Cold weather backpacking

[Sapper]

I want to hear some cold weather backcountry strategies/tips/secrets, etc. I've been out in CO for elk in the second rifle and camped out by the truck. We slept ok but it was in the teens and low 20's most nights and damn cold. It got pretty warm during the day and although I still got hooked on elk hunting I gotta admit, once the sun went down so did my excitement. I love challenges and love taking a good beating once in a while but I gotta say that staying out in that cold took a lot of fun out of it. Especially after a few days. So I just want to hear some of your expieriences, tips and ideas on how to beat the cold when you're out there several days with nothing but a pack.

 

[Bulldawg]

Fire.. makes things a little warmer when the sun goes down. If you're by the truck get a big cot with a big foam pad and a big canvas sleeping bag, more comfortable than my bed at home.

 

[Poser]

Boil a pot of water, pour it into a bottle, wrap it up in a fleece jacket and throw it in the bottom of your sleeping bag. You'll be surprised how much heat it puts out. Of course, nothing beats a stove setup in your tent. Wake up, stoke up the fire and then go back to sleep for 20-30 minutes. Before you go to bed, stoke up the stove big time -get that thing rockin' hot and turn your tent into a dry sauna for 10 minutes or so. This will get your core temp good and warm and give you a chance to get comfortably settled in your bag. I like to get into my bag and cinch it down for a few minutes until I'm on the verge of being uncomfortably warm, then vent some heat out. If you start the night out warm, its easier to stay warm all night. If you start out cold, you spend a lot of time and energy catching up. Also, before bed, make some hot tea and add a generous amount of butter to it. Eat something fatty for desert, too.

 

[larryschwartz]

Add a hooded puffy jacket to your gear and put it on in the morning when you first get up and in the evening when the sun dips below the horizon and it starts to get cold. It will do a good job of keeping your body heat where you want it to be.

Like Poser, my bedtime routine includes emptying my bladder before getting into bed so I don't have to waste BTUs keeping that water at 98.6* all night. I also take a small drink of water and eat some milk chocolate so I have some calories to burn during the night to keep my metabolism going.

Having your sleeping quarters warm before you go to bed, as mentioned above, is a great way to make your night more comfortable. Also, getting fully undressed when you get into your bag will warm it up much faster than if you are wearing your clothes. You can always add layers if you need to, but wearing clothes will slow down warming up your bag so it can keep you warm.

I use a collapsable wood stove from Kifaru in my tipi. It does a great job of warming it up at night and is easy to set up and use. I will have it going as I got to bed. It will burn out during the night but I keep two loads of wood next to it, one for during the night if I want/need to get the fire going again and one for the morning as described above.

Hope this helped,

Larry

 

[larryschwartz]

Also, a knit cap with gloves and socks on your extremeties will do a lot to keep you warm, both during the day and when in your sleeping bag.

Also, make sure you have a good insulating layer between you and the ground. I use an insulated Big Agnes air mattress (blow it up, not a self inflating style).

 

[Darren Best]

Your clothing system, sleep system and shelter are where you need to pay the most attention to.

Clothing system;

Go with a heavier base layer such as medium or arctic weight, merino wool is pretty good, but dries slower than synthetic.

Take a synthetic sweater and or a down vest to add to your layering system.

Either take an extra pair of socks or use vapor barrier sock liners. Feet sweat a lot and get cold easily once your socks are damp, a vapor barrier sock prevents perspiration from your feet getting your socks wet.

Extra pair of gloves and make sure they are water proof before you leave. I like having a "work" pair of gloves that I use for doing anything that's going to get them wet. Rubber insulated gloves work good for this.

Keep your head and neck covered and warm, most heat loss happens through these two places. That means a hooded puffy jacket, knit cap and a scarf or neck gaiter.

Don't sweat, either layer down or slow down so you don't get your base layer wet. When you stop moving, layer up right away rather than waiting until you are cold.

Put your hard shell on, it cuts the wind and makes you feel much warmer, it also keeps snow away from your insulation layers.

Sleep system;

Add an extra 20 degrees to a bags rating, 30 if you are a cold sleeper from a warm part of the country.

Get a Kifaru Doobie or Hill People Gear Mountain Serape, this has more uses than you think.

I like a minimum of R6 in a sleeping pad, that's the absolute lowest I would consider for winter camping. My Downmat XP9 is a whopping three pounds, but you will never feel cold ground through it.

Wear your base layer and clothing layer to bed, so if you wake up in the middle of the night you won't freeze when you have to get out of bed. I have worn my entire clothing system a few times. As long as you select your clothes properly, they will stay dry.

Shelter;

Either get a four season tent or a tipi with a stove. A four season uses stronger materials to deal with wind and snow and will also warm up a little inside just from body heat.

Get the fire in the stove cranking red hot when you are sitting around in the evening to get your clothes and boots dry. I like to let it die down in the evening so I don't sweat while I'm sleeping.

If you take a four season tent, build a big log cabin type fire. Use five or six foot long logs and make it four or five feet high. It will burn all night long and melt it's way down through six feet of snow overnight.



If the snow is deep enough you can build windbreak walls around your shelter and make furniture to sit on. Take an extra foam pad to sit on the snow with.

If you have snow use a ski pulk to haul your extra gear. Get a good axe and bow saw or a chain saw if you are close to your truck.

This is an igloo I built on one of our trips, in this pic it's a month old and partially melted the weekend I made it, so it looks lopsided. But it froze solid later and several of the boys climbed up on top to try and smash and couldn't.

 

[Stwrt9]

that's one serious fire!

 

[dunner543]

As others have said the stove in your tipi/tarp is a game changer. This year was the first time I'd used that setup and we only made a normal fire the first two nights out of habit until we realized it was just way nicer in the tent with the stove going. Gets way to hot in there though real fast so keeping it cool enough to be livable was the hard part. We'd just let it go out a bit before going to bed then pack it full of kindling and stuff before going to sleep. In the morning I would just worm a bit out of my bag and start the fire again then climb back in while the tent was warming up. Sooooo much easier to get out of your warm bag in the morning when the tent is warm.

 

[Sapper]

Great tips! And one hell of a fire! I forgot to mention we'll be backpacking and sleeping in hammocks so we won't have a wood stove. I'd like to build a fire like Darren though! I was looking into puffy jackets and pants to wear first thing in the morning and at night while setting up. How about using a bladder system? I have one but didn't use it last time. Does anyone have issues with the tube being frozen or the bladder itself for that matter?

 

[outdoorsman_3]

I would not use a hammock. Get a tent it will hold in the heat better. Often times out tent is 10-15 degrees warmer than outside just from body heat.

 

[dreamingbig]

Take the hammock if you really want to test your sleep system! Like others have said you might freeze your rear off but you will gain experience of what not to do!

 

[backcountry1pr]

Another vote for not using a hammock. I can't think of a better way to loose heat to the atmosphere or have a less comfortable place to be if it's cold. I am a backpack hunter as well. I use a floorless shelter and find it to be pretty comfy/light, as well as adequate for CO in your time frame.

Reading through, I saw a lot of good suggestions. I would also suggest that knowing yourself is the best first step you cant take as you can plan around yourself. But also, don't let the "fear" of cold override all else. You aren't ever going to beat the cold.

Once it gets dark/cold, think about all your actions from the perspective of potential thermal loss. Protect and preserve the heat you produce. Sleeping/hanging out with a warm hat on, have a bag warmer than the temps you expect if you are a cold sleeper, and eating a bit of something fatty before settling down are all suggestions made above that I would reiterate.

The other that I would add is that your sleeping bag is a warm and comfy place to be. When it's cold and dark, don't fight hunkering down for the evening. When I'm out solo and it's cold, once its dark and I have eaten, I head to bed. No reason to stay up outside my bag and force my body to work harder.

Don't go overboard and be that guy with the expedition weight gear and 15 layers, either. You will be to hot, work too hard, and waste a bunch of energy trying to find your equilibrium on that end of the spectrum to.

 

[Whaledriver]

I echo what others say above. One thing that was not mentioned was the mental aspect of hunting. Elk hunting is mentally tough. That being said buying quality gear helps with that. I like knowing at the end of the day that I have a warm sleeping bag, warm meal, and shelter over my head. A fire also makes a difference. If raining or nasty...a nice hot tent stove.

 

[mtnrunner260]

The water bladder hose will likely freeze. You can get an insulated hose sleeve and that helps.
You can blow the water back into the bladder so its not in the hose. You can tuck the hose back into your pack and that helps too.
Or just use a water bottle like a nalgene.
Neither the nalgene or the bladder should freeze in your pack unless its well below average temps and has a high wind chill.

 

[bpctcb]

I believe a tipi w/stove would keep you the warmest; but a good hammock setup can be as warm as a tipi/tent that is lacking a stove.

You must have a good underquilt for the hammock to work. I run a Hammock Gear 0* Incubator and its amazing.

You need a good tarp to keep the wind off you. I run a Hennessy hex tarp with doors added by 2qZq.

I would suggest a quality hammock that is easy to mate to your underquilt. I run a Jacks-R-Better bridge hammock that is super easy to get a underquilt to seal up to.

Add your warm top quilt/sleeping bag and stick a beanie on your head and you're good to go.

BP

 

[Sapper]

I believe a tipi w/stove would keep you the warmest; but a good hammock setup can be as warm as a tipi/tent that is lacking a stove.

You must have a good underquilt for the hammock to work. I run a Hammock Gear 0* Incubator and its amazing.

You need a good tarp to keep the wind off you. I run a Hennessy hex tarp with doors added by 2qZq.

I would suggest a quality hammock that is easy to mate to your underquilt. I run a Jacks-R-Better bridge hammock that is super easy to get a underquilt to seal up to.

Add your warm top quilt/sleeping bag and stick a beanie on your head and you're good to go.

BP

I'm glad to hear that! I have a Hennessy exp asym hammock with hammock gear 0* burrow & incubator top/bottom quilts and the Hennessy hex tarp. I just haven't had the chance to try the quilts out in the cold yet. Giving it a shot in a week or two.

 

[CrzyTrekker]

Tipi with stove. Period.

 

[aclawrence]

I also have a 0 deg incubator and a 20 deg burrow that have kept me pretty toasty. Hammock systems do have more of a learning curve but man I sleep so much better than on the ground. I'm using a warbonnet superfly tarp that i really like also.

 

[bcimport]

Of all the things I've done and upgraded to make extended cold and bad weather trips more palatable a stove in the tent is number one. Can't be beat and it would be hard to leave at home unless I know I'll be above timberline for the whole time. Even then if everything is wet and miserable it's better to drop to treeline, dry out and warm up and then get at it again vs packing it in and going home.

 

[Darren Best]

Word has that after a two year hiatus troop 228 will be heading back to Montana for the annual snow caving camping trip in March. The trip takes place just east of the Idaho/Montana state line from Lookout Pass ski resort. The reason we go here is because the snow pack usually surpasses 6 feet by March. This provides plenty of deep snow for the boys to dig snow caves in. We missed a year due to very low snow pack and another because too many of the boys were green and had little to no experience with cold weather camping.

I will be sure to take plenty of pictures and post them up for people curious about how it's done.

As noted earlier, forget the water bladders, the tubes will freeze. Water bottles work much better and serve multiple purposes. You can fill one up with hot water and wrap it in a sweater and put it in your sleeping bag with you. Fill two up and put them in your boots (cover them up with your jacket) overnight to keep them from freezing.