Skills for Fall Weather

[k_estela]

This coming weekend, a number of us are getting together in Maine for a campout. With wet and windy weather on the horizon, I'm prepping for cool weekend in the woods. With this weekend coming up, I'm starting this thread for those interested in making more of their camping season and extending it into cooler weather. Here are some general tips for cooler weather camping to make your trip easier. Feel free to include your own to keep it going.

*Boil your water with a lid on and make a wind reflector out of stone to radiate heat back towards your pot. Tall water bottles are hard to heat up on camp stoves as the top of the stainless bottle cools off long before the heat from the bottom reaches it. Think about heating your pot all around.

*Make sure your shelter placement is done with consideration to the prevailing wind. I personally prefer facing the door or opening of my shelter towards the East to catch the sun in the morning. Correct placement will make the difference between a great night's sleep and a chilly one.

*Change your socks. From one day to the next start off your day with a dry pair of socks that haven't been sweat in all day and matted down. Happy feet are warm and dry feet.

*Conduction is a killer, cut a small piece of closed foam or bring a foam "stadium seat" to put under you while sitting on rocks or logs around camp. Of course, you can always use your pack for insulation.

*Gloves! I can't stress the importance of keeping your hands warm. In cooler weather and with the addition of wet weather, hands become cold and less able to complete minor tasks.

*High caloric foods are your best friends. Bring more to keep you warm.

*You can't beat a quality bow saw. This is the workhorse of your camp. Sure, large choppers and axes are fine but a nice bow saw with a wide gate allows for minimum waste cutting wood to size.

*Stay hydrated. It is easy not to drink in cold weather as your throat might feel sore or sensitive to fluids. Heat your water and drink often.

These are a few that come to mind. Lets hear some more and lets get outside guys since the skeeters are gone!

 

[brians]

Strip your clothing layers or lower the activity level itself, to avoid sweating profusely. Bring a baselayer change, and change if you are wet.

 

[kgd]

Great thread...Pack a toque or warm hat. We often forget, but they are nice to sleep in especially in the cool nights of this time of year.

 

[Big Mike]

With the short days and cool nights it’s time to check out your fire starting kit,

…and tune up you pyro skills.






Big Mike

”Scaring the tree huggers.”

Forest & Stream

 

[myright]

I'll have to echo staying hyrdrated - for some reason I drink less in the winter but it normally becomes even more important for me. I sweat under all those clothes and don't notice it.

 

[Katdaddy]

Strip your clothing layers or lower the activity level itself, to avoid sweating profusely. Bring a baselayer change, and change if you are wet.

This is a big problem for me. I sweat buckets during almost any physical activity, so I soak whatever clothes I am wearing. I wear coolmax as a base layer which helps, but the outer layer is going to get wet.

 

[Bushman5]

chow down on the high fat foods! fat is your friend, embrace the fat! fat is LONG TERM energy , keeps you warm !

Cheese, butter, meat, peanut butter, etc etc

my Inuit/connu friendseats pieces of raw seal blubber, swallows them WHOLE....and often hunts in a t shirt they is so warm.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Don't forget this important skill. Stay near Big Mike - slap a bit of meat on the fire - and the rifle through his bag for the sweet Barkies he always has while he is distracted!!!


Seriously though, I like your socks comment Kevin. I wear a silk under my wools. Even if it gets hot during the day - my feet stay dry, and then if it gets cold at night, my socks stay warm as they are wool. Change the next day.

I try and even wash my socks when I can (hanging them tightly in my pack cords to dry) so that I always have fresh socks. I put the nearly dry pair in my bag at night to fully dry.

That way if I have to spend a few extra days in the field more than what I planned - I have fresh foot warmers.

TF

 

[Diomedes Industries]

chow down on the high fat foods! fat is your friend, embrace the fat! fat is LONG TERM energy , keeps you warm !

Cheese, butter, meat, peanut butter, etc etc

my Inuit/connu friendseats pieces of raw seal blubber, swallows them WHOLE....and often hunts in a t shirt they is so warm.

Bushman, I read about a PCT hiker who regularly ate sticks of butter, just unwrapped them and ate them like a bannana - he craved fat so much.

When you are burning 6,000 plus hiking - you can see why!

TF

 

[banana-clip]

Great tips there....here are a couple I just thought of to add.

A large folding campsaw is nice to have too, like the Silky saws for cutting firewood.

Eat a lot of carbohyrdrates to give you lots of energy during high activity levels.

 

[darkwaters]

In freezing weather make sure you keep your water from turning in to ice. Warm water in bottle keeps you warm if you sleep with it.

 

[hiwa]

chow down on the high fat foods! fat is your friend, embrace the fat! fat is LONG TERM energy , keeps you warm !

Cheese, butter, meat, peanut butter, etc etc

my Inuit/connu friendseats pieces of raw seal blubber, swallows them WHOLE....and often hunts in a t shirt they is so warm.

Being on a lo-carb diet (Atkins) for some time , darn right fat is my friend. Since I don't do sugar , I don't have a blood sugar crash either. I find I just keep going at an even pace.

The Wool watch cap , gloves and extra socks have been a staple with me always, even as a kid. Don't laugh , but extra socks and underwear are part of my EDC for years now, summer or winter. I've winter camped quite a few times , and found I have to stay up on the water intake and calories. About half an hour before bed in real cold weather , take a slug of olive oil.It helps to keep the "furnace" burning. If you get real cold feet,take your socks off, and dust the inside with a little cayenne pepper, and put them back on. I like to wear my toque to bed also.

I haven't tried the next-to-the-skin vapour barrier trick yet, but am wondering if any of you guys have had success with it. Does it really work ?

 

[Bushman5]

Bushman, I read about a PCT hiker who regularly ate sticks of butter, just unwrapped them and ate them like a bannana - he craved fat so much.

When you are burning 6,000 plus hiking - you can see why!

TF

yes!

there is a climbing book, Rock jocks & wall rats i think? where they eat nothing but blocks of cheese, huge garlic coil sausages, tines and tines of tuna packed in OIL and they still come off Yosemite with ribs sticking out.


When i used to wall climb, i would eat close to 12,000 calories a day and come off the wall hungry , go into Britannia Beach near Sqaumish and go to 'Mountain Woman Burger" and eat 5 - 10 cheeseburgers. I weighed less than 120 lbs then.

 

[theonew]

If you get real cold feet,take your socks off, and dust the inside with a little cayenne pepper, and put them back on.

I've never heard that before. How does it work?

 

[Loosearrow]

I've never heard that before. How does it work?

I have tried that before. The pepper is a counter irritant and brings the blood to the surface to warm. Dilates the blood vessels. You can also make a tea of it to warm you or break a fever. Makes your toe nails look strange.

 

[theonew]

I have tried that before. The pepper is a counter irritant and brings the blood to the surface to warm. Dilates the blood vessels. You can also make a tea of it to warm you or break a fever. Makes your toe nails look strange.

Interesting thanks, can't wait to try this :thumbup:

 

[HikingMano]

Good thread, great reminders/tips :thumbup:.

 

[LMT66]

These "180's" ear warmers are the best thing since sliced bread! I wear them all winter.
They now have a model with speakers built in to plug into your mp3 player when your just out for a walk in the neigborhood. (I used to use motortcycle helmet speakers..PITA to fit it)
They work with any kind of hat whether it's a hardhat, baseball hat or ?
Keeps the back of your neck warm too. Adjustable for big heads or small and the part over the ear can be angled up or down. They block any and all wind no matter how bitter or strong but doesn't cut down on your hearing very much. They also fold up in a unique way to the point you can slip it in your back pocket.

 

[Hassilov]

My tip for fall, late fall in the woods: be seen.

Wear blaze orange. It's hunting season. This nylon toque cost me $5.00. The cotton cap was free. I bring both and wear according to the temperature. The toque I also wear to bed. You don't absolutely need a blaze vest (unless you're hunting), but if you're going to have a hat on all day and night, it might as well do double duty.

 

[akabu]

Bag Balm for face and hands and sun screen.
Hand warmer packs.