Winter Camping Comfort - Preventing Heat Loss

Lots of advice is available about comfort in winter camping, but you’ll never have full comfort unless you block all avenues of heat loss. There are 8 mechanisms of heat loss, and knowing them will allow you to bring the right clothing and gear to address them. If you address 7 of them but not all eight, you can still be cold. The first thing to know is that the only reliable heat source in winter camping is your own body, so all warming efforts go toward retaining the small amount of heat your body generates. There are a few external sources of heat that should be used for heat advantage, when you can: fire, hot springs, food, and hot liquids.

Convection is heat loss due to contact with the wind or air. To prevent this you should have sufficient clothing to cover every inch of skin. Any skin not covered may suffer frostbite. The hardest part of the body to cover is the face, and for this purpose you bring a neck gaitor, a parka that has a hood and which zips to the chin, ski goggles for the eyes, a hat that covers the forehead and ears, and a balaclava that covers the mouth. To prevent convection loss from the legs full zip wind pants are needed, so you can put them on without taking off your boots. For hands, layered gloves are needed, with the outer layer being windproof.

Conduction is heat loss due to touching something cold, such as sitting on a rock, standing on snow, laying on snow or cold ground, etc. You reduce conductive heat loss by using foam pads under your feet when cooking or ubder your butt when sitting, foam pad plus inflatable sleeping pad when sleeping, and wearing gloves when you have to touch something cold.

Respiration is heat lost when you breath out warm moist air, and breath in cold dry air. You reduce this by covering your mouth and nose with a balaclava, scarf, neck gaitor, buff, a face mask, or other, You never breath into your sleeping bag or clothing, as that delivers moisture into things that should be dry, which will later chill you.

Radiation is heat loss by from heat that radiates from your body. Its hard to stop this kind of heat loss, but covering your head, and using thick clothing like down greatly reduces such loss. You can benefit from radiative heat by having a fire and soaking up its heat.

Evaporative cooling is experienced when your damp skin or clothing is in contact with air or wind. As the liquid water turns to water vapor it absorbs heat, from YOU. You combat this by not getting wet (primarily), staying out of the wind, or covering up damp body parts and clothing with something wind and water proof. To avoid getting wet from sweat you have to stop whenever you get sweaty, remove a layer of clothing, or add a layer when you start to get chilled.

Ingestion heat loss is when you eat or drink something cold. Its always better to drink liquid water rather than suck on ice, and better yet to drink warm or hot liquids, including tea, soup, broth, cocoa, etc, which will give you a gain in heat, as well as give you food that your body can use for heat. Winter camping diets have as much fat as possible, such as butter added to coffee and cocoa, honey in tea, and olive oil in pasta.

Immersion is when you step in water, or fall into it. It is a combination of conductive heat loss, followed by evaporative cooling. It is quite shocking in cold weather, and presents a dangerous situation. You should deal with immersion aggressively, taking off wet clothing, building a fire, and possibly camping right there and feeding the fire to dry off clothing. Better to get in a sleeping bag ASAP. Clothes can dried by placing them on branches overnight. If the air temperature is cold enough to sublimate (evaporate) the ice they will be dry by morning. . If you are lucky, your friends can dry your clothes at the fire for you, set up a tent and get you in a sleeping bag. Immersion in water in the winter is a life threatening situation, unless its in a hot spring, which in Idaho we are lucky to have many.

Eye heat loss is heat loss through the eyes. If you are in a strong wind, or ifs its very cold, you will feel immediate relief if you don a pair of ski goggles. Definitely worth taking a pair for cold weather and driving wind. You can have a clear lens and a sun blocking lens, for different conditions.