A few words of Advise- fleece hat, you loose a lot of heat through your head, put a fleece or something similar in the bag with you along with a change of sox, they will be warm in the morning. Pee before bed, it takes a lot of calories to warm up water and keep it at body temp all night. 1 malamute is good, but two sibes can get a little cramped, still warm though.

Buy a full length pad, every time i slept on my 3/4, my feet got cold. put the pad in the bivi, so you don't slide off the thing.

 

you don't need a freakin space heater!!! i lived in my truck through a couple of winters in salt lake city... i lined the bed (pickup) with a couple wool blankets, put a thermarest on that, and then my 10? sleeping bag (one particularly cold (~0?) night the sheriff brought me hot coco - i thought he was going to make me move). yes it is butt-ass cold getting out of yer bag in the morning... but you sure wake up fast! it's kind of refreshing... don't use inflatable mattresses (thermarest has foam in it) as they just absorb and dissapate your body heat....

man living in the truck was nice... wake up in the hills every morning... all yer toys and well... everything you have with you!!! go for a nice trail run before work because you wake up at the trailhead!!! pump some fresh water for the day... if only i could convince my lady... oh and did i mention how much money you save on rent!!!??

 

Geiger used an inverter and an electric blanket for all night use.

http://www.off-road.com/toyota/rockr...110vac/110.htm

 

I second the thoughts on the Coleman Catalytic heater, very clean, very safe, can be burned indoors. I use mine all the time camping at mountain bike races. Keeps the tent around 70-80 degrees.. OK that's not roughing it, but it sure is nice.... (doesn't help when you have to go outside to p1ss though.... )

 

Another good idea that I completely forgot about, is boild a quart of water, put in in a Nalgene bottle (The Lexan kind, NOT the white ones), put the bottle in a think wool sock and throw in in the bottom of your sleeping bag. This trick saved me during freak stroms way up in Beartooth Mountains a couple of times at around 12,000'. Works like a champ......and, eat a candy bar before you hit the sack, simple sugars are easily metabolized to make heat.

 

Very true. In cold weather don't eat salty food. It will make you drink more water, then your body will try to get rid of the water to keep from heating it all night. End result, you'll be peeing all night long. Water has a high specific heat and has to absorb a lot of energy to increase one degree.

 

Your beagle isn't going to freeze. I've got a stubborn beagle myself, and remember - they come factory equipped with a nice fur coat as a standard feature. My beagle is enough of a heater for me, actually. As long as the dog stays inside the truck, and dry, and it's not like 30 below, he/she will be just fine for a few hours. Remember, they're hunting dogs, and bred for endurance, stamina, and a strong metabolic rate.

2004 Tacoma Powered by Beagle!

 

Leave the pooch with a friend while you go skiing or let have your sleeping bag. I have camped with my dog and let him "wear" my down jacket on cold nights.
Sleeping in a tent is often warmer and more comfortable. If you have a small stove heat up a bottle/bladder of water and put it in your bag when you go to sleep.
Happy camping.

 

Electric matress cover... Electric blanket. Never a better night's sleep.

~castrol

 

Jake 94, you are correct about the caloric requirements, but a larger volume as a result of a full bladder will require more energy to heat, best to keep the volume at a minimum by not laying in your bag pondering how cold it will be when you get up to evacuate. Hydration is also key, just like in a car, when the water level gets low bad things can happen quickly.

Sounds like a good monday morning math problem, how many more Kcals does it take to keep a person with a full bladder @ temp vs empty?

 

I thought that these were just a gimmic: Uhrl Gear, until my wife decided that our Golden NEEDED one. He Loves it and now I don't have to fight him for my sleeping bag.

Jake.

 

Same # .

Any way, what it really boils down to is ppl avoid drinking b/4 bed time so they don't have to get out of a warm bag in the middle of the night. That is why your pee bottle is your friend.

Jake.

 

Sorry Jake, you lose this one. What matters is mass and temperature.

Water going into the body is not body temp, so it has to be warmed up, which means energy has to be consumed to heat the water.

Salty food (standard dry, camp-type fare: Ramen Noodles, Lipton Noodles or Rice, Mac & Cheese, tuna, etc.) force you to drink more water to keep the NaCl concentration in check. Which means more water consumed and heated.

Water= 1g/cubic cm density or 1kg per liter.
Specific Heat of Water = 1.00 cal/gºC

Do the math, I'm pooped.
Lot of heat there.

Now once the mass of water has achieved body temp, it doesn't just stay there. There is energy loss to the environment which is governed by difference between the energy of the two systems (internal temp and external temp) and the surface area:volume ratio. Which, incidentally, is higher for small people than it is for big people.

In the end, your body does not want to equilibrate the temperature of its mass with the external environment, therefore, it has to continure to produce even more heat to maintain the temp of it's greater mass.

Solution? Get rid of all that excess salty water (from the salty food). Go pee. Leak a lizard. Weewee.

True, you have to stay hydrated so the blood doesn't thicken.It may also help with altitude sickness. But due to the salt, there can be too much of a good thing.

 

Best heater on the market is the Coleman bearcat. I have both the large size with the batteries for a circulationg fan and the sport model, both heat tents just fine. I usually spend time at Pismo beach in April and it's colder than I like. The colemans do great and no worries about carbon monoxide and they are flameless. Highly recommend them.

 

"What matters is mass and temperature"
That is another reason to bring a hot water bottle into the bag, you can drink the water when it is cooled enough and not loose body heat. Still it is better to be hydrated than wake up tired and having a headache from altitude. That would cancel out the loss of energy due to drinking water.

 

I am on the side that believes you don't want to heat excess fluid all night long. What I didn't see mentioned is the fact that if you over-hydrate before sleeping, you not only have to keep all that fluid warm, but you will wake up in the middle of the night with a real dilema. You are likely already cold, and now you have to urinate. You are forced to get out of your sleeping bag, put on your clothes and cold, stiff boots and get out of the vehicle. That really sucks.

I promise you that if/when that happens, you will not only feel better after you "break the seal", you will also sleep warmer for the rest of the night. I know this first hand. I was camping with an old girlfriend several years ago when she woke up very cold and having to pee. I finally convinced her to get up and take care of business. She returned to her the tent, got back in her bag and slept much more comfortably the rest of the night.

By the way, I have found that my down bag is much more prone to heat loss from wind than my synthetic bags. One way I combat this (when not sleeping inside Sherpa) is to use a bivy sack. I have two Gore-Tex bivy sacks I got while in the Marine Corps. They add at least 10 degrees of warmth to whichever of my 4 sleeping bags I am using on the inside.

-Scott

P.S. I have slept outdoors in the Colorado Rockies at least one night of every single month of the year - either in a tent or under the stars. -S

 

Don'cha love a good pissin' match?

 

wow - thanks guys - i have so many options now, i'm stoked. i am ALL for being warm [i am a girl, and we're always cold] so an inverter with a blanket sounds delightful - oh, toasty goodness! and, i'll probably try all the other tricks too - the warmer the better!! nothing worse than going out to ride with cold boots. as for the pissing, all that science hurts my head, i'll just plan to go when i need to

 

I agree you don't want to go to bed so overhydrated you can't sleep (getting up in the middle of the night is never fun unless it is to start a climb). However I do prefer not waking up at night thirsty either. It is a balance and you can go with less water at lower altitude (I don't think the parking lot at Mt. Hood is that high up).
Enjoy the camping

 

I'm pretty sure that using an inflatible air mattress in the winter is a bad idea. A self inflator like a thermarest is okay, but i think closed cell foam is best for keeping warm.
This probably has something to do with thermodynamics, but I sure can't remember (high school is getting to be a long time ago).

Also, no science (save for the empiracle observations of self) here, but I say take a pee before you get in the bag, then have nice drink (of water) before you zip all the way up. Don't know about keeping warm, but it works for a good nights sleep no matter where I am.