1. How effective are newspapers beneath you? It seems kinda ... uncamp like.
Okay- First thing. WINTER CAMPING is NOT lightweight camping. Newspapers
make a very effective dead air space beneath you - and are definitely worth
while!
2. How should you situation your tent with respect to land/trees? We'll probably have 3 inches of snow by Friday night, so it's not too deep.
I would not put my tent somewhere where heavy snow could fall off of a tree
in the night and crown me. Nor would I put it on the top of an exposed hill
so that I blow away or freeze in the wind chill. Try for somewhere where
the wind won't be able to blow too hard on you. Sheltered is good.
3. I don't have a winter tent. What makes a winter tent a winter tent anyway? The fly? How bad would it be to camp in a non-winter tent?
A winter tent is a winter tent because it has vestibules at both ends. I
have a three season tent (with one vestibule...) Does your tent have a fly?
Does it have a vestibule? If it doesn't I wouldn't panic - you are not
going to be on Mount Everest!
4. How do you get in there? :) I mean... if you get into your tent wearing boots and take your boots off to sleep, won't the moisture in your boots have frozen overnight? Do you sleep with everything in your sleeping bag?
Okay. This is several questions. Do your boots have liners? Our instructor had a good idea. She takes two pairs of boots to camp. One pair (not her best ones) she wears on Friday night and Sunday morning. Her good pair she wears all day on Saturday. She puts on her good 'wick away the moisture' socks on and her wool socks over those.... Then she puts her feet in plastic bags. THEN she puts her feet in the liners of her GOOD boots. At night, she brings her boots inside and puts them inside a large black garbage bag. They should be fairly dry AND the plastic protects them from the moisture in the air.
Stuff in the sleeping bag. Okay - Do it this way. Before you go to bed on
Friday night strip down completely and put on Saturday's clothes. (Unless
you sleep VERY warm and you think you might sweat in the night...) Wear
different socks to bed, and wear a scarf wrapped around your middle (flat
and smooth) to keep your kidney's warm. A hooded sweatshirt is a good idea,
those light weight gloves, and a bellaclava for your head. I have a fleece
liner that I put inside my sleeping bag, and in fact I plan to use my summer
weight bag, inside the fleece liner and inside my heavy weight sleeping bag.
If you have things that you are going to change into in the morning, by all
means put them into the sleeping bag with you. You can also put them into a
pillow case and use them as a pillow.
5. When I went kinda-cold camping at Mountain Spirit, the trip leaders had us do gentle knee bends to warm up the muscles before diving in... do you have any other tips? How effective is a hot water bottle?
A hot water bottle is fine, as long as IT DOES NOT LEAK... and you can push
it out when it cools off. I can't see that gentle knee bends would do any
harm (except that I have a sore knee)...
6. Do you leave the door open a crack so that the moisture of your breath won't condense and freeze on the tent walls?
Ooooo, got a great tip for this one!!! Hang a flannel crib sheet or pillow case in the tent with you. In the morning it will be soaked (or frozen stiff depending on the temperature) but it will have absorbed all the moisture that you breath out in the night, and you can change it for a fresh one if you are doing two nights.
Oh, another prime TIP.... If you need to pee in the night, just get up and go do it. You will just get colder laying there with a full bladder -- it takes alot of energy for your body to heat up that moisture sitting there.
