How To Stay Warm While Camping

Staying warm while camping isn’t just something to consider during the colder seasons. Many things can affect the temperature of your campsite and these factors can cause temperatures to fluctuate wildly within a 24 hour period. For that reason, you will need to be prepared to stay warm while you are camping. In this article, we will address the various ways you can keep warm while out on a camping expedition.

How can terrain and location affect local climates?

You might be thinking to yourself that preparing for a camping trip is as simple as checking the forecast to see what the temperature is expected to be for your camping trip. The problem here is that it is rarely that simple. Weather forecasts might accurately show the general temperature that a particular area can expect to experience during a given timeframe, however, there are many topographical features of an area that can drastically alter the local temperature of that area.

One example you might have experienced yourself is a hot summer day that suddenly became much cooler the closer you got to a body of water. This happens when air circulates over the cold body of water and blows ashore, thus lowering the temperature. You might have left your home that morning in shorts and a t-shirt and by the time you reach the bank of the water body you find yourself wishing you had a warm sweatshirt to put on. Whenever you will be camping near a body of water, be it a lake, a river or an ocean, you need to be prepared for sudden unexpected temperature drops.

Another thing to consider when preparing for your camping trips is the local terrain. Are there mountains or hills surrounding the area where you will be camping? Will you be camping down in a valley? These natural barriers can either block the wind or funnel it through your campsite. They can also cause bodies of air to pocket in certain locations. This can leave your campsite hotter than the surrounding areas or potentially much colder depending or the temperature of the air pocket. These areas of unique climate behaviors are sometimes referred to as microclimates and need to be handled based on their own unique challenges they impose. Before embarking on your camping trip, you will want to educate yourself on the lay of the land that surrounds your intended campsite. This will help you prepare for the potential swings in temperature, namely unexpected cold nights.

Something else to think about when preparing to keep warm while camping is the overall environmental setting that you will be living in. Specifically, what sort of trees, greenery and foliage will be surrounding you while you are camping. Will you be camping in a densely wooded forest? Or, will you be camping under the stars in the open desert? Dense clusters of treetops can serve as a natural insulator that can, to some degree, pocket warm air in a particular location. Conversely, if you are camping in a lightly forested area, you may experience a dissipation of warm air, leaving the area cooler in the later hours of the day and into the night.

Furthermore, the wooded areas are rich with soil. Soil can absorb the heat from the sun over the course of the day. This stored heat will radiate from the ground for several hours into the night. This is why the coolest temperatures are typically observed in the early hours of the morning, right before sunrise. It is at this point that all the stored heat from the ground had dissipated into the air. It is at those early hours when the ground is at its coolest and ready to begin recharging form another day in the son. By comparison, you generally will not see this storage of heat energy in other terrains consisting of non-soil such as the desert or snow-covered ground. If you have ever camped in either of these settings, you have probably noticed that the temperature can drop drastically once the sun goes down. This is because the ground can’t store the heat energy as seen with regular soil. For this reason, if you plan on camping in these types of terrains you will need to take extra precautions to stay warm throughout the night.

How to stay warm while camping

Now that we have discussed the different ways you might encounter lower than anticipated temperatures, let’s take a look at the different steps you will need to take in order to keep warm while camping.

There are two levels of fighting the cold while camping. The primary level is body heat retention. This is where you take measures to make sure your own naturally produced body heat doesn’t escape into the cold air. The second level is your shelter. This is where you take the necessary precautions to house and protect yourself from your frigid environment while camping.

To address the first level of staying warm while camping, we must address the issue of core body temperature. It is natural to want to cover your entire body when trying to keep warm and we are not saying that this is incorrect. If you can accomplish this then you most certainly should. The point we are trying to make here is that in a situation where you unexpectedly it is important to address the body parts that are most responsible for maintaining your core body temperature. Specifically, we are referring to your chest and torso.

In situations where you are exposed to cold climates, your body will draw blood away from the extremities toward the torso in an effort to heat the vital organs. This is why your hands and feet are usually the first body parts to get cold when camping in cooler climates. Furthermore, this is why keeping your chest warm is so important. You can accomplish this by a variety of mean ranging from padded vests to shirts and other garments with thick insulation in the torso. The main point here is that if you feel yourself getting cold while camping, focusing on warming your torso should be the first strategy of survival.

Warm your head or you’ll be dead!

Ok. This might be a little dramatic but its still important. A great deal of body heat is lost through the head. For that reason, proper head insulation is crucial for survival when camping in cold weather. Far too often do people dress for cold camping trips and they forget to adequately insulate their head. This doesn’t mean simply wearing a ball cap and hoping for the best. A good, thick wool hat should always be packed on any camping trip. As we described earlier, you never know when the temperature might drop unexpectedly and having an insulator for your head will be a lifesaver when you need it most.

Keep moving!

Its no secret, movement generates body heat and promotes blood flow. Now, obviously you will have to sleep at some point and we will address how to deal with that in the next section but for now, let’s address how to make it through the day when camping in colder climates.

This has to be done strategically depending on your camping situation. This all comes down to energy consumption. If you are just camping recreationally on a public campsite then you can probably afford to get a little tired, for the sake of keeping warm. You don’t have to sprint around the campsite to warm yourself. As long as you have properly insulated your chest and head then simply walking around and remaining standing for as long as possible can be sufficient to keep yourself warm through your days on your camping trip.

On the flipside, if you are camping in more treacherous conditions, for example on the side of a mountain or in the snow or any location where you might not find help readily available, then energy consumption is a greater issue. You don’t want to exhaust yourself in a location where you cant get back to a safe location. In this situation, you need to be more deliberate about how you expend your energy and make sure you are doing this in a way that is going to ensure your survival. Don’t exhaust yourself trying to keep warm on your campsite if you have to make a 10-mile hike in the snow to get back to your vehicle then next morning.

The second level of keeping warm while camping

Once you have taken the necessary precautions to regulate and maintain your own body temperature, the second level for keeping warm while camping is your shelter. Mother nature can be a tough opponent and even the thickest coat won’t stand a chance against the beating that she can dish out. If you are planning on camping in colder temperatures, especially in climates that are below freezing, you will need to take proper measures to combat the cold.

One thing you will need to determine is how you plan to shield yourself from the wind. Cold temperatures are bad enough but add them to a stiff breeze and they can cut to the core of campers and even cause physical damage such as frostbite.

Bivy Sacks

Bivouac shelters, sometimes known as bivy sacks, are frequently used by mountain climbers and soldiers. These are simply single person waterproof shelters that are extremely lightweight. They have grown in popularity among minimalist campers in recent years for their portability and their ability to protect campers from the wind and rain. Once you’ve climbed into the bivy sack you can zip it up and completely shelter yourself from the elements. Bivy sacks usually made of a durable material on the floor of the sack to prevent tearing while the rest of the shell is constructed of a breathable, waterproof fabric. These little miniature shelters are a great way to break the wind and offer a shell of insulation that will help get you through your cold camping excursion.

Get up off the ground!

The ground can act as a sponge for heat. This is helpful when we expect the ground to absorb heat from the sun. However, if you are lying on the ground at night, that some sponge can absorb your own body heat. This is why it is important to create some sort of barrier between you and the ground when sleeping. This can be done by elevating yourself off the ground before drifting off to sleep. You can put some leafy shrubbery under your body to serve as a makeshift bed (just don’t use any poison ivy). If you have a hammock, you can suspend yourself in the air between two trees to keep up off the ground at night. Just be sure to have a warm sleeping bag to house yourself in. Additionally, you can use logs to lay across to stay off the ground, although this might not be the most comfortable choice. The point is, you do not want the ground to leach your body heat away from you while you sleep. If you have a tarp or any layering that you can use to create a barrier between you and the ground you should absolutely do so.

Eat!

As we have stated in other articles on this site, you do not want to keep food in your tent or shelter since this will draw animals directly to you. However, eating does have an effect on your body temperature. So as you eat food (away from your campsite), try to choose a meal that is high in fats, carbohydrates and protein. Digestion of these nutrients tends to heat the body up during digestion. (https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/foods-that-produce-heat-in-the-body-1839300 )

Grab yourself a good old fashioned tent

Tents actually have what is referred to as a season rating. This rating scale can be used to select a quality tent that is built to withstand harsh, cold conditions. A 4 season (and on some scales a 5 season) tent indicates that the tent is designed to provide shelter against the most intensely cold climates. If you are planning on camping in a location that could potentially see frigid temperatures, a tent with this grading will be ideal for you.

Staying warm while camping is essential for an enjoyable camping experience as well as overall survival. It isn’t just a matter of comfort. It is a matter of your own general well being. See our links below to other related articles for essential camping gear.

For our article on essential camping gear, click here.