Funny story here
Last year I was up past 100 mile house hunting moose.
I was in the summer weight tent mentioned above that I had put a tarp over to keep the wind out. Its a dome tent about 7 feet in diameter and about 5 feet high at the center.
My youngest brother was in his 3 season dome tent with a propane heater.
My nephew and one of his friends were in a large cabin tent probably 12x12 or so.
The first night it reached -15 to -20 celcius, my nephew was freezing.
Before he went to bed he lit 100 tea candles and put them on a stand in the tent trying to warm it. I felt sorry for him so I gave him 5 wool blankets to use as well.
Without saying anything he decides to go Jeremiah Johnson on us and takes a couple of rocks out of the fire and puts in the foot of his bed. He then goes to bed, about 45 minutes or so latter we hear him yelling at the top of his lungs.
The blanket he wrapped the rocks in (polyester blanket) had caught fire. He managed to put it out right away, but his blanket was ruined.
He wasn't hurt but man it was funny, the only bad thing was he ruined two of my wool blankets.

Coyote, that sounds like something I would do...hehe...

Little bugger didn't tell me about my blankets, he just packed them up in my rubbermaid container.
Found them later when i went to wash them.
The secret is, you can put them in a container like a pot, or you can wrap them
LOOSELY in natural fiber blankets. Do not do what he did and tightly wrap them in a polyester scooby do blanket.
For the record he turns 22 next month

On Bladeforums, there is a snow / winter shelter contest, and I've decided to
enter it to see how I do. The premise is that you can only use natural
materials, but I'm going to take a tarp just in case.
For the contest, I'll have to spend the night in the shelter.

The shelter is going to be underneath a low branch of a standing tree that has
been crossed by a fallen tree. The top end of the tree has broken over the
branch, and forms part of the back wall of the shelter.
I still have to fill in the left side of the back wall, which is what I'm going
to be doing this week.


There's a lot of long grass in the vicinity, so I'm going to use that for the
base. The grass is about 2-3 feet long, and I'm going to be making a thick
layer, probably about 6 to 10 inches deep.


This picture shows how I'm going to be laying the grass. The back part that I
still have to fill in is on the left


Do you have a picture of how this is set up?

I saw a candle lantern in the surplus store the other day. Was wondering if
if would be of any use. Looks like I'm going to have to go and pick one up,
or even better, as it's really close to Christmas, I'm going to drop a strong
hint to my brother...hehe...


That's what I'm going to have the most problems with in this shelter I think.
It's quite windy where the setup is. The shelter faces north, and the valley
has strong west to east winds at this time of year. I'm going to have to stuff
a lot of grass in all the little nooks and crannies to make this work.

Thanks for the advice Hound!!!

If worse comes to worse just put a candle inside a mason jar.

That's a good idea coyote!

Thanks.

Just got back from camping with the Scouts in cheapo 2/3-season tents. Went down to 5 degrees.

For car camping...bring a second bag. Can't hurt to have it. You can always put it under you. Having good ground insulation is key.

Change ALL of the clothes that you will be wearing to bed. Everying - top, bottom, socks, hat, gloves... This helps alot.

Next day, weather permitting, open up your tent and hang your open sleeping bag on a line to remove the night's moisture.

I have one of those ground pads that are self-inflating. Roll them out and
open the valve. In about 15 minutes, they are inflated and provide about 1 1/2
to 2 inches of air inflated space between me and the ground.

Nice idea about the second bag. I have two that are roughly the same size,
and was thinking that I could stick one inside the other. That would increase
the insulation factor.

What do you think Javadog?

Good thinking about the clothes as well. I hadn't thought of changing the
clothes, but see the sense in it. If you've been in the other clothes all
day, the inner layers will most likely be damp from the day's sweat.
Good idea to put on dry clothing before bedding down for the night.

Thanks for the ideas!

wool wool wool

I will throw my 2 cents worth in. As a scout master I tought winter wilderness survival for 30 years. I have slept in many igloos on My Rainier and Mt St. Helens. I have also slept in many three season tents in the snow on the mountains. To stay warm at night: 1. Insulate from the ground (no air matresses, Thermarest good), 2. Get a good mummy synthetic (hallowfill, etc). If there is any chance of getting wet then NO down. 3. Sleep with a stocking cap and in your underwear (not fully dressed). Let the sleeping bag work the way it is supposed. If you have a bad sleeping bag then sure sleep in every thing you have. There will be a themal point near 32 deg between your body heat (hopefully 98.6 deg) and the cold out side. The key to being warm is to get the 32 deg point to be outside your bag. If you have a good bag and sleep in warm clothes, the 32 degree point (or "cold" point) may end up inside your bag. The real key is to manange where the cold transision point is. When I lived in Chicago and took the scouts camping at -14 deg and they had BAD sleeping bags, we filled the tents full of straw. (over them and under them). Just be sure no one has hay fever.
Ron Athay

Next cold management concept. In some class I took they talked about the mongolian method in the high deserts. Build a small "tent" inside a big "tent". Live in the big tent, sleep in the small tent. Here you would set up a 12 x 12 tent then pitch a small dome tent inside. Same concept could work for a made shelter. Wind break tarps are a form of this concept.
Igloo lore. My first igloo was on Mt Rainier. Igloos are always 32 deg at the inside edge of the snow. In time they thicken or thin to maintain that temp.
When we wook up (good nights sleep), it was -5 degree outside and +42 deg in the center of the igloo.
Ron Athay

I was looking at a pair of army surplus wool pants in the surplus store the
other day, and they wanted $50.00 for second hand.
That's more money than I have available to spend right now.

For first layer, I'm looking at bamboo bike socks inside wool socks, long johns,
comfort fit work pants, t-shirt inside long sleeve merino wool sweater.
For second layer, I'm looking at Baffin snow boots (good to -70F), snowmobile
suit (bib overalls, and jacket), -40F two layer gloves / mitts (inner
thermalite gloves, and outer leather mitt. For headgear, I'm looking at a
wool balaclava that can be used as a toque as well. For windbreak on my head,
the snowmobile jacket has a hood.
I've worn this combination in -40C (also -40F) temps with 80km (50 mph) winds
when I was working on radio/television mountain top repeater sites.
A lot of the time, I would have to undo my jacket as I was getting too hot and
starting to sweat.

I have a mummy synthetic (summer use only though), two -4C normal bags, and a
Thermalite2 bivy bag from Adventure Medical Kits that one of my normal size -4C bags will fit into.
I was thinking of putting one of the -4C bags inside the bivy bag and putting
it on top of the Thermarest air filled ground pad with a 6 mil plastic sheet
underneath the Thermarest pad
Opinions?

This is going to take some experimenting to see if I get too hot inside the bag.


This I didn't know. Now definitely, I am going to have to practice.


I have a large tent and a smaller tent, and will check that out.
Right now, I have wind break tarps set up on my gazebo, so I think that
I'll set up my dome tent inside and see how that works.

Thanks guys!