Cold or just cold.

[Pattree]

This thread is prompted by a number of recent discussions about jackets and hot tents.

You will just have to believe that it is only a discussion and not me playing macho games. I do not think that I am any different from outdoors people of my generation.
More importantly this isn’t any kind of triumphalism. The list of things that I can no longer do outdoors resembles Santa’s naughty list.

So:
Do you draw a distinction between feeling cold and being cold?

I love feeling the cold on my nose, ears and finger tips.
If my toes start to feel cold that’s the first distant warning.

I do not allow myself to GET cold, to BE cold. I have the right, somewhat dated, clothes and sleep system which includes a hot water bottle.

I am an avid winter camper but I’ve never even been in a hot tent, let alone owned a tent stove. I’m pretty certain that I wouldn’t like it.

Part of this attitude is perception. For example: I cannot think that it has been cold here in the Midlands this year. Last night I was out in a very light frost baking bread on a fire. Why? TBA! My windscreen has been frozen maybe half a dozen times so far this year.

In my terms it simply isn’t cold weather. (Yet)

If you prefer a hot tent then of course enjoy it. This thread isn’t intended to judge or criticise.

Are there others out there who enjoy the cold?

 

[The Frightful]

Tbh had years working outside, rather be slightly cold than slightly hot all day long. Being cold is not an issue for me as long as i have the clothing and equipment to reheat myself from the inside out

 

[crosslandkelly]

I like the ability to be able to do both types of camp.
Like yourself, I like to feel a nip of frost, but there is also a lot to be said for the absolute comfort of a hot tent.
My deciders are duration. 1or 2 nights tarp and cold weather gear. 3 nights or more, then the hot tent and stove come out.
My last really cold camp was during 'The Beast From the East 2',stayed toasty under a tarp.


I've also hot tented on less cold nights.

 

[Chris]

I love feeling the cold on my face whilst I am wrapped up nice and warm.

Sleeping in a cold room is preferable for me, and one of my favourite things back when I used to smoke was to sit outside watching the sun rise with a hot brew and a cigarette, on a cold and crisp winter morning.

These days I just have the hot brew.

There have been some cold days/nights. I think you’d struggle to argue that frost and ice are not cold. Things can get colder, of course. Things can get hotter than my oven but I wouldn’t want to put my head in there when it’s switched on.

 

[HillBill]

I much prefer the cold to the heat. I don't do well in hot. I run hot (our lass calls me a human hot water bottle lol) so it can be overbearing. Its far easier to warm up when its cold, than cool down when its hot.

Like yourself, i've never slept in a heated tent, nor owned a tent stove. I do have a wood burner in the workshop, but that's not the same.

 

[Woody girl]

I feel the cold before anyone else I know. I wrap up well when outside to stay warm. I don't like being cold and find it hard to warm up if I get chilly. This is probably because I have a heart condition that means my circulation isn't as good as it should be. Give me a warm summers day any day. I always dread the winter nowadays. It didn't used to bother me, camping halfway up welsh mountains in snow wasn't a problem, but it is now a complete no no.
Call me a wimp if you like, but I've had bronchitis far too often to take a risk again if I don't have to.

 

[William_Montgomery]

Likewise, I much prefer the cold and spend most of the year waiting for the colder temperatures to come in. I'm generally more inclined to be outside in the autumn/winter.
Being cold through is a different matter though, but it's not often it happens. One of the benefits of being male.

 

[Glow_worm]

I love winter. I'm very underweight, have poor circulation and generally need to look after myself at the moment. I've lived without central heating for a decade and spend most of my time outside.

If I'm working outside temperature isn't really an issue. It's evenings and workshop-type work where background heat is needed for comfort, health and keeping fingers supple enough to be of use.

The same applies to tents for me- in winter, the ability to heat a tent if needed means I will happily venture out of it knowing I can return to it and warm up and dry out.

In reality, I don't often 'go outdoors' for the sake of being outdoors. I'm outdoors most of the time and welcome opportunities to be indoors! I mostly hot tent at a few events I go to in spring/autumn in other parts of the country, and camp as it's the cheapest (and most enjoyable) form of accomodation. And being away from home for a few days or a week it's valuable being able to dry clothes if needs be. It also makes evenings enjoyable rather than huddling in a sleeping bag. I am probably the opposite to most people who venture out wanting a change from centrally-heated refined domestication!


A hot tent doesn't have to be made stifling, and in fact the air can be kept fresher (and with that comes drier) than without a stove. Nor does the stove have to be lit at all, but it's there if needed in the small hours!

 

[Herman30]

I don´t enjoy cold but living where I live (longitude 64.5 in Finland) I just have to endure it until spring and summer comes again.

 

[JonathanD]

I hate the cold. Especially the cloying damp cold of British winters. I’ve spent some time just below the arctic circle and although it’s far colder, it’s a cold that I can deal with moreso than here. I love heat, hot humid or hot arid heat. I love the heat of the rainforest and arid African scrub. And sometimes when we get a Summer here. It’s the best.

 

[Toddy]

I prefer to be cool than hot, but I find I can no longer sleep if I'm cold. A well padded hot water bottle's a good thing

When we were young, we used to bundle up in our sleeping bags and coorie close to each other when we camped in Winter. It was a way of sharing heat and comfort but still relatively impersonal. Everyone slept better, iimmc ? Throw a blanket over the top of us and we were toasty. We slept on shingle beaches, on moors, hills, etc., like that.

I loathe working in the heat, much prefer the cool, but the the cold seeping into the bones of the British freeze/thaw/always wet Winter, gets harder every year.

I tried camping in a geodesic dome with a stove in it. Lovely set up but honestly, socialising apart, it's easier just to make a warm nest and coorie down.....and no need to get up in the night to feed the stove.
Getting up for a piddle in the middle of a cold night's no fun though !

 

[JonathanD]

You need a she-wee and a 58 pattern water bottle Mary. Then you don’t have to get up and you end up with another hot water bottle

 

[Toddy]

No way would I even think of piddling in bed. I'll just get up.
Besides, it lets me see the world, see the night a bit....even if it is Baltic

 

[TeeDee]

I do think modern life and its conveniences is tempering us to be collectively to the most part what I think of as 'soft'.

Not just household heating and cooling and expecting that everywhere but heated car seats and heated steering wheels. I know I mentioned it elsewhere but battery heated gilets and body warmers.

I do wonder if with each step of these conveniences we take are somewhat changing our concept of comfort/discomfort and what is simply differently tolerable.

 

[Toddy]

I got roundly told off last week by a Doctor because I wasn't wearing boots, and hat and scarf and gloves.....I was sitting in a hospital and I was so warm that I'd taken my wool coat off.....and he's giving me a row.

I worked and played outdoors, I still prefer to be outdoors, honestly, I was too warm there. It was suffocatingly stuffily warm.

Anyhow, true story....many years ago I was pushing my eldest in a buggy and the wind was blowing right onto us. Winter, damp and cold and my hands were freezing. We passed an old lady (you ignore no one round here, it's just not done) and I said, "Aye, it's cold", and sort of commiserated. That old lady had no gloves on, and she took my hand and her hands were roasting hot.
"Worked in the dairy since I was 14, there's nae heat in a dairy".....and she was warm, she was more than warm.
She worked day in day out in icy cold water making butter and her hands and forearms were warm.

Humans adjust.

 

[TeeDee]

I got roundly told off last week by a Doctor because I wasn't wearing boots, and hat and scarf and gloves.....I was sitting in a hospital and I was so warm that I'd taken my wool coat off.....and he's giving me a row.

I worked and played outdoors, I still prefer to be outdoors, honestly, I was too warm there. It was suffocatingly stuffily warm.

Anyhow, true story....many years ago I was pushing my eldest in a buggy and the wind was blowing right onto us. Winter, damp and cold and my hands were freezing. We passed an old lady (you ignore no one round here, it's just not done) and I said, "Aye, it's cold", and sort of commiserated. That old lady had no gloves on, and she took my hand and her hands were roasting hot.
"Worked in the dairy since I was 14, there's nae heat in a dairy".....and she was warm, she was more than warm.
She worked day in day out in icy cold water making butter and her hands and forearms were warm.

Humans adjust.

I do wonder how Cody Lundin's experiment regarding going everywhere barefoot in shorts worked out as he was trying to force his mitrochondria to adapt over his travels.

 

[Wayland]

I’m still wearing sandals at the moment.

Put some boots on for a day or two when there was snow on the ground but otherwise been fine.

I cold camp on my Arctic trips because I find it easier to dress for the cold and not have to keep stripping off when I move into my shelter, which is usually just a tarp construction.

 

[Toddy]

I do wonder how Cody Lundin's experiment regarding going everywhere barefoot in shorts worked out as he was trying to force his mitrochondria to adapt over his travels.

I suspect that's a very different kind of conditioning.....truly.
Working hard in cold weather is normal for fishermen, fishergirls...and dairy lassies. They adjust.

 

[Herman30]

She worked day in day out in icy cold water making butter and her hands and forearms were warm.

She had developed brown fat, same as babies have, from all those years with hands in cold water.

I can walk bare hands in -15/20C after walking some 15-20 minutes and worked up body heat.

 

[HillBill]

I love winter. I'm very underweight, have poor circulation and generally need to look after myself at the moment. I've lived without central heating for a decade and spend most of my time outside.

If I'm working outside temperature isn't really an issue. It's evenings and workshop-type work where background heat is needed for comfort, health and keeping fingers supple enough to be of use.

The same applies to tents for me- in winter, the ability to heat a tent if needed means I will happily venture out of it knowing I can return to it and warm up and dry out.

In reality, I don't often 'go outdoors' for the sake of being outdoors. I'm outdoors most of the time and welcome opportunities to be indoors! I mostly hot tent at a few events I go to in spring/autumn in other parts of the country, and camp as it's the cheapest (and most enjoyable) form of accomodation. And being away from home for a few days or a week it's valuable being able to dry clothes if needs be. It also makes evenings enjoyable rather than huddling in a sleeping bag. I am probably the opposite to most people who venture out wanting a change from centrally-heated refined domestication!


A hot tent doesn't have to be made stifling, and in fact the air can be kept fresher (and with that comes drier) than without a stove. Nor does the stove have to be lit at all, but it's there if needed in the small hours!

My circulation isn't what it was. Diabetes causes my feet to get cold, but also my nerves aren't as sensitive, so i dont notice that much. I wear sandals to take the dog out lol. Wearing them now. The house is chilly according to the Basil pants on my windowsill, They're kinda in rebellion mode atm, they dont like below 7c The younger leaves are curling up a bit. i expect my feet are cold too... But im not feeling it. And this is at nearly 3 am.