In many parts in Europes has snowed over the weekend. Blizzard conditions are coming for the UK on Friday with temperatures dropping to double minus digits. Therefore if you still have planned go camping, here are a few techniques to stay warm when camping when it’s absolutely bloody freezing.
Get The Right Gear
Your gear is essential to surviving very low night-time temperatures for minimal equipment. But if you don’t have, simply add more of it. Double up your sleeping bag, putting one inside the other, or start out with a warmer one in the first place. Stick a foam roll-mat or two underneath your inflatable mattress.
Stay Fit
Fitness, experience, age, gender, amount of body fat and other factors all contribute to the range of comfort levels experienced by different people using exactly the same gear. If you aren’t used to winter camping and don’t yet know where you fit into this, better to have brought along too many layers than not enough.
Wear The Right Clothes
Wear an few layers, such as merino wool or insulating synthetics, with an insulating layer on top. Add a woollen or fleece hat and neck warmer. Pack a pair of thick woollen socks specifically for sleeping in and make sure you keep them dry.
Stay Warm
Warmth originates from within, and any insulation from a sleeping bag or clothing is merely concerned with keeping it there. Its pointless bedding down if you’re already freezing, so get warm by doing star-jumps before going to bed or performing sit-ups or press-ups in your sleeping bag.
Eat Faltty Food
The body needs fuel to generate heat, so eat a hot meal immediately before sleeping, and make the meal a fatty one, as fat is metabolised more slowly than carbohydrate and will last for longer as you sleep. Take extra rations of cheese or olive oil. (Cheese has the added bonus of giving you really vivid dreams.)
Get Survival Blankets
Get one of those thin metallic survival blankets and drape it over the torso area of your sleeping bag. If you don’t have one, do the same with your waterproof jacket or anything else that would add another layer on top of you without squashing the air out of your sleeping bag.
Keep Your Sleeping Gear Dry
Protect down sleeping bags in particular from getting wet at all costs. Avoid breathing into the sleeping bag while sleeping, no matter how tempting, as it introduces moisture and down doesn’t work when it’s damp. For the same reason, squash all the air out of your bag as soon as you get up in order to expel body moisture, and dry out your bag fastidiously on a daily basis whenever you get the chance.
