Cold weather camping.

[thatGuy]

With over night lows in the single digits (Zero Degrees F last night) my weekend backpacking trips are curtailed for the foreseeable weeks and months. That bums me out.

So I got some gortex bivy bags, check 'em out on ebay, the woodland pattern ones are pretty cheap when compaired to the commercial products.

I'm thinking that they will help stretch out the range of my current sleeping bag.

I'm also looking at a pair of Sorel Caribou boots and some snow boarder's pants because I never felt the need to own water proof pants in NM until now.

SO the question is, do any of you guys cold weather camp and if so what gear would you say is mandatory?

[Reaver]

Last time I cold weather camped my father and I almost died.
Don't come to me for information on this one boys. We survived but nearly didn't.

Just for the fun of it I'll name what not to have.

A summer tent.
A Vietnam Issue Warmweather Sleeping bag
A set of nomex flight gloves.
A standard cold weather jacket of your choice.

That is what we had. And like I said we froze the entire time. The only thing keeping us alive was a huge fire that had to be built for warmth.
Upstate New York is cold as a fudge cicle this time a year.

[thatGuy]

Good looking out RvR, that is exactly what I want to avoid!

[special-k]

I used a U.S. military surplus down sleeping bag in 15'F weather.....Everything was toasty except for my face.  Down will keep you warm but its heavy and bulky if you plan on hiking with it.  I'm pretty sure there are some more modern lightweight materials available....though I have no experience using them.....I hope someone here has and will tell us what does and doesn't work.

[thatGuy]

I have been rocking out with poly fill since the 1990s and they are only getting better but that bag is only good to 30 degrees, ask me how I know!

[special-k]

I had bookmarked this video some time ago....Check out his customized ultra-lightweight sleep system....He says it's good to about 15'F.  He installed a "tarp zipper" on a "SOL Emergency Bivvy" by Adventure Medical Kits  and used that to cover a U.S. military warm weather bag and the whole set up was laid on an insulating pad. 

My Ultralite Sleep System.wmv