One of the great things about having a yard during winter time is that it makes it safe and easy to check out the temperature ratings of your gear.
Last night’s low was in the upper twenties at the cabin so I set up the X-Mid with my new quilt and spent several 10-15 minute intervals in the tent using various combinations of gear to gauge the temperature range as well as practice winter camping skills such as setting the tent up in the dark in the snow and cooking on cold snow. Here’s what I learned:
- The Enlightened Equipment Enigma 10F long/wide was plenty warm down to 29F wearing my lightweight hiking ensemble (Saxx Quest 2.0 Loose Cannon boxers, Kuhl Kontra Air pants, Wrangler Riata button-up shirt, Stoic tank top, DryMax socks, Mountain Hardwear Mountain Tech Dome beanie, and Mountain Hardwear Bandito fingerless gloves). My previous quilt, the Sierra Designs Nitro 800 20F, barely kept me warm in the mid 30s while wearing a puffy and fleece sleep socks in addition to warmer pants so this is a very significant improvement. Of course, the Enigma has 50% more down than the Nitro so one would expect much better performance.
- It’s important to knead your freeze-dried dinners while they’re cooking so that the solids and liquids don’t separate and result in an extremely chewy soup.
- Person B asked about whether my not-very-long GSI Outdoors spoon was long enough to eat out of a freeze-dried meal pouch with. I showed her my solution which is just to tip the bag about 45 degrees sideways so that the contents are right up against the lip. Easy peasy!
- The carbon felt octagon base that I use for my stove base also makes a really good pot holder so that you can rest your hot freeze-dried dinner bag in your hand.
- The Kojin stove/Caldera cone combo brought two cups of water to a boil in six minutes using less than an ounce of alcohol. That’s about a minute slower than the usual three-season time (if I recall correctly), but still acceptable. I think the cutoff will be when the stove is unable to boil the water using a single ounce (or whatever the maximum alcohol capacity of the stove is – around 1.4 ounces I believe).
- The ProLite Apex self-inflating sleeping pad didn’t come even remotely close to fully inflating. However, it’s also been rolled up with the valve closed for a few months. If I had actually followed the long-term storage instructions I would have left it unrolled with the valve open so that the foam remained expanded. In any case leaving it open overnight in the tent solved the problem and when I went out this morning to do another temp check I was able to fully breath-inflate it. Still the best sleeping pad I’ve ever tried.
- One of the supposed perks of the Kojin stove is that you can conserve alcohol by blowing it out and covering it as soon as your water is boiling. While technically true, in the field there’s no practical way of knowing how much alcohol is in the stove unless you’re filling it from empty. The net result is that alcohol in the stove slowly builds up night after night until the stove overflows during filling. Now, a bit of spilled alcohol isn’t a serious problem but it’s something I’d rather avoid. In the future I think I’ll just let it burn itself out. Oh, and since I prefer my tea or other drinks to be just warm and not piping hot I’m wondering if I could just throw a cup of water back over the stove so that no fuel is actually wasted.
- The only part of my body that gets cold when trying to sleep in freezing temperatures is my face. Although a Buff or balaclava would work I’ve heard that snowmobile face masks have a dedicated breathing mesh which might reduce the amount of moisture captured in the fabric. Something to consider.