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Topic: A long cold weekend....

Quickpitch

via mobile 08/2/2019 at 5:29pm
Location: Sunderland
Outfit: Robens Green Cone

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Anyone else out camping last weekend (01-03 Feb)?

Just me then....

I'd booked a couple of nights worth of camping at the Boe Rigg campsite near Bellingham in the North East of England. The weather forecast was awful. Pretty much sub zero for the entire weekend. I loaded my car with all the warm gear I could find and arrived to a very frosty site at about 10am. The site owners were welcoming although they did gently question my sanity.

Pitching the Robens Green Cone took about 30 minutes. Longer than usual because the ground was frozen down to a depth of about 3" and the tent pegs took some persuasion with the mallet.

Installing my sleeping arrangements involved quiet mutterings escalating to mild rage. I'd been given a TFG 'flat out' bed chair for Christmas along with a matching 5 season sleeping bag and this was their first outing. The bedchair only just fitted through the tent door and took up most of the inner widthways. It turned what is nominally a 4 man tent into a one man tent in one fell swoop!

By the time I'd installed the rest of my gear, my nose and fingers had pretty much lost all sensation so I retired to the luxury of my bag and bed in an effort to warm up. Little was I to know that this was going to a recurring event pretty much all weekend.

I won't go into too many details. It was a grim weekend. The lowest temperature I recorded was at 3am on Sunday morning and that was -11.7°C. By far the coldest temperature I've ever camped in. Basically I was pretty much stuck in the sleeping bag fully clothed with a Balaclava on. Anything that required leaving the bag basically had a time limit of about 5 minutes before I had to dive back in to get my fingers back.

I had two stoves with me, a gas powered Trangia and an MSR Dragonfly running on Coleman fuel. The Trangia (faithful companion for 3 decades) flat out refused to run for more than a few minutes regardless of what I did with the canister in an effort to warm/insulate it. The Dragonfly (first use in anger) fired up everytime, roared like a jet engine and kept me supplied with copious mugs of hot chocolate, coffee and water for my dehydrated meals. It's the one thing that helped make the whole experience bearable.

Normally I'd have visited the excellent on site resteraunt and pub for sustinence but I was still feeling a tad skint following Christmas so I had just scavanged the kitchen for suitable food that required nothing more than boiling water to prepare.

Striking camp was pretty miserable on Sunday morning. Done in -5° and taking well over an hour. Many tent pegs damaged beyond repair and none of them parted company with the frozen earth without a huge struggle. The tent itself was coated on frost inside and out. Bundled into an oversize industrial bag, it was still frozen after my 2 hour drive home.

I did occur to me to pack up early but I'd have missed out on an interesting experience. Realistically there was little chance of coming to any harm. My car was 20 feet away and there was a centrally heated building a two minute walk away. It was nice to be able to test out some of my gear in more challenging conditions than I usually choose to camp in.

I was (of course) the only person on site :-)

Lorfal

via mobile 08/2/2019 at 5:40pm
Location: Rannoch Scotland
Outfit: autosleeper fairford

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Brave! I really enjoyed reading your post and admire you for just getting out there regardless! Brilliant ! Jeeze I’m a motorhomer and in winter only go to sites with EHU! Though that weekend I stuck by my log burner lol

.....and you did get to test your kit 😜

TimCESmith

08/2/2019 at 9:01pm
Location: London
Outfit: Karsten 350 + SE CA EA RA FW & ZIG

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Nice one Quickpitch. I'm hoping to do a three nighter in Somerset next weekend, mainly to play with a dutch oven and tripod I got for Christmas. Definitely taking the EHU and as many heating devices as will fit in the car though.

Your post makes me wonder about pouring boiling water over frozen-in tent pegs - has anyone tried that?

Quickpitch

via mobile 08/2/2019 at 9:54pm
Location: Sunderland
Outfit: Robens Green Cone

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Quote: Originally posted by TimCESmith on 08/2/2019
Nice one Quickpitch. I'm hoping to do a three nighter in Somerset next weekend, mainly to play with a dutch oven and tripod I got for Christmas. Definitely taking the EHU and as many heating devices as will fit in the car though.

Your post makes me wonder about pouring boiling water over frozen-in tent pegs - has anyone tried that?

Wish I'd thought of that!

I probably spent a couple of minutes on each peg. Without the claw hammer in my tool kit my tent would probably still have been pitched....

DeborahTurner

via mobile 04/3/2019 at 11:13pm
Location: London
Outfit: Vango Kalu Hypercamp Eldorado

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Hmmm packing up a frozen tent hasn’t occurred to me when I find myself in a reverie imagining I am camping in winter.

Ewen c

via mobile 05/3/2019 at 12:46pm
Location: County Kildare Ireland EU.
Outfit: Tents

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Well done. Frozen tents are a pita. Never done it with a 4 man. I had toyed with a quick overnighter at the weekend as the previous week was so warm. Glad I didn't as storm Freya dumped a load of snow. I had been hillwalking and only got back before the roads were closed.
Does your trangia burner have a preheat tube (brass gas pipe goes over burner) If so you can invert the gas cylinder once the tube is heated and feed liquid gas to the burner. It will gasify in the preheater. If the thing won't light in the first place, try a bit of preheating paste below the preheater to get it warmed up. Just watch for flaring.
Personally I prefer petrol for the winter.

As for frozen ground...we once had a night pitch on a Scottish Munro. Pegs were bending so used rocks. Some of the rocks seemed quite light but we piled them up in the light of our headtorches. The next morning it transpired we had secured our tent with frozen horses**t....

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Ratty

05/3/2019 at 3:13pm
Location: Hertfordshire
Outfit: Lots of tents and a 72 VW Camper

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Hiya, sounds great and thank you for your review of Boe Rigg for all to find and read

Cheers Ratty

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heath63

via mobile 17/3/2019 at 9:29pm
Location: wirral
Outfit: Outwell Nevada m Vango sigma 300

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Preperation is key for winter camping. Next time you go camping in those temps, make sure you are warm before hitting the sack, run, walk, jumping jacks or whatever it takes. Also don't skimp on food. It's a bit of hard luck that a piece of kit failed.
You're not the only one who winter camps. I can safely say that I've never been cold, in bed, even when I've bivied in winter months. The bigger the tent harder it is to keep warm. You Should have been fine in a 5 season sleeping bag, as I say. Make sure you're warm. Hot water bottle is good. Well done.

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martinmeatpie

08/4/2019 at 11:39am
Location: Swinton manchester
Outfit: Zephyros 1 Force 10 nitro 200 +

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Hi All

When i have camped in the winter months i use a emergency blanket as my ground sheet. Very light weight and cheap at 3 quid. I always put my gas and phone. battery pack etc in a sock inside the foot box of my sleeping bag. Very good point made above regarding getting in your bag warm. A sleeping bag works to retain heat so 5 minutes walk or run round to heat yourself up before diving in works a treat. A couple of places i camp are very exposed to the wind so tent position is also key. As for a 5 season bag if only uk based you not going to get your moneys worth out of it. Layer up in your bag if need be. But be savvy. Extra kit is extra weight to carry. I sleep warm so not a problem for me. Try not to go to sleep with a full bladder either as it odds on you'll wake up for a pee.

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