How To Sleep Warmly
10 steps to a goosebump-free night
Lucky is the warm sleeper. You know you’re a member of this club if you’ve ever slept blissfully through the night with the zipper to your bag wide open while companions with nearly identical sleeping bags complained of the bone shivering cold.
Warm sleepers and cold sleepers are indeed born that way, due in large part to metabolism and body size. But a whole bunch of other factors come into play that influence your ability to sleep comfortably through the night, such as how much water and food you consumed that day and how much insulation lies between you and the heat-sucking ground.
So, cold sleepers, don’t despair. You can level the playing field with a few easy-to-follow tips to help you generate and conserve more body heat when the night turns frosty. Here’s how:
1. Get enough “bag” for your buck. Select a temperature rating for your sleeping bag that’s adequate for the nighttime temperatures you’re likely to encounter. Head into New Hampshire’s White Mountains in November with a 35-degree bag, for example, and you’ll likely be a cold pup. For a more in-depth discussion on temperature ratings, see “Degrees of Comfort.”
2. Hold onto your heat. A sleeping bag’s design plays a big role in your ability to retain body heat. If you’re a serious camper or backpacker, your slam-dunk choice is a mummy-cut bag for the simple reason that there’s less empty space inside that needs to be heated and the close-fitting hood prevents heat from escaping. (Attention women: new women’s bags conform to the realities of the female form and metabolism — narrower fitting in the shoulders, wider in the hips, shorter overall, and extra insulation in the foot area — to create a bag that’s easier to heat up.) Other warmth-enhancing bag features to look for: an insulated draft collar, which drapes or cinches around your neck like a gasket to seal in heat; a hood with loads of insulation as well as cinch cords to narrow the face opening; and an insulated zipper draft tube running the entire length of the zipper.
3. Get off the ground. The ground is always colder than you, so without an insulating layer between you and it, you’ll be robbed of precious body heat. Your best bets in pads are either the closed-cell foam variety or self-inflaters. See “All About Backcountry Beds” for more about the buying considerations that go into selecting a pad. Tip: When camping on snow or frozen ground, the best formula for warmth is to carry two pads, a smooth, full-length closed-cell foam pad topped with a full-length self-inflater.
4. Eat before you sleep. Think of your body as a furnace that needs stoking with food to generate heat. Treat yourself to some high-calorie indulgences before turning in. For quick heat, carbohydrates like a cereal bar will rev your internal motor almost instantly, but the burn peters out after a few hours. That’s where proteins and fats come in. Peanuts and beef jerky, for example, are like big ol’ Yule logs that burn long and slowly to help generate metabolic heat into the wee hours.
Winter Water
Melting snow
In cold weather camping, one of the best things you can do to stay healthy is develop a drinking habit. I’m talking water, not wine. Adequate hydration is key to avoiding hypothermia and altitude sickness.
But what if you’re camped in a vast expanse of snow where everything is frozen? Then, you might well remember the old lament,”Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.” But lament no more: These tips will help you find water — or make it.
* In freezing cold weather, look for flowing water. A lake may be frozen solid, while a stream or even a tiny spring might be flowing well.
* Don’t forget to filter or boil water: Freezing temperatures do not kill all the parasites that could be lurking in there.
* If you expect to have to melt water, bring along a backpacking snow-shovel (you’ll need it anyway, for setting up camp, and it’s a safety item in avalanche country) and a couple of big black plastic garbage bags. Shovel snow into the garbage bags and set them in the sun. In a couple of hours, you’ll either have some melt water, which can be funneled into a pot, or you’ll have almost-melted snow that will melt very quickly when it is heated. It takes an enormous volume of snow to make water, so as the snow starts to shrink in volume (which it will do as it starts to melt), add more snow to the bags.
* For faster results, melt snow over either a fire or a stove. First, shovel the snow into a bag or a big pile. (That way, you’ll have all your snow together when you’re ready to start melting it.) When you start your stove (or fire), pour a little bit of water you’ve already got on hand into the pot before you add any snow. This is important: If you try to start with snow: the heat will scorch it, and you will actually end up”burning” your water! Once the water is warm, slowly add snow, wait till it warms up, then add more. Don’t add it too quickly, or it will turn into an icy mess.
* Melting snow takes a lot of fuel and time, so always fill your water bottles whenever you encounter running water.
Conquering Blisters
*Double-check the boot fit. If you’re a beginning backpacker and you’re not used to the feel of hiking boots, wear them at home for a couple of days for several hours to be sure they are comfortable. Seek out a reputable store and an experienced salesperson to find the best fit. If you wear them at home and they don’t feel right, you can take them back to the store for exchange.
*Break in your boots. This is usually as much of an issue of toughening your feet as softening your boots. Any way you look at it, your feet and boots are going to have to reach a compromise, and better they work out their differences near home than on the trail. I like to walk about 50 miles in new boots before I hit the trail (which is great exercise, too). But even trustworthy comfy boots need to be reintroduced to your feet if you’ve been sitting around all winter. Before a big trip, I’ll go out for a couple of four- or five-mile shorties near home, just so my feet and my boots can renew their acquaintance.
*Wear wicking socks—polypropylene or nylon are fine—under a pair of wool or wool-and-nylon blend outer socks. The wicking socks are less abrasive, plus they move moisture away from your feet. Never wear cotton socks—cotton absorbs moisture and practically guarantees blisters.
*Go easy on the mileage and keep your packweight as low as possible.
*The absolutely number one most important rule of blister prevention: The second you feel the slightest hint of something rubbing in your shoe, STOP! Ignore your hiking partner’s pleas to just keep going. Find the pebble, grass-seed, clump of dirt, grain of sand, or wrinkle in the sock. If it’s a tight boot that’s causing trouble, rub the inside of your boot with the blunt, rounded end of a Swiss army knife to try to stretch the leather or fabric.
*If you know you’ve got a vulnerable trouble spot, like the back of your heel, put a piece of moleskin on it before you start walking.
*Treat a hot spot with moleskin on the trail. If a blister has already started forming (it can happen in mere seconds), use a dressing called Second Skin (available from Spenco). This dressing was developed to treat burns—and after all, blisters are nothing more than friction burns. Whether you’re putting moleskin over a hot spot or adhesive tape over a Second Skin dressing, remember that tape adheres better to dry skin than wet skin—so use a bandanna to dry your sweaty feet first.
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