It's nearly autumn and I've always wanted to go fall camping, but never had the proper gear or knowledge for it. How do I keep warm at night without spending millions of dollars on a second set of high tech winter gear, or carrying massive bulky quilts? I have a 3 season tent that has no way to cover 3 of the 4 mesh windows letting a breeze in and heat out, and I have a sleeping bag rated for 5C (41F) comfort (it's actually closer to 8-9 for me since I'm a skeletor with no body fat).
I'll be camping in Northern Ontario which starts to drop below 0C (32F) at night in mid-October. I already have a full body merino base layer, which helps a lot, but won't be enough if it goes below freezing. On my latest camping trip it dipped to about 6C in early morning and I was uncomfortably cold even wearing my hoodie in bed.
I was fine in 0F with just a puffy, a thermal, an inflatable pad and a 10F down quilt (enlightened equipment).
You don't go outside.
Get a better sleeping bag, for starters. No avoiding that, get one that’s real down not synthetic. I’ve got a synthetic good for -5C or so but it’s huge and I regret not going for down every time. Other than that, get a foam Z pad and get a cheap inflatable pad off Amazon. Also get a Mylar blanket and some 3M pro grade spray on contact cement. Unpack the inflatable pad, douse that shit with contact cement, and apply the Mylar for a dirt cheap insulated inflatable pad (shiny side towards the pad). You’ll be sleeping on both of those atop each other.
Then get a new tent that you can actually close up and you’ll be Gucci.
That is, apply the Mylar and cement to one side of the inflatable pad. I guess you could apply it to both if you felt like it and it should still work fine but it’s not what I did with mine.
moronic plan
Cold weather gear is actually some of the cheaper stuff to get imho, the military Extreme Cold Weather Clothing System (ECWCS) is very affordable and performs pretty great- sometimes too great as you’d want to not sweat as much.
Things like a Bivy will increase the warmth of your sleeping bag at the cost of some weight, marginal if its something thin like Tyvek but the military Goretex ones have been alright. The tradeoff is condensation.
Mylar is great but it works weirdly, different than a normal blanket almost as its very thin and works by reflecting body heat- neat stuff. The Z-lite this guy recommended is also phenomenal, I like the folding pads much more than rolls/inflatables as the inflatables almost always spring a leak and with the Z you can tailor it to your body size- remove segments for maybe camp use as sitting pad.
Something else that I like is using a woobie (poncho liner) as another layer of insulation in the cold, all these things combined work great but be careful not to bring too much stuff as it’s heavy- experiment with caution.
A warm light sleeping bag is very expensive. A warm heavy sleeping bag suitable for car camping is like $50.
It’s okay in moderation. I like mine with a dash of Splenda and some heavy cream.
Favorite though is a breve though, really hard to get a decent foam with your average counter top unit though.
10/10
I'm sure you can find similar products if you don't want milsurp but I have slept in these down to 0 F and never been cold. We didn't even have tents. Your tent is not a thermal device it's really just there to keep you dry.
Literally just put a sleeping bag inside another sleeping bag. That's all this is, a warm weather one and cold weather one but the cold is meant to be used with the warm as a duo.
Bivy optional, it's for staying dry but if you have a tent then isn't necessary. It has no warming properties
I mean, $300 Euros is like $400 CAD which is more than my entire current sleeping setup including the tent. And that thing is massive to boot so I couldn't fit it in my pack. Wouldn't it make more sense to just bring a huge quilt in a stuff sack at that point?
Yeah, I have a big warm sleeping bag for the cottage but there's no way I'm taking that thing on a bushwhack hike or canoeing.
Canoeing is practically car camping unless you have to portage.
>unless you have to portage
which you almost always will unless you're doing some granny trip on a single lake straight from the boat launch.
>rivers don't exist
ok
Most rivers have unpassable sections at some point. You can't really avoid portages on a multi-day canoe trip, at least here in Ontario
Can we stop shilling the MSS? It was only good when it was 80 bucks used. The system is mostly useless to average person.
Alt take, put the foam on top of your inflatable. The foam material doesn't feel icy like the inflatable plastic does. I think something to do with glass transition temp? Weird but confirmed it for myself several times.
Second or third on going to sleep warm. You are your heat source, your shit is just insulation to keep the hot thing hot. Get a buff to cover your face as much as you can as well, don't breath into your bag.
Bring your wife and keep eachother warm. It's the best.
SEXO
Imagine the smell
I will share every trick I know of in order to stay warmer.
Get a sleeping bag liner like thermalite reactor
Do something about those mesh windows, wind/moving air will cool you down. If it's a double wall tent condensation will stick to the outer wall anyway.
Sleep with a beanie, warm socks, and thin gloves.
What keeps you warm when you sleep is trapped air between layers of insulation:
Wear you merino base layer. Sleep in the liner, in the bag. Put a puffy jacket, or just a jacket, on top of the sleeping bag (warning: not so heavy you kill the loft in the sleeping bag - remember, trapped air).
Empty out your backpack and put the foot end of your sleeping bag in it (seriously - this trick has helped me a ton)
Warm up before you go to bed - some jumping jacks, for example. VERY IMPORTANT: don't break a sweat, or be so warm that you soak yourself yourself in sweat in the sleeping bag. You will wake up cold later on when the sweat cools off your body as it evaporates. You should be comfortably warm but never sweat.
Eat something energy rich before going to bed - metabolism keeps you warm (grease and proteins, or a chocolate bar). If you wake up cold, eat. Metabolism warms you up.
Some people put hot water bottles in the sleeping bag, I don't - if they leak during the night you go from being hot to having a potential hypothermic emergency on your hand.
Oh shit yeah I forgot, check your sleeping pad's R value, and if needed, get a warmer one or a foam pad to put underneath. R values add to each other, and when the ground is at 0° anything in contact with it will leech heat fast.
These seem like pretty good protips, especially the one about putting your feet in your bag. Thanks anon. I just picked up a sleeping bag liner yesterday, and I forgot that I have a foam pad I can use along with my sleeping pad (which has an R value of 4.4 or so, should be enough for the fall). I'm also thinking of just bringing a rolled up blanket, folding it in half and covering my sleeping bag with it. I can probably fit it in my pack if I try.
In the off-chance that you also have the insulated klymit inflatable, (originally they advertise 4.4r-value) they recently put it throught the ASTM and it turns out it's real r-value is like 1.9
nah it's a mec vecair. Canadian companies with reputations to uphold can't get away with lying about R-value.
Good ones.
More PRO TIPS:
>Merino 'warm when wet' meme
A great solution for sleeping systems or climates with condensation issues! "Warm when wet" doesn't actually work when the wool is saturated. But when it does work excellently is when the wool is slightly damp. Which is exactly what happens if you get condensation or a wet toebox when you sleep etc.
>Sleep with a beanie, warm socks, and thin gloves.
EXTREME EDITION: double socks, or down booties, and a balaclava.
>Foam sit pad (example: z seat)
Put it underneath your torso to raise the R value of the most important part of your sleep pad.
>Reflectix sit pad (oversized)
It will offer barely any insulation if slept on, but TONS if you put it into a U shape around your feet or head and let it radiate your breath or body heat. If you're a back sleeper and can tolerate breathing into it you can get stupidly toasty from a 60 gram multi purpose piece of kit.
>Empty out your backpack and put the foot end of your sleeping bag in it
Echoing this one because its such a good tip.
This also works with large ziplocs, drybags, even a rain jacket and some cordage, whatever you have that is most water-proof.
>Eat something energy rich before going to bed
My version: keep a little plastic vape juice bottle full of olive oil on you at all times. Nutritional density booster for your meals. or chug it before bed to stay warm.
>I'm going to get hypothermia help i fricked up
Stay awake all night and hike through the night or do pushups and you won't get hypothermia. Don't fall asleep or you'll die.
>Vestibule-chads
You don't want your gear exposed to the elements and you also don't want to sleep with it if its wet. Consider that when picking shelters or pitching your tarp.
>Campsite selection
is the most important but i can tell you nothing useful online you need experience with your region and backpacking in general
Hey,
here, these are nice ones, thanks! Can't believe I haven't thought of the sit pad hack, as I often bring one but have never thought of it as multipurpose. Campsite selection is a great one too (just something as basic as altitude, really, but also stuff like wind and humidity).
We'll all be toasty this fall bros
>How do I keep warm at night
MEC nighthawk should be good to -4C. Use a sheet bag, you can get polar fleece ones. Change of clothes before bed. Don't wear sweaty clothes to bed. A 3 season tent should be fine in Ontario's October unless you are in Sioux Lookout.
Also, has good tips.
Can you build your own fire pit? If so dog a trench as long as your body and get a bed of hot coal going end to end. Sleep near that and you’ll feel the warmth all night
if you cook in bags one of my favorite pieces of kit is: oversized reflectix pot cozy. design it to be the size of your sleeping bag's footbox plus 5-6 inches air gap. too warm above freezing. hybrid between radiative insulation and anon's backpack method which i use.
usable as your cook bag cozy, just weighs 2x as much which is still very light.
?t=469 this with a lid on it basically, if anons have a hard time picturing what i mean. i make mine a little bigger too since it needs air gap to work. iirc mines 100 grams.
>How do I keep warm at night without spending millions of dollars
Hell yeah. Buddy Heater is a fricking hack. Too bad the propane tank weighs more than my sleeping bag otherwise I'd carry this shit on all my backpacking trips, but it's great for short trips under a couple miles
Bring an umbrella against showers and maybe one or two extra fleece blankets (they go for less than 10€ here) in case it gets nippy at night.
I use a Carnthia Defence 1, basically good to 10°C alone, even in the winter. If it gets really cold you can find me with three fleece blankets.
Also make sure you have a good sleeping pad.
To stay warm, fill hot water into a bottle and wrap a towel and maybe a tshirt around it. It will keep you warm for hours! Forget the homosexual that say they leak, never happened to me, you have to close the bottle, obviously.
That's it. Cheap fleece blankets, a good sleeping pad and hot water bottles.
they do sell 12 hour heat pack if you want those
That view is nice, but the sad thing is she'd still rather be in Tyrone's section 8 apartment taking his bbc
I've been camping in the fall and winter in the Southwest US for decades. These are my tricks:
0F mummy bag
wool socks over fresh new socks for sleeping,
long johns under sweat pants
thermal shirt, long sleeve t shirt, and a heavy sweater preferably with wool liner
beanie and gloves (toque as you guys call it)
one inflatable sleeping pad touching the ground and then a foam thermalite egg crate pad with the silver side facing you
cheap fleece blanket you cocoon yourself in
I've slept in 0F weather using this system and was fine. The mummy bag is important, it traps all your body heat.
Another tricks is to use rocks from around the fire and put them near your tent as close as possible without burning the tent and if you do it right you get all that radiant heat.
The best solution to be honest though is using the same setup but instead of sleeping on the floor you sleep in a cot and put the rocks directly under the cot. Cot is so nice in the winter, I can sleep in freezing temperatures with no problems using my setup
Basically, the more layers you have, the less likely you get cold. But the wool socks and mummy bag are important. You can get a nice Ozark trail Leaf mummy bag rated 0F for like under $100 American
That looks like she’d be super cold