Windchill galore and upchuck reflex

It was a windy one this weekend. The campsite my scouts selected is only protected on one side - the east. And giving the local weather pattern, if weather is coming from the east you're looking at some serious precipitation comeing from the sky anyways. The site is on a peninsula and is exposed from the north, west and south. And there was wind out of the northwest this weekend.

Life got real for a few scouts as a result. Scouts were getting cold while they were eating dinner as a result as the temps dropped as radiant heat loss left the earth. The lack of clouds did not help this scenario. The temps bottomed out at -2(F) sometime in the early morning. This was the second coldest weekend of the season for the camp; the season low is a balmy -12(F) a few weeks ago that I was absent for.

Speaking of getting warm, here is a getting warm dance I learned at a scout camp in 2000. It is a little complicated and most folks can't hack it. But this scout was great at it, and his entire crew was, too.



I also joined a selective group of camp staffers who have been woken up by scouts in the middle of the night, a group that now consists of two persons. Sometime around 2:14 a.m., there was a light shining on the long side of my tent. "Wake up," the light said. "I threw up in the parachute." Great. I got up, opened the door and two scouts approached the small entrance. I sat up and shuffled my torso out of my sleeping bag.

The scout promptly relayed the pertinent information: he had woken up, vomited and managed to dispense the contents onto the snow instead of his bag, boot or other thing that would need to be cleaned. He woke up his buddy, drank some water, ate some gorp, got dressed and started moving to get warm. And that wasn't working. So I was called in, and rightfully so.

Camp policy on this situation is pretty simple: we are not a survival camp and no scout has to sleep outside he or she does not want to. Vomiting generally puts a scout into the category of not wanting to stay outside - it removes all the liquid and food from your stomach. Because digestion generates heat and provides energy to movement (which also generates heat), vomiting is especially troublesome because it is like taking a fuel bottle and dumping it all over the snow. This is not the first time a scout has vomited while outside in the course of the weekend. In 2008 or 2007, a scout vomited almost immediately after supper. He got cold and did not want to stay outside with his sick stomach and went in almost immediately.

So while I got dressed to the light of my headlamp, the scout woke up his father and we walked back to base camp, a series of two buildings about 1.5 miles away through a swamp and over a hill or two. I got to base camp around 3 a.m., and was back at my site about 20 minutes later. I stripped down to my base layers once again and crawled back into my sleeping bag. (The scout was fine - him and his father walked back out to our site the following morning to eat breakfast and pack up their gear.)

I never did figure out what prompted his upchuck reflex. My best guess is dehydration, although he said his urine was clear throughout the day. The dehydration was likely caused by eating supper without drinking water and not drinking water later in the evening before bed. The issue then is why did this occur at 2 a.m. and not earlier? I guess I'll never know.

As for gear, I changed up my gloves system this weekend, opting for the PowerStretch gloves as liners underneath the packable SD mitts. In previous weeks, I have used a pair of generic polypro liner gloves. As a further push of the mittens, I tried to do as many tasks as possible with the mittens on - pulling zippers, buttoning pants, pumping and lighting stoves, etc.

The results were mixed - I could pull zippers, pump and prime stoves and set up my tent with no minimal dexterity issues. Much to my surprise, I could even unclasp the Velcro closures that held the poles in place in my tent. I had issues closing the fly on my pants and fine tasks such as removing a match from a matchbox. Lighting the match, however, was no issue.

Although winter is not over yet, there is only one weekend left of scouts. I have a trip tentatively planned over spring break in late March, but my winter camping for this season is almost at an end. There issue with this is that so far I have not been able to effectively test the precipitation resistance qualities of the Sierra Designs insulating parka and softshell jacket that I have been testing throughout the season. Final and summary comments on these two garments, along with the Packable mitts is coming next week. I have already compiled my notes from the previous weekends and will be putting together a final product soon.

Another weekend, and some interesting finds

The weekend was an odd one. Early last week, the low temps were above freezing and it rained Monday overnight into Tuesday morning. Around my apartment, the snow had disappeared; was the snow still around in the woods of central Minnesota?

Yes, yes it was. But only barely. The snow that remained was crusty and supported a person's weight. Only in areas of shade underneath coniferous trees was the snow powdery. My mukluks never had a chance to get moist - there was never any snow to stick to them. It was all firmly frozen to the ground. To get enough snow to bury a pot of water, a few of my scouts had to chop up the remnants of a collapsed snow shelter.

I opted to sleep in my warmer mummy bag, and older Marmot Col that is rated to -20 and holds the rating quite nicely. The reasons were three fold: first, I was ill and did not want to risk a fitful night of sleep; second, I left my insulated pants at home by accident; and third, hindsight would show that the low temp Sunday morning was 2F, 6 degrees colder than my previous low. Although I slept comfortably, I did learn than I need more insulation underneath me than a single shortie Ridgerest - I was warm above me but I could feel cold seeping to my back. This was confirmed by the frozen shape of my sleeping pad on Sunday morning.

Once again I slept in my MK1 with another person - to mitigate the condensation inside the tent, I opened the door slightly but left the mesh intact. I did not adjust the roof vents. Because ventilation is the best method to remove minimize from an area, it was necessary to open the door. Previously, I kept the door closed and the tent was a load of condensation inside even though the temp only got to 8F. Both nights, the air was still.

The method worked well. There was minimal condensation inside the tent, except on the downward-facing edge of the poles. Next time, I not leave the mesh open and I should have even less condensation. Although I know it is out there, BPL has an excellent article on managing moisture inside shelters (another must-read: Condensation on different fabrics). Surprisingly, no-see um mesh significantly impairs a shelter's ability to manage condensation. I had read this previous to this weekend, but wanted to see the results first-hand in the winter.

Mid-season winter outing pushes bag limits

As I followed the weather for this past weekend, the estimated temps started in the 40s with a high chance of precipitation. As the week grew on the estimated high dropped into the mid 20s and the low was estimated to hit the low teens. And the wind would pick up. All in all, a great opportunity to be outside. The only thing that it was missing was some precipitation.

In my third installment of "How cold can I push my Hydrogen," I was determined to use the 30 degree bag despite lowered forecasted temps. The purpose of the experiment is to determine what I need to wear at what temps to stay safe throughout the night. If I can wear (insulating) clothes to bed, I can carry a lighter sleeping bag or quilt and be just as comfortable. It was also my first time out with my recently-acquired GoLite Ether.

I wore the Ether over my R1 Hoody all day - it was windy and the temps were colder than I anticipated. The hoods on both stayed up and never went down for long (the R1 not at all). The windshirt did an excellent job of cutting the wind and being breathable for the moderate exertion I did, but I needed the extra warmth from my softshell jacket throughout the afternoon.

I also left my puffy down coats behind this past weekend - my sole puffy insulation on my torso was my Thermawrap Parka (see sidebar - I adore this parka). I also did not bring another insulating hat out, instead opting to rely on my three hoods to keep my noggin warm (base layer, windshirt and puffy parka).

Weekends with the scouts typically require more insulation because there is more downtime - standing around while the scouts work on snow shelters, participate in team-building or other games or other tasks. Because of this, I was skeptical that my insulation would be sufficient come late evening.

My skepticism was (mostly) in error. I was plenty warm throughout the evening, and I made sure I moved around enough to keep blood flow up - the various skills that need to be taught require demonstrations and guidance that keeps one's metabolic rate up. The (mostly) part came in the nighttime during sleep. In bed, I removed my softshell clothing and windshirt and kept the rest of my lineup on - I added my Thermawrap pants as extra insulation for my legs. Once again, I slept with a single 57" Ridgerest and a generic closed cell foam chunk under my feet.

My toes got cold at about 3 a.m., and then again at 5 a.m. The first time, I removed my VBL socks to see if that was the problem - nope. My toes were cold again my 5 a.m. I ate a few hundred calories throughout the evening and maintained adequate hydration to help keep my body temp up. All of this worked fine and I had a very restful sleep - I was refreshed when my alarm went off at 6:35 a.m.

Finally, to all the Scouts and leaders who are now following this blog - Hello! and I hope you find what you seek and enjoy what you find.