Winter Tents

[slughammer]

What is the difference between a winter tent and a summer tent? The one I have is for sure a cheapie summer tent, the screen up top is probably 2ft x 2ft. Lots of ventilation for sure. Internet searches are frustrating me, too much information out there, lots of it conflicting.

I'm going to NY to hunt again this weekend and I'd rather avoid the cost of a hotel room. I have property where I camp in the summer. Any advice for winter tent camping with items I already own?

[Junior1942]

If your tent's big enough, put a wood heater in it. See http://www.castbullet.com/reload/tentload.htm The tent shown is a regular 6-man, I think, nylon fabric tent. Don't heat it with propane as you'll wake up covered in condensation, i.e., soaking wet.

My vent at the top is also large, but I cover it with just the rain fly like normal. I extend the flue out the back for several feet to prevent embers from burning pinholes in the nylon fabric. The triple-wall flue goes out the rear door, continues a couple of feet above the ground for about 6 feet, then goes up for about 4 feet of chimney. A seatless aluminum lawn chair supports the flue across the ground, and a handy tree supports the flue's verticle extension. The flue only gets really hot during its first 4 feet of length, which, unfortunately, includes where it touches the tent's rear wall. Construct that junction carefully!! And test it at home!! Like I said, mine's triple wall.

I tested my first flue design in my front yard and with a used motor oil fire in the heater. The flue pipe melted about 2 feet from the heater. Back to the drawing board. . . .

[MT Gianni]

Most canvas wall tents have a flap for a stove pipe. They are heavy and not cheap but all you will find in the rockies in winter by those who have tried anything else. When Boy Scouts went to their "no flames in tents" rules a lot of folks went to motorhomes as winter camps. You can sleep in below zero weather here with out a fire if:
1] you have a GOOD bag.
2] cover the ground you pitch your tent on with straw at least 6"-8"
3] Do not sleep in clothes you have worn. Get naked and dry with a towel then put on what ever you sleep in but do not put clothes you have worn in your bag as humidity will get you colder than if you are dry
4] wear good wool or polyester stocking cap and warm socks not ones you have worn during the day. I have an Everest brand wool cap that is hymnalain?sp Nepal? Sherpa? style with the earflaps, given to me by the importer, that without a doubt keeps my head warmer than anything else I have found.
5] having an attitude that this isn't so bad helps the most
6] keep a bottle to pee in so you don't have to get out of your bag.
I haven't done this since I was in my 40's but would do it again if the circumstances were right. Today's high was 11 F. and the temp when we got up at 7:10 was -3 F. Attitude is a lot of it. Gianni

[MT Gianni]

If your tent has a screen vent through a tarp over it. G

[Pepe Ray]

A tent within a tent.
Pepe Ray

[Ivantherussian03]

A good canvass wall tent with a wood stove is the best, very comfortable and nice.
I used them in Wyoming and Montana all winter. If I winter camped in AK it would either in a wall tent, or snow shelter.

An inexpensive fur hat is another great investment, bomber style, dont pay more than $20.

The other guys have great advice here too.

[waksupi]

What Ivan said. I lived in a teepee for a year and a half here in Montana. Nice most of the time, but has a serious engineering flaw, in that it has a hole in the roof. However, properly set up, they are very nice for hunting camps.

[montana_charlie]

The best wintertime hunting shelter I ever used was a rectangular hut built of straw bales. Inside was about 8 x 11 feet.
It took (something like) 45 bales, and an hour's time, to build it.

At the end of my twelve-day hunt, I scattered the bales out over about a half-acre of meadow and just cut the strings off to take home. The following year you couldn't tell they had ever been there.

The little flat trailer I hauled the bales in on, was carrying elk and deer (and a few snowshoe rabbits) on the way out.
CM

[robertbank]

Winter tents are colder and summer tents are hotter. Sorry but I just couldn't resist and this from a guy who used to go camping in the dead of winter in Alberta and slept under a leanto. -40F under the stars is a treat every young Boy Scout ought to endure....once.

Take Care

Bob

[Ohio Rusty]

What is the difference between a winter tent and a summer tent?

A winter tent you can leave the doors open because there isn't any mosquitos to bother you.............. <BG>
Actually, I consider about any tent a 4 season tent as long as it closes up well and is waterproof. The difference is the heavier sleeping gear you use inside to keep warm. In the summer, just a light blanket is needed.
Ohio Rusty ><>
Psalms 27:1-3/91:9-11

[slughammer]

Thanks for the advice. I'll see about getting a foam pad for sleeping on and a new bag rated for lower temps; for the summer I use an air mattress, but from what I've read they pull the heat away from you in the winter. Lots of good tips here and I'm paying attention. One of those canvas tents with a stove should be in my future; even though the price is up there, the right choice will last for years.

[Rick4570]

I bought my wall tent in 1984, its a 12 x 14 w/5 foot side walls. Used it every year since 'cept one, and it is still in great shape! Only caveat I can think of w/ a canvas tent is to make sure and dry it well before putting it away. Coldest night ever spent in it was in the Gravelly Mtns during an elk hunt, 26 below zero. Kept the stove burning all night and was able to get some sleep too.

[DeanoBeanCounter]

I thought a winter tent was called an igloo.

[KCSO]

I have lived in a tipi, a wall tent a marquis and and A frame at various times during the winter. During one chilly spell (17 below) I lived in a tipi and my buddy had a wall tent with a fly. The Tipi had romance but the wall tent was warmer. With the fire full bore he could get it up to 80 degrees in there with 17 below and 25 mph winds outside. A marquis is a bear to heat and takes a big stove, the a frame heats nice but the heat tends to collect high and you need cots. I have no use for anything but canvas in cold weather as a nylon tent will disappear if you get an open flame anywhere. A 10x12 Wall tent with a roof fly and an inside stove will keep you snug and warm in the coldest weather. Choose an inside pole tent if you have to transport the poles as the outside pole tents take LONG poles and at least 6 of them.

I like to camp with my brother in the cold weather, than I give him a couple of beer before bedtime and stack the fire wood by his bed. If you send me your e mail I can send you pictures of some of our winter camps.

[Pepe Ray]

" I like to camp with my brother in the cold weather, than I give him a couple of beer before bedtime and stack the fire wood by his bed. "
Now thats funny
With me you wouldn't need the beers. But I'd accept a nip o'brandy.
Pepe Ray

[Bret4207]

I've stayed in a Baker tent in cold weather, maybe down into the teens or high single digits. . With a good fire and real reflector in front you only had to fuel up every 3-4 hours. We had an old car hood we found for a reflector, worked great. Gotta aim the tent so the flame stays away from the awning, even canvas burns. Got to have real wood too, not green birch and pine. Tried the thing with putting hot rocks inside the tent, I think it worked, didn't hurt anyway. Biggest thing is to insulate your bottom side for sleeping. If you have only 3 blankets, put 2 on the bottom. Foam works great and a decent sleeping bag, or 2 less good ones helps. I used a decent 3 season bag inside a $14.00 Coleman bag from the late 60's-early 70's and stayed warm. Better yet was a USMC poncho liner inside a regular USMC sleeping bag all up on an air mattress on a cot. Kept me toasty in -40 weather in Korea.

[waksupi]

Ix-nay on air mattreses, in cold weather. I learned in really cold weather, the pockets collect ice, and make you MUCH colder. I've hunted and camped at minus 35, and you want twice as much under, as over you, preferably on a cot. If you have enough blanket under you, the mattress is not really needed. I use a minus 40 bag for cold conditions, and keep in mind, you can put one bag inside of another.

[BD]

The answer to this depends upon whether you need to be able to carry it with you or not.

If you're going to drive it to the site in a truck, and leave it set up all season with carpets, a stove and minor furniture, my preferences, in order, are: yurt, wall tent and then teepee. I know a couple of people who put up yurts "temporarily" as much as ten years ago and still live in them. One in northern Maine and one at 7,000 feet outside of Park City UT. I've known a few folks who've lived through a Maine winter in wall tents, and they're great while they last, (about a year if left up), but they seem to suffer more disasters from wind and snow load than yurts. It's my opinion that while teepees are vey strong and durable, they need to be pretty darn big before they're practical to live in long term as the center fire and necessary smoke ventilation results in a big percentage of the floor space being closer to "outdoors" than "indoors". I never knew anyone who set one up with a stove, but even then you'd still have that hard to seal up peak where all the poles go through the roof.

If you're going to pack it in on horseback, or pull it with you on a toboggan, then a smaller wall tent with a little stove is a great idea. There's folks who trek about northern maine and Quebec in the winter pulling toboggans with them and setting up wall tents every night.

If you're talking about a tent you carry on your back, these are small and made of nylon: a winter tent has a fly which comes all the way to the ground, all the way around; enough of a vestibule, (or two), to get out of your boots and outer clothes and store them outside of the sleeping area; and contolable ventilation that you can adjust without getting out of your bag. The best ones also have a little half moon flap you can un-zip in the floor to set your stove up if you're sitting out a storm for a day or two and need to be able to cook in the tent. In these tents the only place kept above freezing is inside your bag when you're in it. Wet, or sweat soaked, clothes can be very dangerous in extremely cold conditions. Keeping your environment below freezing can be important to your survival. Although I'm getting a little long in the tooth for this stuff, I've done a fair bit of it. IMHO a really good bag and some 100% silk long johns are just as important as the tent.

All of that aside, I just came back from a northern Quebec caribou hunt and I spent the $1,300 to stay in a heated camp while I was there. I must be getting old, (and I'm currently well employed).
BD

[robertbank]

Best thing I have ever used for a matress winter and summer are spruce bows. Weave them in, pointy end down and you will sleep like a baby even in the coldest of weather. My Rover Scout Journey was done in -40F up the North Saskatchewan River. Slep under a lean to with about 8" of Spruce bows under me. Slept like a baby but man getting out of that warm bed in the morning was a memory I'll not soon forget. Gives a great smell to the inside of the tent as a bonus.

Take Care

Bob

[S.R.Custom]

Trick I learned a long time ago: Throw a big comforter over the roof of the tent. And a tarp over that if you expect precipitation. Acts just like attic insulation, and no condensation on the inside of the tent roof. You wouldn't believe how much warmer it is that way.