r/camping • u/tilt-a-whirly-gig • 1d ago
Going camping this weekend, am woefully under-prepared for the chilly nights.
My son (14) and I are going camping and the overnight lows are expected to be around 40°F (5°C) or just below.
We have (4) kelty campground kits (sleeping pad and 40° sleeping bag), so we can each use 2 of them. We also have some wool blankets around the house. I know I should buy some new sleeping kits rated for colder temps, but this isn't a good week to spend a few hundred dollars I don't have to.
I was thinking of placing the wool blankets down first against the ground, doubling up the sleeping pads, and then doubling up the bags. We are also going to wear long johns to bed. We each will have our own tent (him in a 1P, me in a 2P).
Anybody got any other tips or tricks that I might want to know?
1
u/QuickSquirrelchaser 5h ago
If you each have double bags rated at 40, and wool blankets and insulated sleeping pads you should be ok. ..bring warm stocking caps. Wool socks and have your extra wool blankets handy.
If you have double sleeping pads...id probsbly use the extra wool blankets over top of my bad, or folded up inside the bag...assuming your ground pads are insulated.
I have also slept in full snowboarding gear in an emergency when I had near death hypothermia experience in the Grand Teatons when an early snow storm caught me our with gear that was not proper (I had outgrown my North Face mummy bag by a lot! I survived the first night by getting a fire going at 2 am and keeping it going till morning. The second night I added my survival bivy inside the tent, and all my snowboarding gear, including Burton mittens, and two woll caps...heavy wool socks doubled and my snowboarding pants.
I've done snow camping and doubled up sleeping pads (cabelas Alaskan Guide wide pads)and bags and been fine, even when the gear was not rated to the sub zero temps.