14 Winter Camping Tips That Will Keep You Warm
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Here’s an essential guide that includes the best winter camping tips that will help you stay warm.
The human body is able to withstand temperatures of up to 42.3 degree Celsius (108.14 degree Fahrenheit) and as low as 4 degree Celsius (39.2 degree Fahrenheit). It is amazing to see that the human body is capable to withstand these temperatures but it also needs warmth to survive. Keeping warm isn’t only applied to our daily activities, it is also necessary to other activities such as camping, fishing, and more. With that said, let’s get into our guide to keeping warm while winter camping.
Winter Camping Tips
Keeping warm from the outside may vary from just clothes to tents and to more. Here are our winter camping tips to help you keeping warm and make the best out of it.
1. Know What To Wear
When you go on a trip, it is necessary to wear proper clothing such as long sleeved clothes and jackets for cold areas. You don’t want to suffer from a bad cold during your trip while wearing shorts and a singlet in the snow right?
2. Wear Layers Of Clothing
Camping in the winter or in cold areas may be fun but it is harsh to the skin, especially frostbites. That’s why wearing layers of clothing is necessary. Dressing in multiple layers including base layers, mid layers, jackets gives you better control over regulating body temperature. As you carry out your activities, do remember that your body builds up heat and can cause sweating, it is important to prevent sweating in layers of clothing as it will dry up creating a cold cocoon for you. Make sure to add on or remove layers constantly to prevent sweating as much as possible.
3. Remove Sweaty Clothes
As said in the previous point, sweaty clothes in the cold is not the best thing to be in during the cold, so after all that movement and setting up the tent, quickly change to fresh clothes. Wash the sweaty clothes as soon as possible and dry it so that you can use it again.
4. Use Heated Gloves And Heated Boots
In the cold, you should get as warm as possible. If you can’t get a space warmer, you can bring some compact warmers to face the cold in or out of tent.
5. Wear A Balaclava
What is a balaclava you may ask? It is a ski mask that protects your head and neck from the cold. Wearing beanies and masks intend to fall during sleep, do consider wearing a balaclava while sleeping to keep your face warm.
6. Don’t Use Cotton Clothing
Cotton clothing may be comfortable, but it doesn’t help to fight the cold. It doesn’t wick moisture, may drop your body temperature, and can serve as a medium for bacteria. To stay warm, avoid silk and cellulose fibres such as cotton and wool, layer strategically.
Other than clothing, you should know how to keep warm in the tent, as we know, tents are like our short-term house and it should provide some comfort as a temporary house, that’s why we need to know how to keep our tents warm for the camp. Now let us talk about ways to keep warm in the tent.
7. Bring A Heater
One of the obvious tips and an important one to remember. Bring a nice and compact heater for the trip as it will be your long term warmer. Do keep in mind that the size of your heater depends on how big your tent is and you should always practice setting it up before you go for your trip.
8. Use Two Sleeping Pads
Your sleeping mattress insulates and separates you from the cold ground and snow. Using two pads helps increase insulation as well as separate you further from the cold ground. The warmth (thermal resistance) of sleeping pads are calculated by R-value, and the good news is that the warmth of the sleeping pads can be stacked to increase insulation.
9. Layer Your Sleeping Bag With A Lightweight Quilt
Finding warming gears that are light and compact is still a challenge till now. That’s where layering your sleeping bag with a lightweight quilt comes in handy. These days, advanced materials make sleeping bags and quilts lighter and more efficient than ever.
10. Ventilate Your Tent
It may sound weird to allow air to enter your tent in the cold, but the truth is that by ventilating your tent, you allow the hot vapours from your breath to exit the tent. This condensation from happening and freezing your tent from the inside. That way, you won’t be stuck in a cold tent.
Warming itself doesn’t just apply to clothes and tents, sometimes it applies to the body, food, and activities you do. Here are some extra tips.
11. Keep A Hot Bottle Handy
Rather than placing a hot bottle at your toes (regular advice), try placing it at your groin area. From that area, it allows heat to flow in your blood throughout your body faster than just the toes. Make sure to find the suitable temperature to prevent your skin from burning.
12. Eat Well And Stay Hydrated
Food is one of the main energy sources for our body, and it does help to warm our body. During the cold, our body intends to consume more energy to create heat. So make sure you eat and drink a lot so that you don’t get cold too easily. Your body will naturally tell you to eat more during the cold, so do it.
13. Try Body-To-Body Warming
Camping with your friend is fun, and can be a good help for warming each other. The heat in each other’s body can be transferred from a hot to cool area so everyone can feel warm. You don’t need to cuddle with your friend or camping partner, just by sleeping side-by-side can produce body-to-body warming.
14. Bring A Hand Warmer
Heat packs or warmers are cheap and can be bought online. They may be small, but it provides the warmth you need for your out of tent activities as well as inside the tent.
That’s all for now, do remember that cold-camping can be a wonderful experience, and it does come with the cost of cold temperatures. So do make sure you have your warming gears ready for the trip.
This Guest Post is shared by Ken and Jules from Outdoormagnet.