So this past weekend I went camping. Yes, in the snow, in the winter, camping. The last two weekends weren't so bad with temperatures dipping only into the teens or twenties. This weekend it got down to -9 with which translates into cold, really cold. Like frost building up on your sleeping bag (from the moisture in your breath) and then snowing onto your face cold.
The cold is truly painful until you strip down to go to bed or wake up and have to stand up in the wind in your long johns in order to get dressed. Every Friday I get picked up by another staff member, and we drive to camp. Between 6:00 and 7:00 we prepare for the weekend and then at seven fifteen we head out to the parking lot to meet the scouts. The earlier the scouts come the easier it is to gear up and gather supplies for the weekend, but sometimes if they are late we hardly have time to gather supplies before lights out at 11:00. Sometimes I will say up till 1:00 am packing both the crew gear and my own. On top of that I rarely get to bed before 3:00, because the staff hang out, talk, debate, and conspire ways to better camp. Wake up for staff is 7:00 am, we stumble crawl and jump out of bed; most of us reach for coffee, Monster, or other forms of liquid energy, with the intermittent caffeine pills. We pack the rest of our gear and wake up the scouts at 7:30. There is a flag ceremony at 7:45, and breakfast at 8:00, and if everything goes well the Scouts are dressed and ready to go by 10:00am. It depends on where we decide to camp, but we usually get to our site by 11:00 and have our shelters started or built and lunch ready by 12:00. Shelter building takes a lot of time, especially if the Scouts are competent enough that they can be left to it on their own. Afternoon activities consist of skiing, snowshoeing, Ice Climbing, or spontaneous activities like trebuchet building. Broomball is by far the most popular game at Snowbase. |
By six dinner is served, and we prepare to go on our night hike. The night hike is my least favorite thing to do, by this time I am exhausted, cold, I have just been fed and all I want to do is go to bed. The problem is that the scouts feel the same way. And after standing around the cook fire, sitting down to eat, and taking off their gloves to wash dishes in the snow; whatever warmth they managed to maintain is now nearly gone.
The night hike gets all our blood pumping, and our bodies warmed up enough to strip down to under-armor, and jump into a cold sleeping bag and still have enough core heat to warm the -40 degree bag. It is always a great time to turn off the lantern and ask everyone for a few moments of silence looking at the
stars. Of all the fun at Snowbase this moment looking at the stars on a cold night is my favorite.
The Scouts settle into bed, and I make the rounds checking that the zippers all worked, the equipment is either inside the sleeping bag, or under the scout on top of the sleeping pad. I hand out cookies to the Scouts as they get ready with the admonition, “If you wake up cold, or have to go to the bathroom in the night, eat it. The sugar will help you get or stay warm.”
I then spend an hour cleaning camp, packing crew gear, storing water, and preparing for a swift tear down the next morning. Then I go to sleep, either in one of the sleds, in a shelter, or simply under something which will keep the snow off me.
Sunday morning I wake up, and usually jog to the latrine. I don’t really have to go that bad, but jogging helps get the blood moving and warms me up so I can face lighting the stoves. Gasoline doesn’t freeze until minus 200-something, that means that however cold the air is, the stoves are. Trying to light matches and pump stoves is nearly impossible with mittens on, so mechanical gloves or bare handed is the only way. Lets just say it’s sometimes a bit painful.
I wake the scouts up at 7:30 and they generally grumble and putz their way out of bed. At 8-8:15 I start pulling down the shelter around them, as a way of encouraging them to get a move on. We pour water into oatmeal packets and drink it out of the bag, to avoid dishes. Pack up the sleds and with one final trash sweep head back to Outfitters to check in gear.
The night hike gets all our blood pumping, and our bodies warmed up enough to strip down to under-armor, and jump into a cold sleeping bag and still have enough core heat to warm the -40 degree bag. It is always a great time to turn off the lantern and ask everyone for a few moments of silence looking at the
stars. Of all the fun at Snowbase this moment looking at the stars on a cold night is my favorite.
The Scouts settle into bed, and I make the rounds checking that the zippers all worked, the equipment is either inside the sleeping bag, or under the scout on top of the sleeping pad. I hand out cookies to the Scouts as they get ready with the admonition, “If you wake up cold, or have to go to the bathroom in the night, eat it. The sugar will help you get or stay warm.”
I then spend an hour cleaning camp, packing crew gear, storing water, and preparing for a swift tear down the next morning. Then I go to sleep, either in one of the sleds, in a shelter, or simply under something which will keep the snow off me.
Sunday morning I wake up, and usually jog to the latrine. I don’t really have to go that bad, but jogging helps get the blood moving and warms me up so I can face lighting the stoves. Gasoline doesn’t freeze until minus 200-something, that means that however cold the air is, the stoves are. Trying to light matches and pump stoves is nearly impossible with mittens on, so mechanical gloves or bare handed is the only way. Lets just say it’s sometimes a bit painful.
I wake the scouts up at 7:30 and they generally grumble and putz their way out of bed. At 8-8:15 I start pulling down the shelter around them, as a way of encouraging them to get a move on. We pour water into oatmeal packets and drink it out of the bag, to avoid dishes. Pack up the sleds and with one final trash sweep head back to Outfitters to check in gear.
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