how to keep warm when your bob isn't up to the task

H

hannibal lecter spyderco

Joined
Mar 29, 2001
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Ok I here the problem you have to bug out and your bug out spot isn't going to be viable anymore. Now you realize you have to bug out to alaska or the dakotas where its gets mighty cold. Your problem is that your sleeping bag isn't able to handle those extremes regardless of what the manufacture says your freezing your butt off. Since, the cold is a killer, how do you keep youself warm. You have a good tent but the temps have now dropped into the 30's. Your sleeping bag isn't holding up to the extreme cold how do you keep yourself warm? I think this is a vital question to ask because cold can be a killer. Anyone try solar blankets do they really do a good job, and whats the best way to use them.
 
One way to use the solar blanket, is to wrap it around yourself (shiny side in) and then crawl into your sleeping bag. This will help reflect your radiated body heat back at you. You will also find yourself producing more condensation though and have to be carefull not to go hypothermic from the moisture/cold mixture.
More importantly, would be to know the limitations of the equiptment and use them within that area. That means when the tent is not holding body heat due to the weather, you need to consider building a crawl space shelter with thick insulation that will do the job. Use the tent for gear storage or allow a family of bears to live in it.:p
Also, if you can arrange your newly built shelter to receive the radiated heat of a nearby fire, you are on your way to breathing for another day......then you can start worrying about those bears wanting a bedtime snack.
Doc
 
I was told by my father that you could light a small candle inside your tent to help warm it. Think it might work, but anything colder not sure. Ive been told by my sister that it was a welcome help. Ive never tried it though. Also it wont like make it warm warm, but just bareable.
 
I almost forgot to mention the key ingredient used by centuries of men to keep their beds warm in all climats. WOMEN :D
Not that I'm a sleazy lecher who would take advantage of a survival situation to bed a gorgeous dame......OK I am a sleazy lecher who would take advantage of the situation.
Hey! If your going to risk dying, you might as well risk trying to get some fun in. Plus, we all know that two naked bodies pressed against each other are a great way to build body heat.
GO OUT WITH A SMILE;)
Doc
 
I was once on a backpacking trip with a fairly large group when it became a little colder than many of the party were prepared for. TSK TSK. One particular idiot was as short on equipment as he was on clues. I gallantly gave him my solo tent AND bag. I kept a groundcloth and my bag liner and made a HUGE pile of leaves to snuggle into. I would venture that I remained much more comfy than that slob. Served him right, too, because he was making a play for the same young lady I had been courting during the trip. If he had hoped to impress her with his "rugged manliness", he failed miserably.

I've had several other occassions to seek warmth in leaf piles since. They work very well as long as you don't skimp on the leaves and find a way to stay dry.
 
1)make your shelter just big enough to sleep/roll over when you get your gear stowed in it. collapse your tent/improvise supports/build a simple A-frame shelter

2)isolate yourself from the ground - I use a surplus closed cell pad, with a space blanket glued to the "warm" side.

3)Reduce the airspace in your bag-that's extra space your body has to heat. That means strip to necessities only.

4)Wear a hat/balaclava

5)Reduce bag leakage- line your bag with a poncho liner/blanket/etc. and wrap it around you.

6)Fuel & Fire- eat something hearty(fuel) about 20 min. prior to sleep, then exercise vigorously to get your metabolism "fired" {some people advocate masturbation to increase body heat emission, but that's a short-term effect- a good set of wind sprints will keep you warm for hours.

If you have abundant fuel and no need for security, a body-length lean-to facing a full-length fire can keep you confortable on a COLD night.

These tips courtesy of the hellish cold of the DMZ in Korea. How can one non-desert region get so hot AND so cold?
 
I've gotta disagree on the reduction of airspace. Perhaps I'm not reading it in context. You need a certain amount of airspace in the bag itself. You don't want a huge area to heat but the piling of the bags insulation materials is what keeps you warm. Always shake your bag in several directions at least 15 minutes prior to use. This allows the piling fibers, wheather synthetic or natural to expand and create all of those little air pockets that will trap body heat and hold it close. You do not want huge air pocket in the bag or around it (which is what I think Parreich was getting at).
Hope this helps.
Doc
 
Recon, I'd a thought "They'd" a tought you this one...

Make your camp, start your fire, build a rock ring, clear your area, set up your tent, and settle back...

As the temp drops, set your tent off to the side, and dig a trench up the center of where your tent is gonna go...8" deep and 5' long should do.

Pile all the dug up dirt on one side of the trench. Cut a few branches with a 3' length and a 4" "Y"...set um aside and have another beer.

As it gets later and colder, just before that last late night piss, use the cut branches to move the fire ring stones into the trench, push the dirt back in, and move your tent back over the area you cleared earlier...

You'll sleep toasty warm and comfy all night... :D

No stones, and/or no branches you say? Fine, use the coals and your shovel...you do have a camp shovel don't you?

I used this trick at 9000' up at Bryce Canyon a few years back as a cold front moved in. My good buddy Ron "Snake breath" Rios just laughed and continued sucking down the brews as I worked and explained what I was doing...

I woke up naked and warm...he woke up frozen with blue lips and numb extremities...but then again, that was his choice... :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by recondoc1
...two naked bodies pressed against each other are a great way to build body heat.
Click to expand...
This is in fact the way to treat people who are in the extremes of being too cold: Hypothermia. You put the naked hypothermic victim in the warmest sleeping bag you've got with another naked body and let the non-victim's body heat infuse the victim. The insulative property of clothing would impede this transfer of warmth, which is why they are disposed of between the bodies.

While the body-warming is happening, another member of the rescue party could make up some warm liquids for the victim to drink when they are able. Warm them up from the inside and the outside.
 
recondoc:

You do not want huge air pocket in the bag or around it (which is what I think Parreich was getting at).
Click to expand...

Thank you for the clarification. That is exactly what I meant.

One additional note-
Tactical thinking can prserve your life-
Once the eyes have adjusted to the dark, the presence of another revealed by a cigarette or lighter at a distance of several miles.

If one is in an area where predators might be attracted to a fire, have alternate means of staying warm.

Reusable (boiled) handwarmers can be recharged during daylight hours or on a hexamine stove/canteen cup in a small hole. two or three in your sleeping bag makes things a lot more comfortable.
 
Good point on the hand warmers. I've never used the re-usable type but last spring I used some of the disposable type. I opened 2 of them just as I was climbing into the sack and tossed them down by my feet. Worked great but they wore out by morning.
 
Tent : Wrap the tent in plastic, both the sides and the top.
It can be cut to size and secured to the tent with clothes
pins. This will add warm to your tent by insulation effect
of small air pockets and the elimination of any wind currents
thru the fabric. I've used this when camping down to 26F
and it worked ok. Don't know how much colder it would work.

If you use a heater of some sort in the tent make sure
it won't tip over and ignite the tent, and open one window
slightly at top and crack door slightly at the bottom to allow
a bit of ventilation thru tent so you don't poison yourselt
with carbon monoxide or some such.

Sleeping bag: a small blanket can be used to cover your head/
neck to preserve heat at the bag opening. Use a second
sleeping bag opened and on top of the one your in. Have used
both of these techniques combined to sleep outside in 24F weather
in bags rated to 35F with good effect.
Also you might try covering your sleeping bag with plastic
as that will help to hold in the ground heat. In an extreme
emergency put a layer of leaves in your tent on top of your
sleeping bag and then cover with plastic. Never used it personally but it sounds effective.
 
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