How to make your winter camping trip comfortable

From mid-October until the lovely spring sun begins to melt away the winter, it is extra important to think about what you have in your backpack when you go on a camping trip.

There is something special about traveling on overnight trips in the winter, with the short days, the cold and the silence that occurs when the entire landscape is covered in snow. If you haven't tried this yet or maybe you are just looking for tips for your next trip, then just read on!

1. Packing

The most important thing to think about when packing for a winter trip versus a summer trip is volume and weight. Most winter equipment weighs more than what you use in the summer, as it is supposed to keep you warm in the cold. Using a sled or sledge in addition to a good backpack can be the alpha and omega for those who don't want to carry all the weight on their backs. Of course, you can just use a sledge. For those who use both a backpack and a sled, you can put what weighs the most in the sled (tent, cooking equipment, sleeping bag, reindeer skin, axe, saw, shovel, ice auger, etc.) and lighter items such as clothing and food in the backpack. You don't have to buy an expensive sled on your first trip, you can borrow one from Bua, for example.

2. Camp

If there is a lot of snow where you are traveling, it is always good to bring a snow shovel. With it, you can dig a cold pit inside the awning, which you can use as an extra room in the tent, for example to cook, sit and change in. It is very comfortable to be able to stand inside the awning. When lighting a campfire, you should also dig a pit for the fire itself, as the fire melts through the snow, and eventually suffocates from water and little oxygen. By making a wide campfire pit, you can also make seating around it. If you use skis or snowshoes, you can use them to stomp down the snow where the tent will be.

3. Tent

You don't need an Extreme tent just because you want to sleep outside a few nights a year. A 3-season tent works well enough. Tents that are "only" made for winter usually have more robust fabric, storm mats and thicker tent poles, but for a regular trip this is rarely necessary. If you want, it is possible to have storm mats sewn onto the tent. If you want, you can buy a footprint for the tent, which functions as a floor in the awning, as well as extra insulation in addition to the regular floor in the tent. Most tent manufacturers make this for their models. In winter, it is important to have good ventilation to avoid condensation. This freezes at the top of the inner tent, and turns into snow crystals. If you have a tent with poor ventilation, you can keep the opening to the inner tent open and ensure that the ventilation channels are completely open. This will save you a cold shower of snow in the morning.

4. Sleeping mat

I always take several sleeping mats with me on a trip, regardless of whether it is summer or winter. It is good to have a sleeping mat such as a teddy bear mat or reindeer skin outside the tent either by the fire or at the entrance to the tent, and an inflatable one inside the tent. In winter, I use both mats when I sleep. Reindeer skin or teddy bear mat on the bottom, and an inflatable sleeping mat on top. In winter, it is important to have a mat with high insulation, which should be at least 4.5. This will save you from being frozen by the cold coming from the ground.

5. Sleeping bag

A good winter sleeping bag is very important to be able to get through a cold winter night! There are many sleeping bags on the market, and it is easy to drown in the choices. The most important points to note are whether it is synthetic or down, the length of the sleeping bag, and the temperature the sleeping bag is suitable for, which is measured in T-Comf and T-Lim. For women, you should not use T-Lim to look for a lower comfort limit, but use T-Comf as a lower limit. In winter, it is very good to have a bag that can withstand more than the temperature you are going to go out in. If you are going to sleep outside in minus 10 degrees, it does not matter if you have a bag that has a T-comf of -20. You never know when the weather will change in winter, and it is worse to get warm in a cold bag than to air out in a bag that is too warm. For women, there are special bags adapted to height. They also tend to come with extra padding in the feet, hips and chest/shoulder area.

Whether you want a down or synthetic bag is up to the user. In winter it gets wet quickly, which makes the down wet, which in turn makes it insulate worse, so if you are not concerned about weight, then synthetic is more than enough. You can also invest in a sheet bag, which provides a few degrees more warmth.

For example, if you have a thin down bag and a synthetic bag that is suitable for -10 degrees, you can definitely try this together instead of buying an expensive winter sleeping bag.

6. Cooking equipment

Cooking in the winter can be problematic, especially if you use a gas burner and gas. The gas burner has become our best friend on a trip, but in the winter it can be good to use a multi-fuel burner or a gas burner with a preheater, and use gas that is made for winter use. A good tip is to keep the gas canister inside your jacket before use, to keep it warm. Also preferably overnight if you want to heat water in the morning, or turn up the heat in the tent.

A set of pots that can withstand campfire heat should always be included. A good frying pan with non-stick, a slightly larger pot and a small one, as well as a coffee pot. Then you can cook pretty much anything you want on the fire or on the primus. Food tastes extra good outdoors, and especially if you put a little work into it. Of the kitchen utensils, you should have a good knife, a spatula, something to stir with, and cutlery.

7. Bonfire

Nothing beats a good bonfire when the cold sets in and the light disappears. There is little that is as satisfying as sitting by a good bonfire in the winter under a starry sky. The most important things to bring on a winter trip if you don't have your own firewood are an axe, a saw (bow saw, hiking saw), a knife, something to light a fire with, and preferably some dry kindling.

A good tip is to make a firewood bag in advance from a packing bag, which contains dry kindling or a fire starter, a lighter and matches. Good firewood is rarely found in established places, and there is no point in cutting down fresh trees, as they contain a lot of water.

If you are in a spruce or pine forest, you rarely need to go very far from camp before you find a dead and dry tree. They usually don't have much bark on them and are missing leaves. Find a good piece of wood, not something that is too large. Cut the tree down and saw it down to log size. Then follow the recipe for a pagoda fire. Feel free to make small notches in the kindling wood, as it catches fire more easily. Find a dead twig on the lower part of a spruce tree, and use this to get the fire started quickly. Light a handful, and place this inside the fire, and voila! Try to find tyri (pine), these burn for a long time and contain a lot of resin, which burns well and for a long time. You will quickly notice the smell if you have found tyri.

8. Keep warm

If there is one thing that is important when you are on a winter trip, it is to stay warm. On the body I like to use the three-layer principle. Moisture-wicking wool (for little activity or super underwear (for a lot of activity) inside, then a wool sweater on top, and preferably wool pants (check out Ulvang's!) or regular breathable hiking pants on the bottom, and then a good jacket and pants that keep the weather out. Good socks are also important, but remember that you need to be able to move your toes to stay warm, so bring extra socks that you can use at camp.

To make it extra comfortable, it is good to bring good and comfortable clothes that you can wear at camp. Extra long wool socks to keep in your sleeping bag, extra wool to sleep in, a good hat, and if you want, you shouldn't skimp on good camping shoes either.

9. Extra coziness

As it gets dark quickly in winter, it can be a bit tricky to crawl into a dark tent with only a headlamp as a light source (remember a power bank or extra batteries for the headlamp, the battery runs out faster in the cold!). Feel free to bring a string of lights that you can hang either in the outer tent, or on the ceiling of your tent. It looks cozy both from the outside and inside the tent, and you don't have to worry about the bright light from your headlamp.

A down-filled pillow is absolutely magical to have in the winter, and it beats sleeping on a pile of clothes every single day. Today, there are down pillows that are as big as a fist without air, so if you want to reduce space and sleep extra well at night, this is a good investment.

10. Stay warm through the night

To stay warm through the night, you can bring a Nalgene bottle or hot water bottle. Before you go to bed, boil water and pour it into the bottle. If you use a Nalgene bottle, you should have some fabric around it, so that it doesn't get too hot on your body, and that it retains the heat longer. You can also get down slippers, which are great to have both in and outside your sleeping bag. Feel free to put the clothes you are going to wear the next day in the bottom of the sleeping bag, then it's not so bad to get up in the morning the next day.

Have a good trip!