Sharing just to give this community a little bit of content. This December has been temperamental with snow – we’ve gone from tons to nothing and back several times. I do prefer it like this, last winter was just tons and that sucked XD
Three of us took to the sticks to make some good food, enjoy some homebrew beer, sleep soundly in the fresh -5 °C conditions and perhaps get up before sunrise to take the shotgun for a walk. Did all that save for the early walk, everyone chose sleep instead :)
Tried cooking with a ‘jätkänkynttilä’ / log torch for the first time. It was a revelation. A single log that would make four pieces of firewood lasts long enough to cook a whole meal if not two. This was cut from fresh pine that had been felled by wind two weeks earlier. The log torch is going to see a lot more use in our future adventures, for the winter it’s perfect!
My sleeping arrangements consist of a self-made monofil / silnylon double layer hammock, an Enlightened Equipment short down underquilt rated for 20 °F ( -6 °C ) and a Carinthia Defence 4 synthetic sleeping bag, I think that promises comforts down to -10 °C. Forgot to pack a tarp, so I had to use my ground cloth in it’s place :o) I did also put a string up across some trees and put some pine branches on it to make a windbreak towards the lake.
Partner and I were just having the “double sleeping pad” vs two singles discussion about when we’ll go out backpacking next. I want to go nowww.
Your goal of giving more content worked. Thanks to your post I stumbled on this sublemmy
I love hammock camping in the snow. Hoping the weather times itself so that I can get out in just the right conditions.
I’ve always used hammocks Brazilian style (diagonally). Do you ever get backaches from the deeper curve of lying straight? I imagine it’s the only way to remain warm enough given the conditions.
Oh no, diagonal is the thing! The underquilt does accommodate that too. Lying on the centerline is just plain not doing it right :)
Oh that’s great. They’re much more comfortable that way for sure. Very cool setup! Or, I guess, warm. Haha
Thanks for sharing! Looks really nice. Were you cold at all with your set up?
Cozy and dozy! The underquilt is pure magic.
I always wondered on alone why the hammock was not a more popular item to take along. I feel like it allows for a pretty quick initial shelter allowing them to get to other things quicker like resource aquisition and building the long term shelter.
I’ve never watched it. Are they allowed a tent?
Just a hammock by itself is actually really terrible for sleep, unless it’s quite warm out. You lose a lot of heat from underneath you unless you have an underquilt, which is basically a hammock shaped puffy blanket that snugs up underneath of you, but doesn’t hold any of your weight, so it can stay puffy and insulating.
Would they be allowed to take a hammock and an underquilt? Then yeah, it’s a great option.
I glamp with a big tent with my wife, but when is just me and the guys I use a hammock. Takes about the same amount of time to set up as a small tent, maybe less if you’ve got it dialed in(but I keep changing stuff). But the real benefit IMHO is that buying ever touches the dirt and condensation doesn’t build up inside. So I never have to do any maintenance or cleaning at home 🤷♂️
so they can take 10 items from a list that has varied but I think it intentionally never included a tent (sometimes the list changes because of restrictions in where its taking place like a know a few seasons fishing net things were not allowed). They also get to take some items in a list that is the same for everyone. Much of that is allowed clothing. I think the sleeping bag is either in the general list or everyone selects it as a matter of course. After season one folks knew a bit more and there are certain items they rarely choose now like tarps because they give you some to cover the camera equipment and contestants tend to use it in shelter creation and have the camera equipment in there. One of the biggest complaints from contestants is they could do much better if they did not have to drag the camera equipment around. Its the most realistic survival show in my opinion and its free on one of the streaming services. im thinking roku. I often joke its a starvation competition. They get medically checked out on some regular basis and they can be booted for not being healthy enough which includes to low a percentage fat.
That’s really cool thanks!
Wow cool you made your own hammock, how hard was it? Did you do that to have any special design elements?
It was indeed to have a few things my way. First thing is that any store-bought double layer hammock fails to actually utilise the layering: on mine, the outer layer (windproof silnylon) is 7 cm longer ridgeways than the weight-bearing inside layer (static & breathable monofil). This way there is an air gap between the layers, so the wind doesn’t chill my back. The monofil is also great in that it doesn’t gather condensation in the winter, since the material is practically mesh.
Second thing was that there were no hammocks in the shops that would use the awesome monofil fabric in the first place :D It’s well worth making a hammock just to get to use that stuff. I was worried it’d be brittle in the winter, but no, just perfect :)
One tip: use Gütermann Mara 70 for the thread and you have a hammock for life. Had my two hammocks for four years or so, nothing has broken.
I’ve made two hammocks so far, and both turned out very nicely. Not difficult at all. The other one is for the summer months, it has a zippered bugnet.
Is it cheaper than buying? I love hammocks and hammocking. I own far too many hammocks as it is lol and probably can’t justify playing with making my own unless it’s cheaper.
I’m pretty satisfied with my current main hammock, but that could change.
It’s not going to be cheap, technical fabrics are pretty expensive at least when shopping at specialty online shops. One might get lucky with Chinese cheapo outlets. Materials for my hammocks cost around 120 € a pop.
Hmm, neat, but yeah I’m too cheap. At least for the cost/benefit ratio, since I’m happy with what I got.
But that’s super cool man, thanks for sharing 👍
That’s brilliant, very cool. I’ve had similar ideas, but for other reasons like bug protection (I get bit through the bottom layer) and for the extra layer doubling as a groundsheet when using the hammock on the ground as a makeshift tent.
My goal is to get the benefits of a hammock / tent hybrid like the Crua but at a lighter weight.
You’re inspiring me to actually do it!
Nice try Krampus, I can tell your traps when I see them
