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It’s been over a week since I did this daytrip, but I hadn’t been able to find the time to write about it until now. Our first week of “normal life” at our new location was pretty busy!

Anyhoo, I hopped in the car the first Saturday of May and headed out to “my preeeecious” campsite and surrounding woods near my mother-in-law’s cabin. I wanted to check for signs of spring, as well as any last remnants of winter. My first stop was the lake. There was no ice left whatsoever, but no leaf growth on the trees, either.

Normal hiking boots are usually OK for this area at this time of year, but I decided to wear my rubber boots as a precaution, seeing as how spring has come late this year. It was a good thing, too, because the ground was still water-logged in some places.

I noticed a few tiny patches of snow here and there.

And some very wet areas, as well. As you can see, a little water was also coming from the sky at this point.

Otherwise, the forest was snow-free.

Plenty of cowberries from last summer/autumn could be found. I believe they contain a lot of natural preservatives, which is why they last so long.

When I reached my campsite, I dropped my new old pack and snapped a few pics of it. By “new” I mean new to me, and by “old”, I mean military surplus. I picked it up at a discount store and am putting it through its paces now. Stay tuned for an overview and preliminary review.

I continued on through the forest. Here’s a big anthill teeming with ants.

Here’s a shot of a swampy area nearby where cloudberries are said to grow. I’ll be sure to look for some this summer.

Water-logged mossy ground at the edge of the swamp.

The drainage canals are still swollen due to the recently melted snow.

When I got to the pond, I saw that it was still partially frozen.

On my way back to the campsite, I spotted this birch, which I had not seen before. For some reason, a minority of birches have a lot more bark peeling off them than others. I try to remember where these trees are so I can collect tinder there from time to time.

Since I’d be making a fire soon, I collected some of the bark.

Close by, I discovered a spruce tree which had been damaged at some point and then oozed resin to seal off the damage. I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this before.

I snapped off a few of the pieces for future use.

Having recently learned that spruce resin can be chewed like gum, I picked off some of the cleanest amber-colored pieces I could find on the tree and popped them in my mouth. The flavor took some getting used to, but the texture was great (much better than store-bought gum, in my opinion). Looks just like any other gum!

Needing kindling for my lunch fire, I snapped some dead lower branches off another spruce tree.

Back at my campsite, I split some of the spruce from my wood pile to serve as the fuel for my fire. There are two main ways I like to split wood in the forest. Like this:

And like this:

When doing it the first way, be sure the point of impact is no further forward than directly between your feet. Otherwise, you could get hit by the axe if it glances!

While splitting the wood down further, I found a surprise! I saved it for later use as fishing bait.

Finally, lunchtime had arrived. I set up near one of the fire places.

Lunch for the day would be the contents of two mystery packages and a banana.

One mystery package contained bannock mix.

I got a bakin’ stick ready and then mixed some water into the bannock mix to make it into a dough.

I squeezed it into a long strip and wrapped it around the stick.

Now to get the fire started. I used the wood-handled firesteel I bought for 1 Euro and modified so it would fit better in the loop in my sheath. Here’s the slimmed-down profile.

I shredded the birch bark and lit it with the firesteel. After that, I quickly put the dry spruce branches on and then some fuel wood. The fire got started in no time.

In just a short while, the bannock had baked through and was done. My favorite part about doing it this way? No pan to clean up.

What about the other mystery package, you ask? I recently picked up some dry cured sausage from a specialty shop in town with the intent of using it as a meat source for my outings. I cut off some pieces and wrapped them in paper before leaving home.

Lunch for the day:

After lunch, I checked my thermometer: 14*C/57*F…perfect temperature… I started bringing along a thermometer one winter to see how cold it was and now I do it out of habit.

I kicked back and enjoyed a bit of outdoor reading.

After a while I packed up, soaked my fireplace to make sure it was out (this forest is like a tinder box in early spring, so you can’t take any chances) and headed back to the lake. On the way, I passed this rock with red lichen growing on it. Looks like paint!

Back at the lake, I whipped out my fishing gear: ultralight reel with travel rod and lures on top, hobo fishing rig on the bottom.

Speaking of the hobo fishing rig, I recently added a few more items to mine. In addition to hooks, line, sinkers and two bobbers, it now also contains a small slipjoint knife and matches.

I put together the spinning outfit and put on my favorite spinner for this lake (seems to attract just about everything).

Unfortunately, the fishing portion of the day was more of a tragicomedy than anything else. I hooked the grub from the spruce on the hobo fishing rig and, on the very first cast, sent the bait zooming off the hook and into the lake. I used an artificial worm next and got a few good solid bites, but had too much slack in the line and didn’t hook the fish. After a while I tried the spinning rig. No bites at all, but I did manage to snap the line on a particularly violent cast, sending the lure and a leader into the woods across the way (time to replace the line!). I put on another leader and similar lure, only to have it get hopelessly stuck in a log on the bottom of the lake. Most of this time I found myself repeatedly mumbling things like “Are you freakin’ kidding me?” and “Good job, Ricky Retardo”. We’ll see how I fare next time out.

Hope you enjoyed this short early spring outing!

I bought my BushProwler almost a year and a half ago, and it has definitely been my go-to blade since then. It’s tough as nails and looks good, too. Here are a few pics of mine (slightly different from the standard version) in action:

Making a snowshoeing pole.

Shaving off green (fresh) birch bark.

Processing stinging nettles for cordage-making.

Making shavings for kindling.

Cuttin’ up bacon for woodsman stew.

This is only a fraction of the things I’ve used it for. It’s a real all-rounder!

Here’s a shot which I think is pretty indicative of this largely coniferous sub-arctic lake region:

Finland lake district – Summer 2012

What’s interesting is that, in relocating several hundred kilometers/miles to the north, we’ve gone “back in time” in terms of the progression of the seasons. It’s colder here, there’s still some snow lying around and there are fewer signs of spring in comparison to the warmer southern coast. So we are now “reliving” several weeks of late winter/early spring as the winter recedes to the north.

It’s a perfect time to dust off my spring and summer gear and start thinking about the things I’d like to do this warm season. I’ve got a long backlog of ideas for crafts, projects, bush cooking, fishing, woods exploration, gear testing and so much more. I’ve also been planning the Woodsboy’s first overnight camping trip, a week-long backpacking trip with the Woodsbabe and a much-anticipated wilderness outing with a fellow blogger from abroad, so be sure to stick around!

As you can see in the “before” shots, the knife had seen better days! The varnish had cracked and fallen off parts of the handle, and the blade…oh, the blade… Sadly, it looked like someone had taken some kind of rough grinder to it, leaving it with more of a dull saw edge than a knife edge (really). Some of the grind marks were so deep that I didn’t remove them completely, as I’d have to remove too much metal to do so. Over time, these marks will disappear with repeated normal sharpening. Also, there was a bit of paint (?) on the blade. As for the sheath, it was in pretty good shape, mainly showing signs of normal wear and tear, though there were a few small slits in the belt loop/dangler.

To restore this knife, I pretty much followed the same procedure used for its big brother, except that I used finer grits of sandpaper on the wood and metal:

• Sand off old varnish, then sand handle with progressively finer sandpaper (down to 240 grit)
• Polish brass bolster with progressively finer sandpaper (down to 800 grit)
• Restore blade bevel and edge (with diamond rod) and tip (I had to use a file to give the blade a slight drop point, as a tiny part of the tip had been broken off)
• Polish blade with progressively finer sandpaper (down to 1,000 grit)
• Rub handle wood with wax and heat it so it soaks in
• Oil handle wood (teak oil)
• Sharpen blade with stone
• Sew and/or glue small slits in sheath belt loop/dangler
• Cut off leather tag on bottom of sheath
• Sand sheath (240 grit)
• Put black shoe polish on sheath
• Saturate sheath with teak oil
• (I will replace the missing pommel cap when I get a chance to buy one)

Shoe polish and teak oil on a sheath?! I realize some of my methods are a bit unorthodox (i.e. amateurish), but I never claimed to be a professional knife restorer. I tend to experiment a lot and just use stuff I have on hand. Luckily, the end product usually ends up being OK. By the way, the teak oil hardens up the leather nicely, protecting it from the knife blade (there is no insert inside the sheath).

Here’s the end result:

I haven’t decided yet whether I will polish the blade and bolster with finer sandpaper. Eventually, it’ll probably bug me until I break down and do it.

Speaking of going back and finishing jobs properly, I realized that I had done a bit of a halfhearted rush job on the blade of the leuku knife I fixed up last year. I left a lot of the previous owner’s grinding marks on the blade and only “polished” it down to 240 grit sandpaper. Looking back, I feel it was pretty amateurish and did not look very good. Wanting to correct that, I spent some time polishing the blade with sandpaper down to 1,000 grit. Again, I’ll probably go to a finer grit with this knife as well at some point, but for now it’s OK.

A few “bushcrafty” shots of both knives in the new set :

I’m looking forward to wearing this set on my belt on upcoming outings as an occasional alternative to my BushProwler knife. It’ll easily handle light wood prep for small cooking fires as well as all sorts of projects using wood and other materials.

Some of the crew:

The Woodsboy took it upon himself to check out the equipment, making sure it was in fine working order.

The brothers set up a little ways away.

The Woodsboy waited patiently by my side…for about 10 seconds.

He made sure to visit all the other anglers as well.

One brother caught this little guy. I can’t remember what kind of fish they said it was. Update: Scandic Woodsman has identified this fish as “kiiski”, or Eurasian ruffe. Thanks SW!

Here’s the Woodsboy helping to cut a fresh hole in the ice with his uncle.

After a long wait with no bites, I finally hooked this little perch.

Overall, the pickins were slim, but we weren’t out for all that long. It’s really more of a family affair that a food-gathering event. At least there was no shortage of scenery.

Speaking of scenery, thanks go out to the Woodsbabe for handling the photography!

Here’s most of the haul:

• Two stainless-steel camp utensil sets: €0.20/$0.26 each
• Eight aluminum tent pegs: €1.50/$1.95
• Wood-handled fire steel: €1.00/$1.30
• 70s-era Marttiini “Lapp Knife 230″: €18.00/$23.50

The utensil sets will probably go to the Woodsbabe and Woodsboy, and the tent pegs will replace the thin and weak ones I’ve been using. The fire steel will accompany my BushProwler knife in place of the plastic-handled one I have on it now. The pièce de résistance, i.e. the leuku-style puukko knife made by Marttiini in the 70s, will soon be subjected to an extreme makeover by your’s truly. The plan is to restore it to match the leuku I fixed up last May. It should serve nicely as a small companion knife to the leuku, and the fact that they’re both from the same manufacturer and time period is a nice bonus. I noticed that the pommel cap is missing from the puukko, so I’ll have to pick one up the next time I’m at an outdoor/knife show.

The last thing I picked up, which isn’t exactly an outdoor item, is a vegetarian cookbook. Now, I’m not a vegetarian by any stretch, but I am keen on expanding my culinary repertoire, so for only €2.00/$2.60, I couldn’t pass it up (if the dishes really need it, I’ll just add meat ).

Total price for this mini-haul: €22.90/$29.80.

Stay tuned for a late-winter ice-fishing trip with the extended Woodsfamily!

As you can see, this burl wraps a good deal of the way around the trunk.

Just so you can get an idea of how big this sucker is:

I bet this monster burl could be made into something great!

And just for the heck of it, a shot I snapped at a lake a little while later.

Now for the big news. As long-time readers will know, the Woodsfamily moved from eastern Finland to the Helsinki metropolitan area last summer due to a great job opportunity presented to the Woodsbabe. Since we moved here, I have been able to explore new natural areas, including Nuuksio National Park and the southern Finnish coast, as well as spend time with friends who live in or near this area, like Scandic Woodsman and OZme. I have also enjoyed meeting and spending time with new friends. While these experiences have been great, I have really missed spending time in the peaceful setting of the country as I often did before. Plus, not having access to private land the way I did in eastern Finland severely restricted the type of activities I have been able to do and then show you here at the blog. As a result, the content of most of my “in the field” posts has reflected the change in circumstances.

Well, times they are a changin’! Now that the Woodsbabe has completed the training phase for her line of work, she is somewhat of a hot commodity in her field, and I am happy to report that she has just accepted a job back in eastern Finland! So in about a month, we will be moving to a smaller city not too far away from where we used to live and also not far from my favorite campsite and many, many acres/hectares of private land which I have access to through family. Although I will miss the more frequent visits with my friends here in the south, after we move I will be able to pick up where I left off last spring with a much greater breadth and depth of things I will be able to do and show you. I’ll be able to put the blog back on it’s original course!

But that’s not all! I am also working on arrangements for the Woodsfamily to have regular access to a relative’s small house/cabin in the country which is not lived in year round. If it all works out, we should be able to go there in our spare time and do things like country cooking on a wood-fired cooking range, canning/smoking/preserving food, making projects in the workshop, low-maintenance gardening (potatoes, carrots etc.) and lots more.

Things might continue to be a bit slow here at the blog for a short spell, but that’ll change once our new move is complete. Of course from time to time I’ll still visit my friends in the south for meetups and such after we move, and as always, they are welcome to visit us!

Thanks for reading!

A few years ago, I was listening in on a conversation between OZme and some Finnish guys about firelighting in ancient Finland. I remember OZme mentioning that little or no evidence has survived from ancient times to indicate which methods might have been used. This really got me wondering. In a place where winter can last half the year or more and where fire is crucial to survival, how did people get them going before matches, flint and steel etc.? Things like wooden bow drills, hand drills etc. would rot relatively quickly due to Finland’s harsh climate/seasonal extremes, so there’s no way to know if they were used. Is there any way, then, to find out what they may have used? I think I might have accidentally stumbled upon one possible answer.

One summer while breaking up rocks to build a fire ring, I noticed that after one rock-on-rock smash, I smelled something burning. At first, I looked around me because I thought the smell must have been coming from some fire nearby. Then I realized that the rocks I had been smashing must have created a spark! It’s absolutely conceivable, as the rocks contained both quartz and what I guess would be iron ore (I’m not a geologist, so forgive me). Having read many years ago that arctic peoples, specifically the Inuit in North America, used rocks of various types to create a spark for firelighting, I realized that this could certainly have been a method employed in Finland as well. Horse hoof fungus, aka tinder fungus, aka fomes fomentarius can be found throughout the country, and when processed properly, will take a spark and burn hot as a glowing ember, so the tinder element is there as well.

Perhaps we will never know exactly how people in ancient Finland started fires. Maybe they used several different methods. In any case, to my mind, I feel like I have possibly confirmed one of them.

If any readers have more info on this topic, I’d love to hear it!

OK, OK. This product is not sold as a hobo stove, per se (it’s actually a cutlery drainer), but supposedly it works very well as a wood-burning stove thanks to its many holes, sturdy construction and size. I’m planning on using mine in place of a hobo stove I made out of a food can which proved to be a tad too small and potentially weaker than I’d like.

A few years ago, I contacted the Metsähallitus, a Finnish government agency which maintains national parks and does other similar tasks. I asked them about using a wood-burning stove for cooking in national parks, and they replied that it’s fine to take sticks and branches off the ground to use as fuel (but not dead trees or parts still attached to trees) and burn them in a wood-burning stove, as long as the stove being used is contained and does not allow embers, ashes etc. to fall out onto the ground. Problem number one:

Obviously, I was going to have to find a way to close up all those holes. After doing some thinking, I figured one way to do it would be to secure a piece of metal over the holes with some nuts and bolts. So I flattened out a lid from a food can and made some holes in it to accept the bolts. Interestingly, when I flattened out the disk it was not flat, but more like a large contact lens (concave on one side and convex on the other), but with a much less extreme curve.

Then I used one bolt and two nuts per hole to hold down the metal disk and to act as little legs which serve to keep the bottom of the stove off the ground, reducing the risk of dry material under the stove catching fire. I put the concave side of the disk facing downward so that it hugs the bottom of the stove snugly and will not allow embers, ashes etc. to escape. I put an extra bolt and nut in the center to put even more downward pressure on the disk.

I haven’t tried this stove out yet, but I will do so soon. I’ll see if any modifications need to be made to ensure a good burn. One thing I’ve learned about using hobo stoves like this in the winter is that they melt the snow they’re resting on (obviously), but I also have an idea on how to remedy that, which I’ll show once it’s complete.

Quick edit: I decided to remove the picture of the full setup with a kettle on top because it didn’t give the right impression of how stable the stove is (it looked like the legs were closer together than they are). The setup is actually quite stable (I did some stability testing with a full kettle of water). I have also used a similar setup with much longer legs before and it was also stable. If, if, it somehow proves unstable, I can always shorten the legs. I am always very careful with fire!

Anyhoo, let’s get on to the good stuff, the giveaway winner! I used http://www.random.org to generate a number between 1 and 100 this evening, and the number it generated was 48. So the winner is Merize, who chose 47! Congrats, Merize! I’ll be contacting you by email shortly.

Thanks again to everyone for reading and commenting!

The Woodsbabe and Woodsboy dropped me off as close to the place as we could drive without getting stuck in the snow (which we managed to do anyway ).

Tracks within tracks:

Looks like a slow-moving bunny:

Moose track:

He/she stopped to nibble on some fresh shoots:

Looks like a fox was here:

Red squirrel:

I was able to hike part of the way without snowshoes, but they were necessary for most of the trek, as the snow in most places was too deep to hike in effectively. So I strapped them on and carried on.

Nearby summer cabin:

Usnea/old man’s beard lichen:

Jackrabbit or kangaroo? You be the judge…

High-traffic area:

I believe a moose bent and broke this sapling to nibble on the tips of the branches:

After about an hour of snowshoeing and picture taking, “my precious” came into view. The cooking rig OZme and I put together in 2011 is still going strong, but is currently in hibernation.

Besides being handy for hanging pots over a fire, it also serves as a place to throw your pack.

The temperature that afternoon was hovering around -8*C/17.5*F or so, which I find to be pretty pleasant for winter activities.

Between the dry winter air and snowshoe hike, I was beginning to get mighty thirsty. I checked my “canteen”, aka thermos, and saw that my water was still room temperature despite being left in the car overnight at -15*C/5*F.

For a change, I thought I’d make some pine-needle tea. Although spruce-needle tea has been something I’ve enjoyed for years, somehow I’ve managed to go all this time without trying pine-needle tea (I think?), so it was high time! Both are full of vitamin C and have a very fresh “foresty” taste. I located my firewood stash under the snow and knocked a few pieces loose with my axe.

They were then split up in preparation for building a fire. The wood prep heated me up too much, so I had to swap the fur hat for a beanie.

While I was splitting the wood, I found three of these little guys. They would be great as ice-fishing bait.

Instead of building a fire right away to boil the water for my tea, I decided to do it a little differently this time. I plopped down one of the pieces of spruce I had split to act as a “mini bar” for making the pine-needle tea with the alcohol stove made for me by OZme.

I chopped up the pine needles:

Added some fuel to the stove:

And lit it up with a match (if you’re not familiar with alcohol stoves, they don’t show much of a visible flame when lit):

Somehow I managed to use just the right amount of fuel, as it burned long and hot enough to bring my cupful of water to the boiling point in about 5 minutes and then dropped off and petered out. I added the hot water to my kuksa and let the needles steep.

Since I was feeling hungry by this time as well, I whipped out a “riisipiirakka” (rice pastry) with butter. The rice pastry is basically rice porridge (special rice cooked with milk and salt) placed in a thin rye half-shell and baked.

This was a nice snack, but it wasn’t quite enough to fill ma’ belly, so I split and shaved the spruce a bit more so I could build a fire to roast a sausage.

I found a nice forked branch on a sapling nearby, so I prepped it to hold my big, fat “HK sininen” sausage.

The wood I used for the fire turned out to be pretty wet (probably because I didn’t cover it last summer…oops), so I had to coax the fire for a while, but finally it ended up burning well. I roasted and ate most of the sausage and then left the rest for nature’s creatures (they really are quite big).

After checking the time and seeing that the Woodsbabe would soon be back at our designated spot to pick me up, I extinguished the fire, packed up my things and then closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. The silence of the place was something I had forgotten. Only the occasional chirping bird could be heard. Quite a contrast to the noise of the city! I snapped a final picture of the hazy sun before throwing on my pack and heading out.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do an overnight trip as I had planned a few weeks back, but in the end the 5 hours of “therapy” I got out there turned out being exactly what I needed!

Hope you enjoy it!

If you would like to take part in this giveaway, you’ll have to be a subscriber to the blog either via a WordPress account or by email. Maybe for the next giveaway I’ll make it open to anyone who wants to enter, but to be fair to my subscribers through WordPress and email, I have to limit eligibility to these groups this time around. Sorry!

If you have submitted a comment with a number, please make sure that you have also subscribed via WordPress or email. Otherwise, I won’t be able to count your entry in order to make it fair to direct subscribers! Don’t mean to be a jerk about this!

Here are the updated giveaway conditions:

1. To be eligible for the drawing, you must be a subscriber (existing or new) to The Weekend Woodsman blog. Update: Since WordPress does not recognize and show me subscribers who have subscribed through things like Google Reader etc., only subscribers by email or through WordPress will be eligible for this giveaway. Sorry!
   
2. To enter, leave a comment below showing me that you’d like to take part by including a number from 1 – 100 which has not already been chosen (Yes, I am aware that there wouldn’t be enough numbers for all my subscribers, but I have a feeling it won’t be a problem ). I will use a random-number generator to pick a number. The commenter with the number closest to the generated number will be the winner. Note: You will have to use the same email address or WordPress account which you submitted to subscribe to the blog when writing your comment. Otherwise, I can’t verify that you are a subscriber! Update: If it turns out that there would be more than 100 entrants, I will simply draw the winning name from a hat.
   
3. I will ship the knife anywhere in the world (it is your responsibility to make sure there are no restrictions to receiving this knife in your country/area).
4. If you are under 18, a parent will have to consent to your receiving the knife if you win.
5. The cut-off time/date for entries will be 12:00 a.m. (Finnish time, i.e. UTC+2) on March 7th, 2013.

Cutting up seasoned pine sapling for firewood.

Cutting up seasoned and frozen birch.

Making shavings for tinder.

Re-shaped tip.

Here you can see the knife and its sheath (before I made the modifications). The smaller knives on either side are not part of the giveaway.

Giveaway conditions:

1. To be eligible for the drawing, you must be a subscriber (existing or new) to The Weekend Woodsman blog. Update: Since WordPress does not recognize and show me subscribers who have subscribed through things like Google Reader etc., only subscribers by email or through WordPress will be eligible for this giveaway. Sorry!
   
2. To enter, leave a comment below showing me that you’d like to take part by including a number from 1 – 100 which has not already been chosen (Yes, I am aware that there wouldn’t be enough numbers for all my subscribers, but I have a feeling it won’t be a problem ). I will use a random-number generator to pick a number. The commenter with the number closest to the generated number will be the winner. Note: You will have to use the same email address or WordPress account which you submitted to subscribe to the blog when writing your comment. Otherwise, I can’t verify that you are a subscriber! Update: If it turns out that there would be more than 100 entrants, I will simply draw the winning name from a hat.
   
3. I will ship the knife anywhere in the world (it is your responsibility to make sure there are no restrictions to receiving this knife in your country/area).
4. If you are under 18, a parent will have to consent to your receiving the knife if you win.
5. The cut-off time/date for entries will be 12:00 a.m. (Finnish time, i.e. UTC+2) on March 7th, 2013.

Good luck!

Last fall, I reviewed the model 65 Swiss army sleeping bag which I have been using for the past 2 years. In that review, I mentioned how the older Swiss sleep system consisted of the sleeping bag, an inner fleece liner and a bivy bag. I wrote that I did not have the additional components, but planned to reconstruct the system using similar ones. Here’s the sleeping bag, with a picture of the bivy below it. I don’t have a picture of the cheap summer mummy bag I’m using as the liner.

Then, on New Year’s Day, I gave an account of new items I received or purchased for Christmas, where I showed you the two faux lamb fleeces I sewed together to form a “bushcrafty-looking” sleeping pad for cool and cold weather.

I decided to take advantage of some recent colder weather (for southern Finland, at least) to test both the reconstructed Swiss system (outfitted with an additional layer, in other words, there were two liners) and the fleece sleeping pad. It’s important to note that this testing was carried out using a mishmash of older/surplus/unique equipment I happen to have, rather than new, off-the-shelf sleeping equipment currently in production. As such, it shouldn’t be seen as a suggestion for a specific setup to be copied. Rather, see it as just one example of what can be used. Maybe it can give you a rough idea of how similar items would work together for you.

Conditions: According to the weather report , the temperature was to range from -20 to -28*C (-4 to -18.5*F) during the night of testing. Since I don’t plan on sleeping outdoors at temperatures much below -30*C (-22*F), I thought this would be a good opportunity to test the limits of all the components of my sleep system combined. Seeing as how I live in a city and didn’t have enough time or daylight to get out into the country, I decided to do my testing outside on the terrace, which was covered with compacted snow. There was a continual breeze in the air, and the temperature upon starting my test was -21*C (-6*F).

Equipment: Nested from the outside in:

• A waterproof Italian mil. surp. bivy bag, unzipped
• A Swiss mil. surp. sleeping bag (with a comfort rating of roughly 2*C (35*F) without the fleece liner)
• A no-name el-cheapo mummy bag (with a comfort rating of 10*C (50*F))
• A Freetime Micropak 1400 mummy bag (with a comfort rating of 3*C (37.5*F) and an extreme rating of -12*C (10.5*F))

Also:

• Two thin foam sleeping pads, 5 mm (0.2″) each (they were under the sleeping bags, but inside the bivy bag
• Faux lamb fleece on top of the foam pads
• Clothing: thin and thick long underwear, fleece jacket, gloves, balaclava and two pair of thick knit wool socks over thin hiking socks

I didn’t bother weighing this equipment, but roughly knowing the individual item weights I estimate it to be about 5 – 6 kg (11 – 13 lbs.), not including the clothing. I know, I know. One good winter sleeping bag, bivy bag and sleeping pad would weigh a fraction of that. What can I say, I have an aversion to buying new stuff if I already have equipment that works, even if it weighs more.

Test: I slipped into my nest-o-bags at about 10:30 p.m. and promptly fell asleep. The plan was to sleep the whole night outside. I decided to end the test when I woke up at 1 a.m., though not because I was cold, or even cool, in any way. I felt so warm, in fact, that I suspected that the temperature had risen dramatically over the time I had slept. I checked the temperature: still -21*C (-6*F). The reason I woke up was because I was snoring so loudly! I tend to snore when sleeping on my back on the ground.

Results: Over the past few years, I have suffered through enough uncomfortable nights at a wide range of conditions in different sleep systems to know when something works or not. So although I only slept for 2.5 hours, which is a far cry from a full night’s sleep, the fact that I woke up very comfortably warm indicated to me that I should have been fine all night, at least at that temperature (based on past experience, I would have woken up sooner if I were too cold; since body heat output drops while sleeping, there’s a significant difference between being awake and asleep in a sleeping bag). The fact that I was still so warm leads me to assume that this particular setup would be reasonably comfortable down to -25*C (-13*F), at least. Further testing will say whether this is the case, because that is always the only way to know for sure. So I’m planning on testing it at -25*C (-13*F) and -30*C (-22*F) for a full night. By the way, the temperature ended up hovering around -21*C (-6*F) all night, so no insight into heat retention at lower temperatures would have been gained by staying out the rest of the night. As for the faux lamb fleece sleeping pad, I was very surprised at how well it worked! It provided plenty of cushioning and was very warm as well. Not bad for 30 Euro ($40 US) and a few minutes of sewing!

Now that I have established what works well for me toward the colder end of the spectrum (in my particular case), I can experiment with different setups for warmer temperatures, i.e. leaving out this bag or that bag to fine-tune the comfort level. This weekend I will test the bivy, Swiss bag, liner bag, i.e. as close to the original Swiss sleep system as I can get (which, by the way, cost me about 33 Euro ($43 US) altogether), plus the pads underneath (I’ll leave out the innermost sleeping bag mentioned above). The temperature is expected to be about -7*C (19.5*F), so it’ll be a decent test for that setup.

When testing sleeping equipment like this at lower temperatures, it’s a good idea to either carry out your testing near a place where you can “escape” to if you get too cold or otherwise bring an extra sleeping bag or two just in case. One time a few years back, I actually had to leave my camp in the middle of the night and hike to the cabin nearby because I was too cold. Not fun. Just be smart about where you do your testing, considering the potential danger/discomfort involved!!!