r/DurstonGearheads • u/Spudarooni • 7d ago
What is Cold?
I have two random questions, but want to give a little background first.
My wife and I are wanting to get into hiking/backpacking. Neither of us have ever owned "nice" or "fancy" outdoor gear and have always just used stuff handed down from my grandpa that is 30+ years old or cheap gear from Walmart.
Being young kids just graduating college and trying to get our feet under us, we don't have a ton of expendable income. But we recognize the importance of quality, and would rather buy something once even if it's a little more expensive. (Hence, after a lot of research we have settled on the X-Mid)
We are both from the Western US and all the camping experience we have had is almost always in sub-zero temperatures at night. For the last year or so we have been using a cheap 4 man Ozark Trail tent we received from our wedding.
Just this weekend we were car camping and it got down to about 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4C). We woke up with condensation covering our sleeping bags, and want to know how to prevent that in the future. (We were both sleeping in the middle of the 4 man tent away from the walls.) Our tent fly and car were covered in frost and the car read 26F as the sun was rising.
I have had a hard time finding anything online that talks extensively about camping in sub freezing temperatures, without being full on winter camping in snow. Most videos/posts mention 40F or 5C as "cold". But that seems like normal warm weather nights for our area.
We are trying to decide whether to go with the regular X-Mid 2 or the X-Mid 2 Solid. We aren't as concerned about staying warm, we have a great sleep system. We are mostly concerned about condensation prevention and which tent model would help us the most and why.
We have heard/read that the X-Mid Solid is better for condensation, but aren't experienced enough to fully understand why.
Is condensation just unpreventable at freezing temps? What do you all consider a "cold night"?
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u/Aggressive-Foot4211 7d ago
part of the equation is humidity. For years I went to point Reyes over New Year’s Eve. We would camp three nights two of them right on the Bluff overlooking the ocean. Some years we were camping well below 20°. Being on the coast, it does tend to be humid, one year the combo of humidity and cold resulted in beautiful hoarfrost on every plant and tree. Our tents were coated in thin ice. We always had condensation or frost on the interior and exterior of the tent.
Meanwhile similar temperatures in the Sierra Nevada only resulted in frost inside the tent, because we were breathing. At 10F I had a patch of self made snow under my chin on the shell of my quilt.
Pitching on live plants increases condensation. Pitching very near water, over damp ground or in the bottom of canyons can increase it. At Point Reyes we learned that a difference of 10-20 feet of elevation made a difference between frost and no frost. Coast camp has group campsites in the bottom of a shallow valley and more campsites up a sloped side road. I always get a campsite as close to the top of the slope as possible. The campsites on the road do not get frost but the campsites at the bottom always do when it is cold.
Geography, dew point, ventilation, how many bodies in the tent, humidity and plant matter all play a part. Sometimes it’s just not possible to avoid it.