Overland Gear For Winter: How to Prepare for Cold!

[Corrie]

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Overland Gear For Winter: How to Prepare for Cold!

Overlanding in the winter requires lots of...
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[Robert OB 33/48]

One of the things we can, but hardly do is camp in winter. As, wild camping is prohibited and most campsites are closed during the winter. And one of the more luckey things is that Holland/The Netherlands isnt that big.
So, B&B or just sleeping at home is our thing during winter.
But, as an ex soldier and used to camp and being out in the "european bush"( you folks will laugh your arse off now) I know somethings about doing it the right way.
Just being a bit rusty as I dont use this as much as maybe could be.

One of the best buys I did lately was to buy a Nomad sleeping bag (2 persons) which isnt that warm, but it stays dry. Which is way more important as being warm. Using the layer theory of blankets and such to keep warm with the sleeping bag as last and inner layer we manage to stay warm most of the time.
If you sleep in the car, leave a window open for a bit. Otherwise everything will be moist during the night/morning.
But you know all this already.
We did sleep several winters in our Van and we dont have a heater in the Van, so what to do.
One thing we used was the Camping gaz blue cat.
This one works really well and is fairly safe to use. Even in a tent. And it is compact.

And then, here in Holland we hardly have winters. Most of the time it is not the tempature that keeps us in B&B's or so, just the bloody rain.
As a well know dutch saying is. Holland is beautiful, but the roof is leaking.

Greetings from Robert

 

[Joey83]

Am I the only one who thinks those mountains look like clouds?

 

[Lassen]

Wow! Ok, I don't mind being in the rain when overlanding, even the snow. But -7F?! That's way to cold for me! Yikes! Hope you had a great time!


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[The other Sean]

Wow! Ok, I don't mind being in the rain when overlanding, even the snow. But -7F?! That's way to cold for me! Yikes! Hope you had a great time!


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It's all in your mind. Personally, I like being able to say I've done something in some kind of weather. it then becomes a personal challenge to myself. I've ridden a bicycle in 107F temps and -15F temps. if I hear it is going to get to -16F, guess what I'm going to be doing? yup...

 

[RaggedViking]

It's all in your mind. Personally, I like being able to say I've done something in some kind of weather. it then becomes a personal challenge to myself. I've ridden a bicycle in 107F temps and -15F temps. if I hear it is going to get to -16F, guess what I'm going to be doing? yup...

I'm with you there. The colder and snowier - I find myself out there pushing myself. I spent a weekend of gear reviewing up in my primitive camping cabin in VT last year. It got down to the -20's at night, but we were already out there and dealing with it - the challenge was getting through... And not having to take a leak in the middle of the night.

 

[Lassen]

It's all in your mind. Personally, I like being able to say I've done something in some kind of weather. it then becomes a personal challenge to myself. I've ridden a bicycle in 107F temps and -15F temps. if I hear it is going to get to -16F, guess what I'm going to be doing? yup...

Yep, it's all in my mind...and my mind is saying "What the hell, man? It's f'in cold out here!" 28, 29, 30F is good enough for me! [emoji51]

 

[RideFlyDiveJeep]

So the standard mattress, sleeping bag and thermolite reactor extreme. I put a reflective tarp underneath the sleeping bag. UCO has candle lanterns that burn for 9hrs. Good light and heat. Super duper cold? I have a set of old gym mats that are on the bottom of the tent.

 

[Mike W]

I just picked up a new cold weather bag. TETON Sports Outfitter XXL -35F Sleeping Bag I may have miscalculated on pack size.. holy jeez. But it is sure warm. I am camping in a week and it will most likely be below freezing, so I am excited to try it. I am 6'2" and this will be more than large enough for me. I will use a ALPS Mountaineering XXL Comfort Series Self-Inflating Air Pad under it.

My tent is a large 10x10 canvas deal, 6'6" in height, so while it is good for winter due to canvas and sturdy construction, handles snow.. its a bit large to keep body heat. The buddy heater works to warm it up. For scale, you can see a rifle bag leaning against the sleeping bag.. :0

 

[Captain Chaos]

I just picked up a new cold weather bag. TETON Sports Outfitter XXL -35F Sleeping Bag I may have miscalculated on pack size.. holy jeez. But it is sure warm. I am camping in a week and it will most likely be below freezing, so I am excited to try it. I am 6'2" and this will be more than large enough for me. I will use a ALPS Mountaineering XXL Comfort Series Self-Inflating Air Pad under it.

My tent is a large 10x10 canvas deal, 6'6" in height, so while it is good for winter due to canvas and sturdy construction, handles snow.. its a bit large to keep body heat. The buddy heater works to warm it up. For scale, you can see a rifle bag leaning against the sleeping bag.. :0

I have that same sleeping bag. I used mine elk hunting this past November. It wasn't real cold at night, above zero anyway. The tent we use is 12x14 I believe, it has a wood stove in it. It's pretty hard to regulate heat with pine, it burns so quickly that you get up every few hours to stoke the stove. That Teton bag worked great for me, to warm at times. -35 is the survivable rating, for those who do not understand.

 

[Mike W]

That Teton bag worked great for me, to warm at times. -35 is the survivable rating, for those who do not understand.

right. I would probably avoid camping if I could.. when below 0. I hate being cold, but love camping.. so its a balance.

 

[Overland_Rich]

Everyone has good ideas. You need to be prepared for it to be much colder than you think. I live at 8,000 feet in the mountains of Colorado. One thing to add to your kit is the disposable hand warmers. In case you have to get out of the rig to fix something, adjust something, unstick something, put on chains, take off chains, etc. your hands can freeze up quick - especially if you have to take off your gloves. Tha handwarmer will help you get warmed up more quickly.

 

[ClarkT]

I led wilderness camping trips for years. Many times we were out in sub zero temperatures. A couple of nuggets of advice:

1) never allow yourself to overheat. I know, I know... overheat in the winter. Yes, and it is a big deal. It is best to dress yourself in layers as others have mentioned (20 years of leading trips has led me to my personal base layer favorite: Under Armor Cold Gear) and then as soon as you may feel that you are getting hot (from exertion, sun, etc) strip off a layer to regulate your temp. Sweating in your clothes, even a little bit, will create issues with staying warm later. Moisture conducts heat (away from you because you are the one producing heat) 26 times (!) faster than air.

2) to help yourself combat the cold in camp, dress warm in your rig and roll the windows down (or crack them open). Our skin is amazing stuff. And to help our bodies conserve energy (making heat in our bodies takes a lot of energy) our skin constricts our small blood vessels close to the surface of the skin. If you are rolling along in a toasty rig in light clothing and then get to camp and step out into the cold, it will take a few hours before your body adjusts and opens up (dilates) your outermost layer of blood vessels. If they are already in action from being in a bit of a colder rig, then you will find that you are more comfortable in camp and that the cold is not such a shock. An interesting side note to this is that you can see the reverse happen after you have been out in the cold for a few hours or few days. When you come into a house, or back into your rig, you will see that your cheeks are rosy and flush with heat. This is because your blood vessels were dilated outdoors and they will constrict back down now that you are in a toasty place. To compensate for the extra heat we need to produce to keep us warm in cold environments, our calorie burn goes WAY up. Instead of the typical 2000 calories required per day, cold environments require more like 6000 calories a day!

3) use a one liter or larger *non-insulated* water bottle that you are positive will not leak (I like the Nalgene bottles for this purpose) and fill it with hot water right before you go to bed. Slide a sock over the filled bottle completely and put it down at your feet in the sleeping bag. Ahhhhh... warm toasty heater next to your feet all night long. :)


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[KTM GRIZZLY]

Couldn't edit my post only meant to leave the very last one that I've posted sorry

 

[KTM GRIZZLY]

I have an actual military sleeping bag which is a 3 piece set I got it for around 80 maybe 90 bucks one of the best investments I've ever made good down to 51 below zero. There is no where that you will ever overlanding that is that cold on the planet if there is you shouldn't be there. I have never been cold sleeping it is one of the greatest Investments I've ever made as far as camping and out overlanding highly suggest invest in one military gear.net is where I bought mine the guy was fantastic also gave me a nine strap compression sack just sinch it up. This is a sleeping bag you can throw directly on the ground it has a water proof Gore-Tex bivy

 

[KTM GRIZZLY]

Its about 75 degrees in my bag no matter the temp.

 

[KTM GRIZZLY]

I have an actual military sleeping bag which is a 3 piece set I got it for around 80 maybe 90 bucks one of the best investments I've ever made good down to 51 below zero I have never been cold sleeping it is one of the greatest Investments I've ever made as far as camping and out overlanding highly suggest invest in one military gear.net is where I bought mine the guy was fantastic also gave me a nine strap compression sack just sent it up. This is a sleeping bag you can throw directly on the ground it has a water proof Gore-Tex bivy

 

[Justcozz]

A couple of items I keep in the rig year round are the Jetboil stove mentioned in the article and an electric heat gun. The heat gun is priceless in the wintertime if you (or ideally someone else) are trying to fix broken frozen parts. A decent tarp or ground cloth, work light, and heat gun with extension cord can take the misery out of trail repairs. Most of our rigs have onboard power available so why not bring that drop light and heat gun to warm things up and get a better view? We all make better decisions when we aren't fighting nature so anything that helps in that department when the chips are really down is sure to be a winner.

Every time I've been stuck helping someone fix a broken rig in the snow the warm drinks made the process survivable. Adventuring shouldn't completely suck.

 

[Justcozz]

I have an actual military sleeping bag which is a 3 piece set I got it for around 80 maybe 90 bucks one of the best investments I've ever made good down to 51 below zero I have never been cold sleeping it is one of the greatest Investments I've ever made as far as camping and out overlanding highly suggest invest in one military gear.net is where I bought mine the guy was fantastic also gave me a nine strap compression sack just sent it up. This is a sleeping bag you can throw directly on the ground it has a water proof Gore-Tex bivy

You can google an online store called "uncle sams retail outlet". They often have this bag system available in both new and used versions. They also have lots of brand new military equipment at amazing prices. I've personally purchased heavy weight fleece overalls for $9 from USRO that were comperable to some mountain hardware fleece overalls that cost me $300. If you don't mind the black, tan, or grey colors you can get some smoking deals on gear.

 

[britz]

I always carry an extra set of lightweight waterproof/breathable outer layers, and 2-3 extra sets of gloves. I always wind up digging out something, and messing with chains, recovery gear, etc. for folks who try to go for a Winter drive and bury their rig. I'm always getting my gloves wet.
But as far as Winter camping, I mostly dig and sleep in a snowcave now. Military cold weather "pickle" and an ensolite pad and I'm roasty toasty. I live in a little cabin in the Idaho backwoods, so the tent or car gig doesn't do much for me, but digging and sleeping in a snowcave when it's pushing minus digits and I'm toasty warm in a cave is pretty cool. Here's one of my caves I hung out in on Mt. Shasta for 10 days.