Floorless Tent With Stove in the Snow

[well_known_rokslider]

I have a SO Cimarron with a Lite Outdoors stove. I keep reading about people using pieces of Tyvek when camping in the snow to stay dry and keep things clean, but I also read that the benefit of the floorless tents is that you can run a stove . These points seem to conflict in my mind.

Questions are: can you run a stove with a ground sheet? I presume you'd want to put down some rocks or logs under the stove to protect the Tyvek, but I do this anyway when I'm camping without snow or a floor. How do you all run your stoves in snow? Tarp only under your bags?

I did a reasonable amount of searching for the answer to this but there are so many floorless posts that after going through the first page of results I gave up. Sorry if the answer is already out there somewhere.

 

[Tim in Wa.]

you only use a ground sheet where you sleep typically no the entire footprint of the shelter

 

[11boo]

Only my experience. In the winter, I just bring a small carpet scrap to put next to my cot. You will be dragging in a lot of mud if the temps are right, any floor gets wrecked with it, so I just live with a dirt floor.

In the fall, typically dry, all that dirt turns to fine dust that covers everything. I bring a lot of carpet then. I’m still looking for an ideal fall floor solution.

 

[hh76]

Either bring something to protect the floor under the stove, or don't have a floor under it. I would keep the flooring under the sleeping area only, if it were my set up. You drag a lot of snow in with your boots, and end up with puddles if walking on a floor. The floor also slips around a lot on top of the compacted and melted layer of snow, and can be tough to walk on.

Place the stove on a couple of longer sticks/logs so that it doesn't sink into the snow.

 

[Wapiti151]

I used the same shelter this year in Alaska. We slept on the snow, floorless for 6 nights with no issue at all. What we do is leave everything as is and sleep on the snow, stove on the snow, etc. I use a Mountain Laurel bivvy and absolutely love it. Bring a small ground sheet for my gear, but sleep in the water proof bivvy.

 

[well_known_rokslider]

Only my experience. In the winter, I just bring a small carpet scrap to put next to my cot. You will be dragging in a lot of mud if the temps are right, any floor gets wrecked with it, so I just live with a dirt floor.

In the fall, typically dry, all that dirt turns to fine dust that covers everything. I bring a lot of carpet then. I’m still looking for an ideal fall floor solution.

Thanks for the feed back, you seem to be bringing in a lot more than I can carry!

Either bring something to protect the floor under the stove, or don't have a floor under it. I would keep the flooring under the sleeping area only, if it were my set up. You drag a lot of snow in with your boots, and end up with puddles if walking on a floor. The floor also slips around a lot on top of the compacted and melted layer of snow, and can be tough to walk on.

Place the stove on a couple of longer sticks/logs so that it doesn't sink into the snow.

I kind of planned on taking boots off and smacking the snow off outside before I got in. You're probably right, thanks!

I used the same shelter this year in Alaska. We slept on the snow, floorless for 6 nights with no issue at all. What we do is leave everything as is and sleep on the snow, stove on the snow, etc. I use a Mountain Laurel bivvy and absolutely love it. Bring a small ground sheet for my gear, but sleep in the water proof bivvy.

Was melting an non-issue? Was everything packed down so hard that it stayed frozen?

 

[Wapiti151]

Thanks for the feed back, you seem to be bringing in a lot more than I can carry!


I kind of planned on taking boots off and smacking the snow off outside before I got in. You're probably right, thanks!


Was melting an non-issue? Was everything packed down so hard that it stayed frozen?

Melting wasn’t really an issue, just make sure you’re on a gradual downslope and it won’t pool. Obviously some will melt. The water proof bivvy is worth its 10 oz in gold…my pad and sleeping bag lived in there all 6 days. I never once got wet. It was a non issue overall, well worth it to have that damn stove though. My down bag never got so much as damp, and even if it did…drying it with the stove would be a breeze. The biggest pain is the condensation if it’s good and cold out, but it is to be expected with a single wall tent and it’s not worth the bulkiness and weight of the liner IMO. We had a night of 40 mph winds ( SO tent handled it like a champ) one night which caused it to rain in our tent for about 10 min until all the condensation was gone…once again, ML Designs bivvy saved the day and I stayed completely dry. The bivvy is also great in summer or warmer archery/scouting trips cause I’ll just bring that and skip the tent all together. I’d trade anything in my sleep system tomorrow, except my bivvy…and I don’t think there is a better one on the market that tops mountain laurel. Go floor less, get a bivvy, leave the ground sheet behind unless you want it for your gear and never look back. The bivvy also keeps everything together really nicely, never have to worry about rolling off your pad when you and the rest of your system is all contained.

Pics of our trip below. You’ll see in the one pic of inside the tent, most of the snow had melted by about day 4, especially in our high traffic areas. There was still a lot up where our heads were.

 

[452b264]

I use a heavy duty space blanket thats always in my pack. I looks like a tarp on one side and a space blanket on the other. I ve had two of them for about 25 years.
If you zoom in the ground cover is to the left of the stove.

 

[well_known_rokslider]

The bivy method does sound interesting. Never would have considered one with the tent. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[JR Greenhorn]

Don't shovel the snow away (frozen ground gets muddy as it thaws), don't leave the snow fluffy (you'll get frozen divots from feet, knees, elbows and hips), but pack the snow for the tent's footprint with boots or an avalanche shovel before you set it up.

We've also learned that it feels noticeably warmer inside the tent if you cover every square inch of snow with something.

Just put the stove on the snow or ground, with pieces of wood under the legs to keep it from sinking into the thawing mud.


I have a couple sheets of house wrap for my tents (one is a SO Redcliff Light). I've used the wrap a lot, and the surface has developed frizzy soft fibers that chunks of compressed snow freeze to, which is a pain for packing up. When you eventually put the roll of wrap someplace warm (vehicle, garage, house), it thaws and makes a mess.

We've had the best luck with casualty blankets. I don't know if the reflective side does anything significant, but the snow doesn't stick, and the mud is easy to clean off with fresh snow.

 

[Newtosavage]

Pics of our trip below. You’ll see in the one pic of inside the tent, most of the snow had melted by about day 4, especially in our high traffic areas. There was still a lot up where our heads were.

View attachment 363770View attachment 363771View attachment 363772

I mean, I'm all for roughing it but just damn. That first pic is hard core.

 

[well_known_rokslider]

Don't shovel the snow away (frozen ground gets muddy as it thaws), don't leave the snow fluffy (you'll get frozen divots from feet, knees, elbows and hips), but pack the snow for the tent's footprint with boots or an avalanche shovel before you set it up.

We've also learned that it feels noticeably warmer inside the tent if you cover every square inch of snow with something.

Just put the stove on the snow or ground, with pieces of wood under the legs to keep it from sinking into the thawing mud.


I have a couple sheets of house wrap for my tents (one is a SO Redcliff Light). I've used the wrap a lot, and the surface has developed frizzy soft fibers that chunks of compressed snow freeze to, which is a pain for packing up. When you eventually put the roll of wrap someplace warm (vehicle, garage, house), it thaws and makes a mess.

We've had the best luck with casualty blankets. I don't know if the reflective side does anything significant, but the snow doesn't stick, and the mud is easy to clean off with fresh snow.

Thanks JR!

 

[Mansfield Outdoors]

Tentipi's Nordic tipi's have optional floors with built-in zipper options. They can be opened into a "V" shape for instance to allow a place to drop muddy boots etc. while keeping the bedding areas covered. The "O" shape is nice for opening up a circle in the middle of the tent for a wood stove or open fire. An additional "U" shape is also available on their PRO floor models.

 

[well_known_rokslider]

Tentipi's Nordic tipi's have optional floors with built-in zipper options. They can be opened into a "V" shape for instance to allow a place to drop muddy boots etc. while keeping the bedding areas covered. The "O" shape is nice for opening up a circle in the middle of the tent for a wood stove or open fire. An additional "U" shape is also available on their PRO floor models.

Looks very nice but a bit too heavy and a tad too expensive for my game plan just yet. Thanks for the info though!

 

[Pony Soldier]

This won't fit most of you but I figured I would share. We always put in a wall tent for hunting season. We constructed a three log high surround on three sides of the tent to keep the snow out. Inside the tent I placed a 10 inch log across the floor to set out the sleeping area. Then we filled that area with weed free straw about 10 inches deep. That got covered with a canvas tarp. In the front portion of the tent we built up an area on one side for the stove. We covered that with flat rocks for a fire proof zone. Opposite of that we kept a bale of hay covered with a canvas tarp to cover the floor and the hay bale. It gave a place to take off your boots and a place to let them dry over night. A rope on the roof pole provided a place to hang your wet clothes. Your guns fit between the bale and the sleeping area where you can dry and oil them each night.

Another set of tarps over the tent ( roughly 4 inches above) stops your breath from condensing on the roof. If not then it melts when you light the stove in the morning and it will rain in the tent. The outside tarps should cover the area in front of the tent for about 10 ft. We have cooked out there and even dined out there in the warmth of the stove by opening the tent flap.

The last piece of a good planning is including an old guy in your camp with a small bladder that will get up every three hours and restoke the stove.

I have built 6 of these camps over the years. If you build in the timber near a spring, the trees will protect you from the cold as well as the heat. I have hunted comfortably with -10 nights.

Not a backpack camp but what we have done successfully over the years. I quit camping when my kids moved out.

 

[slatty]

I use a silcone baking sheet under the wood stove, and a piece of tyvek under my bed. The great benefit of the floorless shelter is that it doesn't matter how dirty your boots are, you take them off in your shelter and put them on when you get out of bed.