Winter is an excellent time to get out on the hillside, the landscape is beautiful, and the conditions can be ideal for your favorite snow sport, but when the temperature drops at night, you need to make sure you are prepared for the conditions and wake up ready the next day.
Base Layers
To ensure you are warm through the night in cold conditions, you need to make sure you are dry. Having spent the day shooting through elevated trailer deer blinds, your body is perspiring, which can affect your comfort and temperature. It can be cold to strip down, but worthwhile.
When you put on your warm clothes for the evening, make sure you have at least one base layer, although two is preferable in colder temperatures. A base layer helps to trap heat in the body by insulating you. Another tip is to wear a shell jacket in the tent as a barrier to the cold.
Double Pads
The last thing you want to do is sleep o the cold ground through the night, which is why you need a bed pad between your body and the ground. Bed pads can be purchased in camping stores and come in a variety of brands and qualities. However, it’s also useful to
Bed pads provide warmth, comfort, and insulation throughout the night, so make sure you put plenty of distance between yourself and the cold ground. While pads are important, it’s also important to consider the gear you are carrying, so make sure you buy convenient bed pads.
Sleeping Bags
Naturally, a sleeping bag is a key element in your camping survival gear and worth considering carefully before you head out on the winter hills. These days, sleeping bags use advanced technologies to insulate the body better and repel the cold, but there are some tips and tricks.
Nobody wants to carry any more than is necessary for their rucksack, so you want a sleeping bag that is as efficient as possible – research these to find the most suitable option for you – however, you can also line your sleeping bag with a featherweight quilt to give added warmth.
Water Bottles
Water bottles are a game changer when it comes to surviving the cold conditions on the winter hillside; they provide amble heat inside the sleeping bag creating a cave of warmth and comfort throughout the night. Since sleeping bags are designed to trap heat, water bottles are perfect.
If it’s a particularly cold night on the hillside and you are feeling vulnerable, place the hot water bottle at your core as your sleep. Not only does the hot water bottle radiate heat into the sleeping bag, but your blood flow becomes warm and transports heat to other body parts.
Tent Vents
Don’t forget to open the tend vents and allow some air to escape. In cold conditions, this might seem counter-intuitive, but if you don’t vent the tent, the warm vapor from your breath will hit the cold exterior of the tent and freeze, meaning you will wake up in an icebox in the morning.