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LOL Greg -- but the kind of beaver you can trap in a bar won't net you the same amount at the fur trader, and might just land you in jail or the doctor's office - heeeeee.
I also keep a wide mouth bottle filled with tang in a wool sock in the system. This is risky as you know, but with care I have never had a leak. I prefer to make up the tang really hot, and use it as a bag/ body warmer, but in the morning it's slush.
Oh yeah, I totally forgot about this!! I sleep with my boppy, too! I have my wide-mouth bottle that I keep upside down in my boot (so it freezes at the bottom first and you can still drink from the top), and use the 3 liter hydration bag from my pack as a pillow.
But I would be WARM. I like WARM. I went to 'Nam instead of Antarctica because it was WARM. What you can get in a bar in Barbados will really keep you WARM.
I tried winter camping in upstate NY when I was a kid. I got really cold. I don't like cold.
missing, would you mind posting the links you provided in the stickied link thread at the top of the forum. it might be beneficial to others as well in the future.
mw
I created a Useful Gear post on the sticky thread with links to this discussion and a few others. DM me if you find other gear discussions that could go on there. (Gear not being guns LOL)
But I would be WARM. I like WARM. I went to 'Nam instead of Antarctica because it was WARM. What you can get in a bar in Barbados will really keep you WARM.
I tried winter camping in upstate NY when I was a kid. I got really cold. I don't like cold.
Yes, I've actually gone into the walk-in meat lockers at our butcher's place just to warm up!
LMAO!!!
I thought I was the only one to have ever done that!!
I don't know about your place, but here we have very low humidity, and in the winter espcially you can dehydrate quickly. Having water is a serious necessity.
I made a capote a few years ago out of a wool blanket that has a pocket inside on the chest where you can keep your water bottle warm.
My Capote is nice because I made it long, and can tie up the ends for walking, or let them down and it becomes a sleeping blanket.
Wind is a big issue here because most of the state East of the Divide has a non stop wind going that can be over 100 MPH. (Talk about wind chill ) It isnt always like that, but there is normally wind, and usually over 20 mph.
Anyway, you learn quick what "the lee of the hill" means. Windbreaks and shelters become a very serious business here. You have to be careful with this also because snow will drift and settle in the still areas where the wind isn't hitting and can bury you or a cornice builds up that can collapse on you,
One of my favorite situations that follows the storyline of this thread happened when a friend of mine and I were hunting. It had been a nice October day in the upper 20 degree range, but no snow. I was using my blankets and he had a very nice down sleeping bag. We camped, and I made a lean-to out of some poles lying around braced against a boulder. He wanted to sleep out in the open by the fire.
Next morning I woke up and it had snowed about 16 inches overnight. I couldn't find my friend!
I yelled for him, and one end of a snowdrift shook a little and his head stuck out asking what was wrong?
He was well insulated in his bag, it was a dry fluffy snow, and he was warm as toast in his snowdrift!!
Cold is best thought of as mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter. it is amazing how you can adapt to extreme conditions quickly and become comfortable at temperatures you would normally expect to be frozen solid at.
I don't know about your place, but here we have very low humidity, and in the winter espcially you can dehydrate quickly. Having water is a serious necessity.
Yup since we live in the same place, I can confirm that the humidity is normally "trace". Of course the colder it gets, the lower the absolute humidity, even though the relative humidity might be the same. It's actually fun to watch when you open the door of your 70 degree cabin, to the -40 outside, and watch the fog roll across the floor as the air can't maintain it's water content, or the famous throwing a pot of boiling water into the air to vaporize. The only time we get anything approaching what could be considered normal humidity is for a week or two in the late spring (late May early June), even then it's only running at between 50%-70% relative
Quote:
Originally Posted by MTSilvertip
Cold is best thought of as mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter. it is amazing how you can adapt to extreme conditions quickly and become comfortable at temperatures you would normally expect to be frozen solid at.
Well it's like the effect in March up here, you'll see me in Jeans and a T shirt at zero degrees when it's calm. The sun's out and shining giving you the warming effect on your clothes, airs clear. That's normally the time I'm dropping the firewood for next year. Of course there's also the other problem, of getting too comfortable to the cold, where you forget to pay attention and you're suddenly dropping stuff in the snow and getting uncoordinated, and thinking "what's going on...".
LOL -- it's not uncommon for us to be running around outside in cut-off shorts and tank tops with knee-high snow boots in March because the sun has finally come back, even though it's only around freezing outside... but hey, it's at least 70 degrees warmer than it was a month beforehand!
Getting out of the wind is critical, and forming some sort of snow and wind break behind you can make a huge difference on whether you freeze or suffocate in the middle of the night or not If I don't have my fly, I'll at least try to set up a "head bivvy" using some sticks and my parka. The weatherproof bivvy bag works fine for the body, but it's terribly disconcerting to wake up with your head a foot or more under a snow drift. And nothing sucks worse then getting fine blown snow down around the face and neck of your mummy bag!
It's obvious to me that you know what you are talking about and the sleeping bag system you have put together would get the job done. Excellent post and information for the rest of us to read and think about. You can not survive cold weather extremes if you can't stay warm and dry. For those of us who live in cold climates, it is fool hardy to put off buying and putting together a sleeping bag system and being prepared for the worst.
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I have my wide-mouth bottle that I keep upside down in my boot (so it freezes at the bottom first and you can still drink from the top), and use the 3 liter hydration bag from my pack as a pillow.
) It isnt always like that, but there is normally wind, and usually over 20 mph.
If I don't have my fly, I'll at least try to set up a "head bivvy" using some sticks and my parka. The weatherproof bivvy bag works fine for the body, but it's terribly disconcerting to wake up with your head a foot or more under a snow drift. And nothing sucks worse then getting fine blown snow down around the face and neck of your mummy bag!
