Tent Camping Tips

Winter Camping Tips   

Winter Camping is a great time to go camping as the insect populations tend to have died off and the forest tends to have a beautiful calm too it. However, it pays to know how to handle yourself in this weather where temperatures will dip down considerably especially at night. Here, are a few winter camping tips to help you get you prepared: 

1. Take two sleeping bags and put one sleeping bag inside of another to sleep in.  Be sure to try this out at home first as this works better with some types of sleeping bags than others.  

2. Sleeping gear should include a wool hat, long johns, and sweats.  You are looking for clothing that is easy to sleep in and keeps in heat. 

3. Bring additional blankets to place on the ground and to stuff in the sleeping bag and on top of the sleeping bag.  These extra layers will provide some insulation from the cold ground floor keeping the hot air trapped in the tent. 

4. Use additional clothes in backpack by stuffing them in sleeping bag to provide additional insulation. 

5. Choose natural fibers over synthetic ones for sleeping bags. However, you must not let them get wet as they take much longer to dry out. 

6. Choose rectangular sleeping bags over mummy ones unless you are used to them. Rectangular ones are easier to adjust to in the field. 

7. Tent selection: get 4 season tents if you can. If not, bring plenty of extra blankets. 

8. Before going to bed, bring wood into the tent to keep dry for the next day’s fire. 

9. Choose gloves that allow for a great deal of hand and finger maneuverability and dexterity. 

10. Bring plenty of hot foods and liquids: hot chocolate, tea, coffee, soups, chili, stew. All these work great during the winter time and give you extra warmth. 

11. Try to have tents facing south to avoid strong winds coming in. This particular tip works better in some places of the country than others. 

12.   Make a hot water bottle out of your canteen.  Wrap it in a towel or clothes.  This will keep it from burning you and give you some additional warmth during the night. 

13.  Build a wind guard for your campfire if needed.  This can be done by (a) choosing a place with a natural one built in, (b) create one with a tarp, or (c) dig a hole to bring the fire below the wind level. 

With these good winter camping tips, you should be able to enjoy your camping even in the dead of winter.  If you haven’t had the good fortune of camping in winter, you should definitely give it try.  A number of tent campers have found it to offer some of the best camping of the entire year.

*To get some tips on spring and summer camping clothes, check out Spring and Summer Clothing Tips.