Thinking About Winter Camping?

Have you ever thought winter camping might be an adventure you'll remember forever? I'll bet it will be if you have the guts to try it. You need to take some time and plan just how you're going to go about it but it can and will be all kinds of fun and an experience you'll always remember.

Camping in the snow offers you the ability to get away from sleeping in a tent and making your own shelter by burrowing into a pile of snow and escaping the harshest elements that way. These little snow huts are known as a quinzee and can provide a great degree of comfort and warmth when you need it. The Eskimos have lived in houses like these until fairly recently and it has always worked for them so you know it's going to be more than adequate for you.

It takes time to build one of these little huts. You need to shovel snow into a mound until it reaches about six feet in height. You then will take small sticks at a length of about a foot or a foot and a half and poke them into the bank so that they point into the center. These sticks will act as a guide to what thickness you are making the walls of the structure while you excavate it. It will take a good amount of sticks to do this, maybe a couple of dozen or so..

Once you've made your pile and poked your sticks into it then it's time to walk away for a while and let the pile harden. If you were to try and dig it out right know it would just cave in on you. The colder it is outside the better the pile of snow will harden. Likewise the longer you leave it to sit the more it will harden as well.

When you start digging out your quinzee be sure to start at ground level and if possible, work your way up so that the sleeping area is slightly elevated. This will help ensure the cooler air flows down and will help to keep you warmer when you're inside your quinzee. Keep digging until you begin to reach the ends of the sticks you had poked through the wall earlier. As I said before, these are the gauge of how thick your walls are so don't dig past them or your structure will be weaker. Be sure to smooth off the roof area on the inside so that water doesn't have a place to drip from and irritate you or worse yet make you wet, cold, and uncomfortable.

When you're winter camping in a quinzee or a tent then it's imperative that you stay warm. A quinzee will be much warmer than a tent but it is quite a bit more work. In either case be certain to use a self inflating air mattress to keep yourself insulated from the ground. A good four season sleeping bag in conjunction with it and you'll be toasty and comfortable.

One thing I like about the idea of winter camping is that many of the animals that can be either a nuisance or a danger tend to hibernate in the winter so in a way it's safer to camp in a way, as long as you're prepared for the cold.

Give winter camping a try. Build yourself a quinzee even and be amazed at not only how comfortable you are, but what a great time you can have when you've properly prepared for your winter time camping trip. Add a hot meal and a piping hot cup of coffee or cocoa and things just don't get to be much more perfect.