Hi de hi campers, hope all is well.
I thought I’d share a brace of videos that I published recently as part of a winter minimal kit camping challenge. I referred to it as the Haversack challenge because that’s what I limited myself to in terms of stowage space (although my smock pockets were also put to good use!). The first video takes a look at the kit loadout and the second video brings you along for the challenge.
This is the second year that I’ve embarked on this challenge along with a group of friends and we see it as a ‘fun’ and interesting way of testing our camping and bushcraft skills. The fundamental challenge here is to get through a camp without any conventional sleeping kit. Removing those items from your camping kit, particularly in the winter, is a game changer and makes you think quite seriously about what you really need for a comfortable night outdoors. Last year saw us making shelters and leaf litter mattresses and we endured a testing night with sub-zero temperatures and snow. Lots of lessons were learnt along the way and this kind of camp definitely falls into the category of ‘type two fun’!
This year there were just two of us participating in the challenge. We therefore decided to team up and pitch our shelters in a way that would enable us to share a fire. It would also mean we could be a bit more sociable (last year we each had our own shelter and fire to manage!).
A quick note on safety: we didn’t take any back-up kit with us, but we did each have a suitable first aid kit and we were in a location which was accessible and, if things weren’t going to plan, it was easy enough for us to pack up and walk back to our vehicles.
Spoiler alert, things didn’t go to plan for me on this year’s challenge and I opted to bail out in the middle of the night. The reason for this was completely down to me and my failure to pitch the tarp appropriately for the weather conditions.
On an ordinary camp you would pitch your tent or tarp with the back end facing into the wind. That’s exactly what I did, although I also recognised that the wind was quite unpredictable and often swirling around the woodland. However, this was not an ordinary camp because we were reliant on maintaining a fire close by in order to keep us warm (the fire was to be our sleeping bag!). In these circumstances you want to pitch up camp with a bit of a through breeze to help manage the smoke.
The wind was gusting much stronger than the forecast suggested. But, I thought things would be ok. During the day I was having trouble with the smoke, but was less concerned because I was busy getting jobs done (mostly just prepping firewood). Things were also exacerbated because the fire wood was so damp (even the dead standing wood that I collected). We’ve had a really wet few months!
By the time we settled down for the evening and started to spend more time around the fire I became aware that trouble was brewing. Smoke was consuming my shelter for prolonged periods (particularly so when re-stocking the fire). I was coughing and spluttering, my sinuses was blocked and worst of all my eyes were stinging (I felt terrible). It’s not unusual to have to deal with a bit of smoke around the fire, but I’ve never encountered anything this bad before. I was regularly stepping away from my shelter to get some fresh air and invariably stepping back in when I got cold!
When we bedded down for the night, we loaded up the fire and I lay on my browse bed with my back to the fire. I was nice and warm, but I had this weird issue. Whenever I closed my eyes to get some sleep, the stinging sensation brought on from the smoke was horrendous. Try though I might, I couldn’t keep them closed, it was too painful. I gave my eyes a rinse with some water, but that didn’t really do much.
My shelter was still full of smoke, so I opted to drop the poncho tarp from the ridgeline and drape it over me like a blanket. That proved to be very effective in helping the smoke escape, but it was much colder. I had several warm layers of clothing on, but I soon started to shiver. And I still couldn’t close my eyes!
At 1am, I decided enough was enough. Packed up, said goodbye to my friend Des and walked back to the car feeling quite grumpy. It was a lovely walk back to the car though in a peaceful woodland and clear night sky.
So there you have it, things don’t always go to plan and this was entirely a problem of my own making. I might have been able to re-pitch my tarp during the night and re-configure camp. But with that said, my eyes were terrible and my head was gone.
I can’t let this one go though and have put a date in the diary to have another crack at it before the winter passes us by.
Lessons learnt:
1) Think carefully about tarp placement allied to the prevailing weather conditions.
2) Invest more time in wood prep and split more of the wood down if wet. Neither of us had an axe, but we still could have made a splitting wedge.
3) The browse bed was ok, I’m used to sleeping on hard surfaces with closed cell foam mats being my usual sleeping mat of choice. But my back ached terribly for the next couple of days. I have a more simplistic plan for the next attempt which involves a couple of sit mats.
4) I also didn’t like using a plastic survival bag to make the browse bed. It got destroyed in the process and it didn’t sit comfortably with me that I was throwing a big lump of single use plastic in the bin.
5) The notion of using a haversack for a minimal kit challenge is a little bit silly and perhaps reflective of me trying to act with a little bravado. It’s not practical and I think next time a daysack will be more appropriate. The key component of the challenge is to get through a winter’s night without the usual sleep kit
6) On a more positive note…I absolutely adore all of my wool clothing and it works exceptionally well in these circumstances. Particularly my Swanndri shirt which is by far my favourite bit of camp clothing. Hikers and wild campers alike can keep their uber light and delicate down filled garments, I’d sooner spend good money on wool and carry the extra weight.
My wife was not impressed with me the next day having stunk the house out with my smokey clothes! Here we are several days later and the wool garments are still being aired out!
I thought I’d share a brace of videos that I published recently as part of a winter minimal kit camping challenge. I referred to it as the Haversack challenge because that’s what I limited myself to in terms of stowage space (although my smock pockets were also put to good use!). The first video takes a look at the kit loadout and the second video brings you along for the challenge.
This is the second year that I’ve embarked on this challenge along with a group of friends and we see it as a ‘fun’ and interesting way of testing our camping and bushcraft skills. The fundamental challenge here is to get through a camp without any conventional sleeping kit. Removing those items from your camping kit, particularly in the winter, is a game changer and makes you think quite seriously about what you really need for a comfortable night outdoors. Last year saw us making shelters and leaf litter mattresses and we endured a testing night with sub-zero temperatures and snow. Lots of lessons were learnt along the way and this kind of camp definitely falls into the category of ‘type two fun’!
This year there were just two of us participating in the challenge. We therefore decided to team up and pitch our shelters in a way that would enable us to share a fire. It would also mean we could be a bit more sociable (last year we each had our own shelter and fire to manage!).
A quick note on safety: we didn’t take any back-up kit with us, but we did each have a suitable first aid kit and we were in a location which was accessible and, if things weren’t going to plan, it was easy enough for us to pack up and walk back to our vehicles.
Spoiler alert, things didn’t go to plan for me on this year’s challenge and I opted to bail out in the middle of the night. The reason for this was completely down to me and my failure to pitch the tarp appropriately for the weather conditions.
On an ordinary camp you would pitch your tent or tarp with the back end facing into the wind. That’s exactly what I did, although I also recognised that the wind was quite unpredictable and often swirling around the woodland. However, this was not an ordinary camp because we were reliant on maintaining a fire close by in order to keep us warm (the fire was to be our sleeping bag!). In these circumstances you want to pitch up camp with a bit of a through breeze to help manage the smoke.
The wind was gusting much stronger than the forecast suggested. But, I thought things would be ok. During the day I was having trouble with the smoke, but was less concerned because I was busy getting jobs done (mostly just prepping firewood). Things were also exacerbated because the fire wood was so damp (even the dead standing wood that I collected). We’ve had a really wet few months!
By the time we settled down for the evening and started to spend more time around the fire I became aware that trouble was brewing. Smoke was consuming my shelter for prolonged periods (particularly so when re-stocking the fire). I was coughing and spluttering, my sinuses was blocked and worst of all my eyes were stinging (I felt terrible). It’s not unusual to have to deal with a bit of smoke around the fire, but I’ve never encountered anything this bad before. I was regularly stepping away from my shelter to get some fresh air and invariably stepping back in when I got cold!
When we bedded down for the night, we loaded up the fire and I lay on my browse bed with my back to the fire. I was nice and warm, but I had this weird issue. Whenever I closed my eyes to get some sleep, the stinging sensation brought on from the smoke was horrendous. Try though I might, I couldn’t keep them closed, it was too painful. I gave my eyes a rinse with some water, but that didn’t really do much.
My shelter was still full of smoke, so I opted to drop the poncho tarp from the ridgeline and drape it over me like a blanket. That proved to be very effective in helping the smoke escape, but it was much colder. I had several warm layers of clothing on, but I soon started to shiver. And I still couldn’t close my eyes!
At 1am, I decided enough was enough. Packed up, said goodbye to my friend Des and walked back to the car feeling quite grumpy. It was a lovely walk back to the car though in a peaceful woodland and clear night sky.
So there you have it, things don’t always go to plan and this was entirely a problem of my own making. I might have been able to re-pitch my tarp during the night and re-configure camp. But with that said, my eyes were terrible and my head was gone.
I can’t let this one go though and have put a date in the diary to have another crack at it before the winter passes us by.
Lessons learnt:
1) Think carefully about tarp placement allied to the prevailing weather conditions.
2) Invest more time in wood prep and split more of the wood down if wet. Neither of us had an axe, but we still could have made a splitting wedge.
3) The browse bed was ok, I’m used to sleeping on hard surfaces with closed cell foam mats being my usual sleeping mat of choice. But my back ached terribly for the next couple of days. I have a more simplistic plan for the next attempt which involves a couple of sit mats.
4) I also didn’t like using a plastic survival bag to make the browse bed. It got destroyed in the process and it didn’t sit comfortably with me that I was throwing a big lump of single use plastic in the bin.
5) The notion of using a haversack for a minimal kit challenge is a little bit silly and perhaps reflective of me trying to act with a little bravado. It’s not practical and I think next time a daysack will be more appropriate. The key component of the challenge is to get through a winter’s night without the usual sleep kit
6) On a more positive note…I absolutely adore all of my wool clothing and it works exceptionally well in these circumstances. Particularly my Swanndri shirt which is by far my favourite bit of camp clothing. Hikers and wild campers alike can keep their uber light and delicate down filled garments, I’d sooner spend good money on wool and carry the extra weight.
My wife was not impressed with me the next day having stunk the house out with my smokey clothes! Here we are several days later and the wool garments are still being aired out!
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