The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a long article (with some good pictures) about this annual event. Patterned after a Minnesota event, it was started by Nick Gordon, who "vowed to start my own in Wisconsin." It's been as cold as -41° with snow as deep as 3 feet.
"I think winter camping is a lot more social" than summer camping, Gordon said. "There's so much communal time around the fire."
Larson removed a Dutch oven from its perch hanging above the fire and offered up its contents — a cheesy mix of eggs, sausage and potatoes — to the group. Someone else melted water from a frozen jug. Another added 3-foot-logs to the long fire.
This is how they spend most of the day — "we stand around and eat," someone joked. Gordon said he'll consume 6,000 calories a day when camping in the winter....
Is it all men? The Sentinel calls it "a male-heavy brigade, many with hearty beards," ah, but here, it quotes a woman, "Karla with a K":
"I used to make fun of (Nick) for hammock camping... until I tried it one time. It was 19 degrees and it sleeted that night, and I was so warm...."
UPDATE: Nick Gordon emails and says the gender balance was actually 9 men and 7 women — pretty even! Also, he read the comments and offer some advice about food and gear:
[I]t's very common knowledge among winter enthusiasts and every culture that lives in cold climates that you need calories to keep that core temperature. If you don't have heat from an external source it must be made from within. The fact that our bodies have to metabolize so much more is part of the reason we tend to get more dehydrated in the winter and need to drink more water than summer time. I tell all my students that they'l notice little things a lot more in winter than summer as far as how their body reactions to eating and drinking. Sometimes a snack can warm you up in just minutes....
Most of the tech gear you find in stores comes from the mountaineering industry and not designed for the type of terrain and climate of the midwest. I love campfires and they are a great way to keep warm and dry your gear not to mention the camaraderie but any synthetic fabric will melt should a spark land on it. Nylon and goretex actually reflect heat from a fire. This seems like a terrible fabric for winter trekking. That's why professionals and serious enthusiasts don't use it. Footwear depends on whether or not you have dry cold or wet cold conditions. If you have any rubber around the toe of your boot, you'll likely have cold feet below zero if your winter camping. Most people in WI don't realize we have higher humidity than Orlando FL even today jan 22nd. The only dry air we suffer in winter comes from baked air inside our homes cooked by your furnace.
He sent along some cool photos:
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35 comments:
"Larson removed a Dutch oven..."
From Wiki:
"A Dutch oven is a slang term for lying in bed with another person and pulling the covers over the person's head while flatulating, thereby creating an unpleasant situation in an enclosed space. This is done as a prank or by accident to one's sleeping partner."
Maybe there's an interesting story about how this usage came to be.
Or maybe it is just as simple as it sounds.
Better than a German oven, anyway. Historically.
--jj
And Yankees think Dixie is full of strange people. Cabin Fever must be a serious mental illness.
I get having to do this stuff while in pursuit of worthwhile objectives, but doing it for it’s own sake just seems douchey and retarded. Get a life.
The Sentinel calls it "a male-heavy brigade, many with hearty beards...
Did the Sentinel ask each of them how they identified? If not, how would they know they were males?
“"I think it's funny that when you're with a group of people who sleep in hammocks, they talk about their hammocks," Gordon said. "When you go and sit around with a bunch of people that sleep in tents, nobody talks about their tents."
I don’t know where he gets this. Not even close to true. I’ve done a lot of backpacking and long-distance canoe trips. A lot of thought goes into the tent. It’s the heaviest piece of gear and it’s performance is critical if you run into an extended bout of bad weather.
I used to winter camp as well. It’s... bracing.
A dad I met when my sons and I were in YMCA Indian Guides used to do primitive winter camping. They would dig into the frozen ground, make a fire, let it burn down to hot coals, and then cover it up with the dirt. They would then sleep on top of the warmed earth. He invited me to come along. I respectfully declined. I'm not that curious.
Went camping with the scouts last weekend. 23 below zero. Slept in a snow hut and had a good sleeping bag. Keep moving during the day, you'll be fine. Don't wear cotton.
"Mad dogs and Englishmen stay out in the noonday sun"
Juxta:
"Mad Minnesotans and swissconsinites sleep out in the arctic cold"
Cold be a meme
At first I read the quote as, "I vowed to start my own Wisconsin"
Blogger Bob Boyd said...
At first I read the quote as, "I vowed to start my own Wisconsin"
I think we got all that we can use... don't we?
”Don't wear cotton.”
The gear has really improved since my youth. I shudder when I think back to my earliest camping days.
"a male-heavy brigade".
At 6000 calories per day, I don't doubt that.
”I think we got all that we can use... don't we?”
You can never have enough Wisconsin.
"I think we got all that we can use... don't we?"
If I was going to start my own state it wouldn't be Wisconsin, but let's see what the kid can do.
I looked up the definition of Ice Fishing. It referred me to Ice Drinking.
Meh. Try living alone for 27 years in the Maine woods and enduring those brutal winters.
Read: Stranger In The Woods.
SayAahh said...
Meh. Try living alone for 27 years in the Maine woods and enduring those brutal winters.
Read: Stranger In The Woods.
Um, Naaah.
My scots-irish blood says that no true Scotsman would endure brutal winters just for the pleasure of writing about it.
I did winter camping as a Boy Scout about sixty years ago. Never crossed my mind that it was supposed to be something that would rate a lengthy article in a city newspaper. You do have to dress warmly (we knew about layering back in the 1950s) and wear boots (which weren't nearly as good back then as they are now) but it really isn't all that hard. (And upstate Illinois, where we camped, isn't a whole lot warmer than Madison, Wisconsin). One trick we did that I didn't see in the article is stacking logs in a reflector near the fire, both to reflect heat back in the direction where people are sitting (upwind!) and to dry off dead wood that's been covered in snow. Pound two long stakes into the ground at a mild angle, then stack the wood on the stakes. Here's an article that says it can't work but even if the wall reflects only a little heat back, it's better than letting that heat escape. Drying the logs should not be overlooked as a side benefit.
Now, on the other hand,
a story about impossibly hot, incredibly humid nights lying naked on a marble gravestone feeling the cool stone against you fervid skin, in Mississippi, in the dark, Now THAT'S something to write about!
Cold camping could lead to a lot of spooning--and a little forking.
If I wanted to hang out with people I'd go to bars. I go camping to get away from people.
Rusty, I'm the same about vacations. The allure of cruise ships and beach-front high rises escapes me.
"a story about impossibly hot, incredibly humid nights lying naked on a marble gravestone feeling the cool stone against you fervid skin, in Mississippi, in the dark, Now THAT'S something to write about!"
Faulkner been there, done that.
Interesting article. I was expecting to hate the people but they didn't seem annoying at all. Plus they seem to know what they're doing: Buying second-hand wool sweaters rather than The North Face's latest jacket using canvas tents, etc - though given the weight of their gear, they're obviously not hiking it in. Plus using the parachute to trap heat over the fire was a really cool idea.
I'm an Eagle Scout and did a bunch of weekends in below-zero temperatures and it's not fun at all, though.
My dad never took me camping growing up. He said he did enough camping in the Ardennes the winter of '44-'45. That struck me as perfectly reasonable.
Nice set ups. I'm impressed.
As Patrick said Don't wear cotton. The simple lesson I was taught was 'Cotton Kills'
I love camping in the fall and spring and will do cold winter or hot summer camping if someone else asks me to go.
I prefer winter camping to hot summer camping. You can put on more layers or add more wood to the fire - but you can only get so naked and air conditioners to really work with tents.
I am going to have to figure out how that parachute set up works - it is ingenious.
"Karla with a K." Loved that song. Here's a live version from 1987:
The Hooters - Karla With A K
Ah, the good old days!
What's wrong with cotton? Must one remove it, or merely not rely on it but add wool, etc? Don't fancy the idea of polyester underwear.
Mary Martha said...
"I am going to have to figure out how that parachute set up works - it is ingenious."
Looks like they run a few lines at the edges out to the trees and use the hot air from the fire to inflate it. But I haven't been camping for years so I could be completely wrong.
You don't wear cotton because it absorbs moisture from perspiration. It then gets very cold. Wool or fleece either repel or wick moisture out. Most crucial at bedtime, but very important for sub zero temperatures.
Has anyone invented a synthetic fabric that works as well as cotton above freezing? I've tried several that still make my skin soggy, itchy, and hot. Then if it isn't dried, it rots.
My memories of winter camping are that you are either standing around the campfire staying warm or you are out gathering wood for the fire. Nothing else, unless the weather warms up to the 20's.
DrZ and his first wife did winter camping up in the Boundary Waters.
I went with them one year back in the 70s, the last decade the Great Lakes froze over so much. We did snowshoeing (for which you will need those 6000 kcals a day) and dog sledding. Great fun, but really makes you realize how careful you have to be to avoid fatal disaster.
One year DrZ and wife went cross country skiing because it was below zero. A few days later a couple from California who only had down clothes were on the same trail. The weather warmed up, their down got wet and they died before they could hike out.
We wore silk underwear and liner socks (WinterSilks makes them) with wool socks (pack spares, wet socks = cold feet), Sorrel pack boots, and either down for dry cold or wool for wet cold. We'd carry both to avoid the fatal scenario above. In fact, your spare clothes would be packed in your partner's backpack in case you went through the ice.
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