Winter Camping is as wild as its gets; it is hard, cold and has risks. This type of camping is full of benefits for example the insect populations is long gone and winter can sooth you with its beauties and the calm of stillness. Some of the greatest aspect of nature are only discoverable during winter, and so many people miss them because they are afraid of the cold. You shouldn’t be, humans have adapted to these situations for millennium and now more than ever it is easy to go camp in the harshest conditions there is.
However, its takes a bit more preparation then other type of camping for getting food is harder, moving around tougher and the cold can be deadly if ill prepared. It is a good thing to know some tricks to face those cold nights!
Here are some winter camping tricks that I promise will make your night’s warmer and winter camping a lot more comfortable. Being prepared and knowing those tricks is the key to success.
1. Before going take a look at the weather forecast for the region. Getting caught in a snow is pretty much the only danger there is, and it can be easily avoided if you care slightly cautious.
2. Take two sleeping bags and put one sleeping bag inside of another to sleep in. This is only useful for the coldest nights. Having a good winter sleeping bag usually is enough to face the coldest nights.
3. Bring additional blankets. Place those blankets under the sleeping bag and you can put some over it also. Those extra layers will give some insulation from the cold ground.
4. Have some hot sleeping gear. You need some clothes that are easy to sleep in but that can also keep the warmth during the night, wool hat and some polyester works well.
5. Never let any of your clothe get wet. Once they are wet they will take a lot of time to dry and if you don’t have spare pieces, you will freeze badly.
6. Have a good winter sleeping bag, I usually take Mummy type. Info on winter sleeping bag
7. Tent: get a 4 season tent. If not you are taking risks, you would need to bring extra blanket to compensate.
8. Have a pair of gloves that offer manoeuvrability. Nothing is as frustrating as taking off your gloves because you are unable to do some tasks with it. You will lose heath, and might drop the gloves in snow.
9. Always have some spare wood in your tent that you keep dry. You might need it for whatever reason and it is a wise precaution to have some wood that is ready to burn really fast.
10. Have more than less hot food and liquid and reserves. If you hit a storm and are stuck in the tent without provision, it is bad…
11. Place your tent in a way to reduce the impact of the wind. That way less cold will enter your tent and leach the warmth.
12. Protect your fire from the wind. You can build a wind-guard by making a pile of snow near it. Make sure the snow won’t fall INTO the fire, lighting it off.
13. Absolutely no flame, heaters or warm rocks in tents. If the tent burns and left you unprotected or even worst, burns you alive, once again it is bad. Having some chemical hand warmers in the tent is always a good idea.
14. Eat regularly. A lot of your energy is spent keeping your body warm, eating often will give you the required energy.
15. During a cold day, apply the 3 layer system. It is the best way to keep warm and prevent sweating that can be very dangerous in cold conditions.
Applying these 15 tricks is a start and will keep you going in the dead of winter. For a lot of campers winter camping is the best type of camping there is, it truly is a unique experience.
