil or something similar before next season.
The instructors called the drill at about 2am and then we hauled everything inside. By the time we got sleeping systems hung out to dry and inside, showered, and hung all our still wet stuff up it was about 2:30-3am so everything I wore was hanging in a closet 3am till about 11am the next day when we packed up to head home.
Base layers
Kuiu 140 zip off merino bottoms
-I like these because I can take them off in the field, but they were still pretty damp the next day. Especially around the zippers and cuffs where there is more material.
Smartwool 150 long sleeve top
-I thought given how thin this thing feels it would be great, and it was the driest thing I had on by the end, but it wasn’t completely dry the next morning
Merino underwear
-I have some paka merino that I like, but again, still damp at the end of the drill, they were dry the next day though
Smartwool intraknit sports bra
-This thing man…it has a pretty high synthetic make up for the stretchiness, but it is thick and it takes forever to dry. It was still probably only 50% dried out the next day. I knew going in it wouldn’t be great, but it’s comfy and I wear it a lot hiking so I wanted to test it. I will say of my base layers, this was the worst in terms of wetness. One of the comments from Rachel's post on her rewarming drill mentioned the lycra content holding water- this is the content of this sports bra from the smartwool website: Outer: 69% Nylon, 17% Elastane, 14% Polyester. Lining: 41% Merino Wool, 35% Lyocell, 13% Nylon, 11% Elastane.
Smartwool socks
-You won’t convince me to go non wool for socks. These were also still wet at the end of the drill, mostly dry in the morning, but my feet are always cold. I will take still wet socks that keep me warm over can’t feel my toes cold any day.
Mid layer
Barbour 100% wool sweater
-yeah this thing sucked for this drill. It’s a heavy wool sweater that is my favorite thing when temps drop because it regulates temp well since it breathes, but also is super warm and it’s fairly wind resistant due to the weave, but not entirely. I wear this thing pretty much all winter, but this drill definitely made me think about it more. I will still probably wear this like I always have, with the exception of if I’m going somewhere notoriously wet, or with high chances of falling in water like doing lots of creek crossings or something.
Alternative mid layer Kuiu peloton 240
-mid way through when my wool sweater was still sopping wet, the instructors told me to ditch it and put on my other midlayer to see if it would help my top half dry out. Another member of this group was wearing the peloton when they jumped in and it hardly soaked up water when submerged. It also helped significantly in getting my top half dry, but was less warm than the wool. Once I had this thing on was the only time I shivered a bit, but I also had to come out of my bag to get it on and that didn’t help.
Eddie Bauer 650 down vest
-multiple thumbs down for this thing. It balled up and wetted out immediately and did nothing but prevent moisture from getting out of my base and mid layer under it. I still don’t think this thing has recovered from this drill, the down is all weird now in it.
Pants
Fjallraven Keb trousers
-these are baller. They did take a little while to dry since the stretchy nylon soaks up water, but I wax all the g1000 on mine and those parts hardly soaked anything in. They’re definitely not the warmest and I had to wear my puffy and wind pants on the really cold days when we weren’t moving as much, but if moving or in milder weather these are my go to. I can be comfy down to probably 35 while moving with just these and a base layer, once I sit though I get pretty cold.
Puffy suit
Women’s Kuiu Quixdown super lt puffy pants and jacket
-these were pretty stellar and even Form was mildly impressed with the loft they still retained. I wish Kuiu would make their super down standard not just Lt for women, because these are actually a good cut for women I find. They aren’t super durable, not expected to be but the Grumman’s my boyfriend wears are way better in that regard. I did learn too that most my insulating layers are pretty tight for what is optimal, because constriction equals cold and in the future I’ll probably get some Grummans in an even larger size compared to my Kuiu stuff for warmth. I have worn a double puffy jacket set up more than a few times this fall while glassing, so to have a Grumman I could put over top and bottom of my Kuiu stuff would be the ticket for me to basically never be cold
Sleep system
Zen Bivy 10 degree down sheet and quilt
Exped 8R down sleep pad with a thermarest pad over top to prevent moisture getting into my down mat at the recommendation of Form
Matty McMat face under the pad
-So I switched from bag to quilt set up a few years ago, and I will never go back. I hate my feet being hot when I sleep, so the zen bivy is my heaven, I can change the footbox to give me enough space and air that I can sleep in almost any position and not have hot feet. I slept in mummy bags prior and I could never get comfy with my knees up because my feet would get hot and I’d slide off my pad. The zen bivy sheet also prevents you from sliding off the pad and keeping your mat under your pad to prevent punctures. My zen bivy didn’t bead up on top much like some other down bags there, but it was 95% dry the next morning and kept me toasty the whole time. I generally run this exped pad most the year except summer camping. Again I get cold quick if static and I don’t want to be miserable on a hunting trip because I can’t sleep, so I’ll carry a few extra ounces to sleep better. I’ve been too warm in my zen bivy a few times as I use it year round, but the nice part is you can just vent it a bit and get the right air flow to keep you comfy. I do want to get one of their lighter quilts for summer camping eventually, just haven’t yet.
All in all, this was a great experience and something I will likely do again next winter after changing up my system a bit this summer/fall to try and optimize a few things. I think my first change will probably be a set of wool net base layers. They dry quicker, provide air space to keep you warmer, and allow you to cool quicker when moving. No one at the course that completed the drill had them, but my boyfriend got a set after we got back and hasn’t worn any other base layers since hardly. I’m going to play with some Alpha Direct or maybe Octa fabric based mid layers to see how they do as well. Highly recommend trying this out to anyone that spends a lot of time in the woods, especially if you're doing it in crappy or cold weather. There were multiple people that said "wow this did way worse than I thought it would" or the opposite as well. You don't know what you don't know and experience is the best teacher. No bad weather, just bad clothes.
I recently attended the S2H winter course. 7 days in -13 to 45 degrees with lots of shooting, instruction and learning. Anyone interested in improving their shooting skills and hunting success should spend the money and attend a course. For the women reading this, I was the only female out of 8 participants, but my brother and boyfriend both attended which made things a lot more comfortable for me. If any women are interested in the courses and have questions, feel free to PM me. I can honestly say I learned more in 7 days here than I could learn on my own in 20 years. Lots of reps shooting with good mechanics means less conscious thought going into the rep that matters when an animal presents itself. As part of this course, they proposed the idea of doing the Rewarming drill. I was probably the most excited of the group for this…until it came time to actually do it. Then I danced around anxiously with a knot in my stomach whining like a little girl while they explained how it would be conducted.
We completed the static rewarming drill same as @bikinitoboots meaning jump in the water, get out and ring your clothes out as best you can quickly, get your puff suit on, hike to the tent, climb in your sleep system and start piling on calories and hot liquids, put a Nalgene full of hot water in your bag with you and start to cook the moisture out of your base layer into the mid and puffy layer and out through the sleep system to dry out and stay warm.
Weather: 25-30 degrees and windy as hell
Started around 10:15pm and instructors called it around 2am
I run pretty chilly if I’m static and I heat up real quick if I’m moving, so layers for me are an ongoing battle to find what’s best. I was nervous that I was going to be miserable and freezing. I’ll be honest, other than initially getting out and to my pack to get my puffy suit on - which was pretty rough, like fingers barely working by the time I got my jacket zipped - I was only chilly a few times. I think I started to shiver once when we were heating more water for the Nalgenes we kept inside our sleeping bags, which by the way is a game changer.
I also learned a good lesson about stoves during this. I was using a Soto stove while my partner was using a jetboil. Well at one point my water bubbled over the pot, melted the snow, tipped my whole set up and then I burnt the shit out of my hand trying to save the water from ending up in my bag or under my sleeping pad. Lesson learned, I will probably be getting a jet boil or something similar before next season.
The instructors called the drill at about 2am and then we hauled everything inside. By the time we got sleeping systems hung out to dry and inside, showered, and hung all our still wet stuff up it was about 2:30-3am so everything I wore was hanging in a closet 3am till about 11am the next day when we packed up to head home.
Base layers
Kuiu 140 zip off merino bottoms
-I like these because I can take them off in the field, but they were still pretty damp the next day. Especially around the zippers and cuffs where there is more material.
Smartwool 150 long sleeve top
-I thought given how thin this thing feels it would be great, and it was the driest thing I had on by the end, but it wasn’t completely dry the next morning
Merino underwear
-I have some paka merino that I like, but again, still damp at the end of the drill, they were dry the next day though
Smartwool intraknit sports bra
-This thing man…it has a pretty high synthetic make up for the stretchiness, but it is thick and it takes forever to dry. It was still probably only 50% dried out the next day. I knew going in it wouldn’t be great, but it’s comfy and I wear it a lot hiking so I wanted to test it. I will say of my base layers, this was the worst in terms of wetness. One of the comments from Rachel's post on her rewarming drill mentioned the lycra content holding water- this is the content of this sports bra from the smartwool website: Outer: 69% Nylon, 17% Elastane, 14% Polyester. Lining: 41% Merino Wool, 35% Lyocell, 13% Nylon, 11% Elastane.
Smartwool socks
-You won’t convince me to go non wool for socks. These were also still wet at the end of the drill, mostly dry in the morning, but my feet are always cold. I will take still wet socks that keep me warm over can’t feel my toes cold any day.
Mid layer
Barbour 100% wool sweater
-yeah this thing sucked for this drill. It’s a heavy wool sweater that is my favorite thing when temps drop because it regulates temp well since it breathes, but also is super warm and it’s fairly wind resistant due to the weave, but not entirely. I wear this thing pretty much all winter, but this drill definitely made me think about it more. I will still probably wear this like I always have, with the exception of if I’m going somewhere notoriously wet, or with high chances of falling in water like doing lots of creek crossings or something.
Alternative mid layer Kuiu peloton 240
-mid way through when my wool sweater was still sopping wet, the instructors told me to ditch it and put on my other midlayer to see if it would help my top half dry out. Another member of this group was wearing the peloton when they jumped in and it hardly soaked up water when submerged. It also helped significantly in getting my top half dry, but was less warm than the wool. Once I had this thing on was the only time I shivered a bit, but I also had to come out of my bag to get it on and that didn’t help.
Eddie Bauer 650 down vest
-multiple thumbs down for this thing. It balled up and wetted out immediately and did nothing but prevent moisture from getting out of my base and mid layer under it. I still don’t think this thing has recovered from this drill, the down is all weird now in it.
Pants
Fjallraven Keb trousers
-these are baller. They did take a little while to dry since the stretchy nylon soaks up water, but I wax all the g1000 on mine and those parts hardly soaked anything in. They’re definitely not the warmest and I had to wear my puffy and wind pants on the really cold days when we weren’t moving as much, but if moving or in milder weather these are my go to. I can be comfy down to probably 35 while moving with just these and a base layer, once I sit though I get pretty cold.
Puffy suit
Women’s Kuiu Quixdown super lt puffy pants and jacket
-these were pretty stellar and even Form was mildly impressed with the loft they still retained. I wish Kuiu would make their super down standard not just Lt for women, because these are actually a good cut for women I find. They aren’t super durable, not expected to be but the Grumman’s my boyfriend wears are way better in that regard. I did learn too that most my insulating layers are pretty tight for what is optimal, because constriction equals cold and in the future I’ll probably get some Grummans in an even larger size compared to my Kuiu stuff for warmth. I have worn a double puffy jacket set up more than a few times this fall while glassing, so to have a Grumman I could put over top and bottom of my Kuiu stuff would be the ticket for me to basically never be cold
Sleep system
Zen Bivy 10 degree down sheet and quilt
Exped 8R down sleep pad with a thermarest pad over top to prevent moisture getting into my down mat at the recommendation of Form
Matty McMat face under the pad
-So I switched from bag to quilt set up a few years ago, and I will never go back. I hate my feet being hot when I sleep, so the zen bivy is my heaven, I can change the footbox to give me enough space and air that I can sleep in almost any position and not have hot feet. I slept in mummy bags prior and I could never get comfy with my knees up because my feet would get hot and I’d slide off my pad. The zen bivy sheet also prevents you from sliding off the pad and keeping your mat under your pad to prevent punctures. My zen bivy didn’t bead up on top much like some other down bags there, but it was 95% dry the next morning and kept me toasty the whole time. I generally run this exped pad most the year except summer camping. Again I get cold quick if static and I don’t want to be miserable on a hunting trip because I can’t sleep, so I’ll carry a few extra ounces to sleep better. I’ve been too warm in my zen bivy a few times as I use it year round, but the nice part is you can just vent it a bit and get the right air flow to keep you comfy. I do want to get one of their lighter quilts for summer camping eventually, just haven’t yet.
All in all, this was a great experience and something I will likely do again next winter after changing up my system a bit this summer/fall to try and optimize a few things. I think my first change will probably be a set of wool net base layers. They dry quicker, provide air space to keep you warmer, and allow you to cool quicker when moving. No one at the course that completed the drill had them, but my boyfriend got a set after we got back and hasn’t worn any other base layers since hardly. I’m going to play with some Alpha Direct or maybe Octa fabric based mid layers to see how they do as well. Highly recommend trying this out to anyone that spends a lot of time in the woods, especially if you're doing it in crappy or cold weather. There were multiple people that said "wow this did way worse than I thought it would" or the opposite as well. You don't know what you don't know and experience is the best teacher. No bad weather, just bad clothes.
