Too cold for camping?

Last weekend I was camping northeast of Mt. Shasta. The temperature in the morning was in the low 20's. I camped in the same place last year during Thanksgiving holiday and the first morning the temp was 7 degrees which is the coldest weather I've ever camped in. What I do to keep warm:

Pitch your tent where it will get first sunlight in the morning.

Use a closed cell foam pad and an inflatable pad, put the closed cell pad down first then the inflatable on top of it.

Bring a 3-4 season bag, a rating of 15-20 degrees should be sufficient, if you don't have one you can rent them at many outdoor shops or in lieu of that, bring some thick blankets.

Get a nice campfire going in the evening and morning.

If you have a camp chair, put a closed cell foam pad on the chair's surface to sit on.

Layer up, layers trap air and the air close to your body is warm.

I don't like wool caps because they make my head itch so I wear a hoody with a down jacket over it, use however many layers beneath the hoody as you need.

Stay dry, cotton is bad, consider fleece, polypro or other synthetics for clothing. Down is good but useless if wet.

Sweats, fleece or thermals will be warmer then jeans.

Be active, activity like hiking will keep you warm.

I camped year round in Great Lakes, Illinois and just north of the border in Wisconsin with the boy scouts.

1. Get yourself some moving blankets or other suitable heavy cloth to lay on the floor of the tent. This will serve as a great insulator and if you wiggle around as people are normally going to do you won't slide off a small ground pad. You will need 2 or 3 depending on how cold it is to provide the proper insulation fro the ground.

2. Go to a fabric store if you don't have a winter sleeping bag, preferably mummy style and get a good length of kodiak fleece. Wrap the fleece around you before climbing in and you will sleep very warm. Do not cover your face though or you will perhaps wake up colder for the breath you have breathed into the sleeping bag over the night. It condenses and then the condensation will form causing part of your sleep system to get wet.

3. Get some good wool clothing since wool will retain heat better than most materials. Do not use cotton anything, particularly the socks. Cotton will wick moisture all the way through it and ruin an otherwise nice event.

4. Have a dutch oven handy, cast iron, well seasoned with the ingredients that can be dumped in and cooked over coals. Plan the menu for somethings that have more calories than you normally would.

5. Cover the head of course since your primary ways of losing temperature is through your head.

Hope this helps.

I have been a couple of times, and you have some good advice so far. Make sure you have a good knit cap, or several, large amount of heat escapes from your head. The most important single thing for me was a good pair of cold weather boots. They always made the difference for me. Others in the group were freezing with cold feet, and I was toasty warm in my Sorel Caribou's. If there is snow on the ground this will be even more important. A good pair of boots wont be cheap but are well worth the money. If you keep your feet warm and dry, I guarantee you will be much happier. You will also need a good cold weather sleeping bag, I prefer the mummy style if its going to be cold. Good luck and have fun.

Well being from NY and graduating college from Florida I know the extremes and dilemma you face. Are you camping out of a car or hiking in? If you are car camping then no worries just load up on warm gear. If you are hiking in I would suggest layering your clothes. There are plenty of websites out there on "How to Layer Clothing" A good source would be www.backpacker.com Also, I would try to stay away from cotton. Once it is wet it is pretty much useless and will take hours to dry-compared to a synthetic or wool clothing, which works well dry or wet and dries really quick.

A major mistake people make is putting on too many socks. Your boots keep your feet warm by trapping warm air between your foot and boot and within the insulation. If you put on two or three pairs of socks not only are you cuttings down your insulation but you are also cutting off your blood circulation to your feet. Without proper circulation your feet will become very cold. So one pair of socks or one pair of liners and a pair of good socks will do. Remember what mom always said when you were young...Wear a Hat! 80% of your heat escapes from your dome.

Before you go to bed at night, that is if your planning on sleeping with all those strange noises at night, boil some water and put it in a water bottle...not a disposable from the deli water bottle but a sturdy bottle like a Nalgene or an Aluminum water bottle and then toss it into your sleeping bag or sleep with it to keep you warm at night. The other thing to do believe it or not is to pee before you go to bed. A full bladder can suck out 60% of your body heat. You can also eat something high in calories before you lay down, your body trying to digest the food will generate heat. Hope this helps.

-get a 10* or 15* sleeping bag

-build a fire

-eat hot food with a lot of calories

-drink lots of water

-I like to wear lots of wool, although some find it too itchy.

-9 hour candle lanterns are great for raising the temperature of your tent a few degrees and keeping condensation down to a minimum, just make sure you're smart about it, good ventilation, no loose material near flame etc...

-down jackets and boots is great for when you're sitting around camp

-a good wool scarf is nice to wrap around your face and neck

-if you get cold just go for a walk, get that blood flowing again.

-you loose a lot of heat through the ground when sleeping, the thicker the sleeping pad the better insulation it will provide.

cold camping

insulated sleeping pad (like a thermarest) at least 15 to 20 degree bag wearing fleece or poly long shirt and underwear and even a winter hat. Heat loss from your head is crucial.

Hell ,Ive slept out under a tarp in10 degree weather in the snow, Wear wool,stay dry, and build a fire. Drink some hot cocoa and eat some carbohydrates before you go to bed for the night. Wear a cap while sleeping, and gloves if you think , but be sure to remove your shoes because it restricts blood flow and that will make your feet cold, this goes for if you wear moccasins like me, too!

get a sleeping bag rated for 30 below, or 0 deg at a army surplus

store , don,t wear tenses shoes wear hiking shoes

we slept on the ground in Korea in 35 deg below 0

and stayed warm

take sweat shirts , fire starters [gets the fire going fast]

thermals. polypropylene. get it on ya!

also get a good 3,4,5 season sleeping bag. Thermarest (self inflating open cell foam) sleeping mats are good, failing that a good ground sheet and a closed cell bed roll will do.

and a hat. woolen beanie is excellent, microfleece clothing is good.

it's never too cold to do anything, you just have to have the gear for it.

make sure you eat good food with lots of protein, biltong or beef jerkey is good. high sugar foods are bad.

have fun.