Last weekend I had a few buddies over to practice winter camping skills in preparation for another trip early next month.
Some had more experience than others, but all contributed to the learning process. We stayed close to the backdoor of the house in case we met with a minor (or major) catastrophe and had to bail. Otherwise it was pretty typical stuff… cooking in the tipi, splitting wood, talking shop.
We used my Kifaru 8 man tipi for shelter and the large stove for warmth.
Here is a short video of the stove running at full blast and un-dampened. We didn't quite get the stove pipe red all the way to the stove jack, but were able to get a nice flame to shoot out the top. Normally I wouldn't run the stove like that, but when I have new people in the tipi I like to show them what the system can do and what it is capable of. Even with all the heat escaping it the stovepipe, the interior of the tipi gets very warm!
[video=youtube_share;XCIeHAaNu_o]http://youtu.be/XCIeHAaNu_o[/video]
Friday night the temp got down to -17*F. The stove doesn't run through the night, but we all did well with no problems. We had mostly USGI sleep systems; a couple of MSS's and an old school USGI down filled bag. For ground protection we used a combination of USGI casualty blankets, USGI closed cell foam mats, commercial closed cell foam mats and a one DownMat Exped air mattress. Everyone ended up with at least two layers of insulation underneath them.
I used a small digital thermometer with a wireless remote to collect data on the temperature ranges over the weekend. The top number represents the time of day, the middle number is the inside temp and the bottom number is the remote temperature. In this case the remote sensor was placed just a few feet outside the tipi. By morning it had "warmed up" to -14*F outside and the temp inside the tipi was right a zero. Look close enough and you can see frost on the face and side of the thermometer.
Just a little while later after the sun was peeking over the trees (and likely hitting the sensor) and running the stove, the temps had changed a little bit. In this photo the thermometer is about 18" away from the stove. My buddy was really excited and amazed with what the tipi and stove can do for keeping everything comfortable.
For breakfast I wanted eggs and sausage.
Cooking the sausage was no problem, but is seems as if "OBL" has turned over a new leaf and was eager to try some pork sausage - with a spoon no less!
On the other hand the eggs were frozen (as expected).
I used a small cook pot and set the egg container in it. I placed it on the stove for a short time until the eggs thawed out just a little bit.
In just a short time the eggs were ready to pour into the pan and scrambled up "cowboy style".
Using an "improvised plate" that had been toasted on the stove, everyone got a good helping of scrambled eggs - yummy!
Later in the day we went for a snowshoe hike and collected a little bit of firewood.
We mostly just grabbed some small branches that were blocking the trail, snapped them into appropriate sizes and stuffed them into our packs. This certainly isn't enough wood to get through the basic bivouac routines and tasks, but it added to what wood we already had on hand.
After getting back we heated up a bunch of tea and hot chocolate to stay hydrated. We also spent some time listening to the weather report on the HAM radio and trying to strike up a conversation with another station - but no luck.
After it was dark, but before dinner we went on a night snowshoe hike which was really fun – we stopped from time to time just to listen to the sounds of the woods. We could still hear the planes flying over on their approach to MHT and the road noise on NH 124, but there is just something about night hiking (especially in the snow) that we all like.
Just a quick and uneventful video of us traipsing along in the dark on snowshoes:
[video=youtube_share;oEpC9Y6dXz4]http://youtu.be/oEpC9Y6dXz4[/video]
During one of the halts we stopped to snap a photo of the night excursion. Barely visible in the background sky is the tiny sliver of the waxing moon.
My friend had a bunch of freeze dried food that was good (by freeze dry standards), but I stuck with my sausage / veggie meals. The young man in the background in sneakers and jeans is my son, who wasn't camping out with us, but walked out to see how we were doing. He stayed long enough to eat most of my GORP and then went back into the house.
I ended up breaking the handle off the lid of my Primus cook pot. It was the spot weld that broke loose. I was trying to scrape snow off the floor of the tipi to melt into water. I will have to contact them and see if they can fix it or sell me a new top. I really like that cook set as it nests well with a Nalgene bottle and heats just enough water to make a couple of cups of tea in. The lid has a non-stick coating on the inside, so I'm not sure if it the spot weld can be redone. Maybe some J-B Weld would work?
Before:
After:
If you look at the back wall, you can see the frost line that encircles the radius of the tipi. This corresponds with the height of the stove itself. One of the great things about using a wood stove in a shelter for heat vice sitting in front of a camp fire with a lean-to at your back is that there is no "cold side" to your body - in the tipi you are warm all around.
The temp on Saturday night go down to only 0*F, so not bad at all. Sunday morning we woke up, packed the gear and took everything inside. My buddy wanted to get on the road early as he had a long drive back home and wanted to be in front of the returning holiday traffic.
Can't wait to do it again next month!
Some had more experience than others, but all contributed to the learning process. We stayed close to the backdoor of the house in case we met with a minor (or major) catastrophe and had to bail. Otherwise it was pretty typical stuff… cooking in the tipi, splitting wood, talking shop.
We used my Kifaru 8 man tipi for shelter and the large stove for warmth.
Here is a short video of the stove running at full blast and un-dampened. We didn't quite get the stove pipe red all the way to the stove jack, but were able to get a nice flame to shoot out the top. Normally I wouldn't run the stove like that, but when I have new people in the tipi I like to show them what the system can do and what it is capable of. Even with all the heat escaping it the stovepipe, the interior of the tipi gets very warm!
[video=youtube_share;XCIeHAaNu_o]http://youtu.be/XCIeHAaNu_o[/video]
Friday night the temp got down to -17*F. The stove doesn't run through the night, but we all did well with no problems. We had mostly USGI sleep systems; a couple of MSS's and an old school USGI down filled bag. For ground protection we used a combination of USGI casualty blankets, USGI closed cell foam mats, commercial closed cell foam mats and a one DownMat Exped air mattress. Everyone ended up with at least two layers of insulation underneath them.
I used a small digital thermometer with a wireless remote to collect data on the temperature ranges over the weekend. The top number represents the time of day, the middle number is the inside temp and the bottom number is the remote temperature. In this case the remote sensor was placed just a few feet outside the tipi. By morning it had "warmed up" to -14*F outside and the temp inside the tipi was right a zero. Look close enough and you can see frost on the face and side of the thermometer.
Just a little while later after the sun was peeking over the trees (and likely hitting the sensor) and running the stove, the temps had changed a little bit. In this photo the thermometer is about 18" away from the stove. My buddy was really excited and amazed with what the tipi and stove can do for keeping everything comfortable.
For breakfast I wanted eggs and sausage.
Cooking the sausage was no problem, but is seems as if "OBL" has turned over a new leaf and was eager to try some pork sausage - with a spoon no less!
On the other hand the eggs were frozen (as expected).
I used a small cook pot and set the egg container in it. I placed it on the stove for a short time until the eggs thawed out just a little bit.
In just a short time the eggs were ready to pour into the pan and scrambled up "cowboy style".
Using an "improvised plate" that had been toasted on the stove, everyone got a good helping of scrambled eggs - yummy!
Later in the day we went for a snowshoe hike and collected a little bit of firewood.
We mostly just grabbed some small branches that were blocking the trail, snapped them into appropriate sizes and stuffed them into our packs. This certainly isn't enough wood to get through the basic bivouac routines and tasks, but it added to what wood we already had on hand.
After getting back we heated up a bunch of tea and hot chocolate to stay hydrated. We also spent some time listening to the weather report on the HAM radio and trying to strike up a conversation with another station - but no luck.
After it was dark, but before dinner we went on a night snowshoe hike which was really fun – we stopped from time to time just to listen to the sounds of the woods. We could still hear the planes flying over on their approach to MHT and the road noise on NH 124, but there is just something about night hiking (especially in the snow) that we all like.
Just a quick and uneventful video of us traipsing along in the dark on snowshoes:
[video=youtube_share;oEpC9Y6dXz4]http://youtu.be/oEpC9Y6dXz4[/video]
During one of the halts we stopped to snap a photo of the night excursion. Barely visible in the background sky is the tiny sliver of the waxing moon.
My friend had a bunch of freeze dried food that was good (by freeze dry standards), but I stuck with my sausage / veggie meals. The young man in the background in sneakers and jeans is my son, who wasn't camping out with us, but walked out to see how we were doing. He stayed long enough to eat most of my GORP and then went back into the house.
I ended up breaking the handle off the lid of my Primus cook pot. It was the spot weld that broke loose. I was trying to scrape snow off the floor of the tipi to melt into water. I will have to contact them and see if they can fix it or sell me a new top. I really like that cook set as it nests well with a Nalgene bottle and heats just enough water to make a couple of cups of tea in. The lid has a non-stick coating on the inside, so I'm not sure if it the spot weld can be redone. Maybe some J-B Weld would work?
Before:
After:
If you look at the back wall, you can see the frost line that encircles the radius of the tipi. This corresponds with the height of the stove itself. One of the great things about using a wood stove in a shelter for heat vice sitting in front of a camp fire with a lean-to at your back is that there is no "cold side" to your body - in the tipi you are warm all around.
The temp on Saturday night go down to only 0*F, so not bad at all. Sunday morning we woke up, packed the gear and took everything inside. My buddy wanted to get on the road early as he had a long drive back home and wanted to be in front of the returning holiday traffic.
Can't wait to do it again next month!
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