Your cold at night: What to do? Tips & Ideas
Something many women notice when backpacking is being cold. There isn't many things more miserable than shivering in your sleeping bag at midnight, with ice cold feet and a back that could chill wine. Even in the middle of summer an ill picked campsite or a sudden storm can leave you exposed to damp, chilly conditions.
So what can you do when your normally warm bed setup is suddenly freezing? Or if a freak snowstorm blows in at 10 pm in August, catching you off guard? And you just cannot get warm?
First off....get out of bed. Yes, it is cold outside, but get up.Go use the bathroom, your body is chilling itself to keep urine warm. Just doing that will help warm you up. Then drink. Being dehydrated can leave you cold. Then dig into your food bag and find the fattiest/high calorie/protien snack in there. Munch away. If you are really cold take time to get your stove out and make a cup of tea, or just a hot cup of water. While it may seem weird to do this at 1 am, the warmth will seep into you. Yes, you are tired. still get up and do these things. The payback is high.
Then get back in your shelter. Take stock....put on clean socks if you have them, and any clean clothes you have. Sweat soaked clothes can leave you feeling chilly. Add on your hat, gloves and junp back in your bag. Give it a few minutes, and you should feel yourself warming up fast.
Carry disposable hand or feet warmers in your pack. 2 is all you need. If your feet are cold, stick one down in the bottom of your pack. Hold one in your hands. Move one over your torso slowly.
Do you carry a down vest or jacket with you? Or a fleece jacket? When you get into your bag lay the garment over your torso, covering from chest to over your crotch. Zip up your sleeping bag. The extra layer traps warm air in your bag and will help you stay warm, it also gives you something to stick your cold hands into. You might wonder "why not just wear the jacket to bed?". Wearing the jacket can crush insulation on the backside, but draped over you it is like having a blanket layed on you. Like wearing mittens versus gloves, mittens are warmer!
These little steps might not seem like much but they can make a big difference in getting warm.
But you say, what do I do when I am really, really cold and cannot get warm? When the weather forecast said tempatures of 50* at night and suddenly it is 30*? And your sleeping bag is summer weight. Or you get caught in a rainstorm during the day that leaves you on the edge of hypothermia? It is time to reasses your gear, in your shelter. Most packs should have an item that could take you from cold to warm. It won't be instant but it will help so much. And what is it?
The lowly emergency blanket. Often shoved into a pack and never thought about after. It is an excellent tool when you are cold and need a helping hand.
I found this out on a trip where it snowed and rained for nearly the entire time. By the time I reached camp we had dropped low enough in elevation to be in freezing rain. I was cold and miserable and quickly set up my tent. I put my pack under the vestibule and crawled into my solo tent, with my legs sticking out (I still had my boots on). I grabbed the emergency blanket and unfolded it (take your time, they are tightly folded) and lined the floor of the tent. A typical $1-2 emergency blanket will cover a 2 man tent's interior. In a solo tent you will have plenty to line the walls as well. Once the floor was lined I put down my sleeping pad, tossed in my pack minus the pack cover and took my boots off and jumped in. At that point I took my time to get undressed, got into dry clothing and relaxed. It snowed most of that night and was well below freezing. Yet I was toasty warm in my tent. Having spent too many nights shivering it felt like heaven. One of my problems is rolling off of my mat at night onto frozen ground or having my arms flop onto the ground. The emergency blanket insulates you from the bare ground. While it can affect condensation in certain situations, if you are caught in severe cold winds, sideways rain and snow, take the extra emergency blanket and line it up the walls of the tent, and in front of your feet. It blocks the winds that roll in over your torso and face. This is especially so if you sleep in a mostly mesh tent. In driving rains this will offer protection from rain being pushed through the fabric.
In a worst case scenario you can wrap the emergency blanket over your body for insulation. Watch though that you do not sweat, and only do it as long as you need to warm up.
And last, if you just cannot get warm, get dressed and get up. Get outside and get moving. Give yourself 5 minutes of doing jumping jacks or running in place and you'll be happy to get back in bed.
~Sarah
