I brought the new year in by doing my first real winter camping in my RidgeRunner. I had the superfly for my tarp, a 0 degree lynx for an UQ, and used the Spindrift for the first time for more protection from expected flurries and increased warmth. I used a 15 degree sleeping bag with a golite one season quilt drapped over the bag. The temperature last night dropped to 3 degrees Fahrenheit.
I brought a fridge thermometer out with me and measured the temp outside the tarp and also the temperature within the spindrift after giving it and myself time to warm up. Surprisingly, there was not any difference in temperature. If I kept the thermometer close to my bag it showed warmer, but I thought a truer test was to measure in the open air above my body. This was disappointing as I was hoping for it to show warmer with the spindrift attached.
However, warmth was not an issue because the UQ performed wonderfully as well as my top bags. What was an issue was the condensation that formed in the spindrift. By the end of the night I actually had ice crystals falling from the inside of the spindrift onto my face. The pics show the inside ceiling of the spindrift and the other shows the RR where you can clearly see the line where the lynx UQ protected and where it did not. The Spindrift was fully closed.
The idea behind using the spindrift was to increase warmth, which it did not, and also for protection from blowing snow and wind so that a smaller tarp could be used-which I think it would. But with these kind of condensation issues I don't know if it's worth carrying or not.
Anybody have any solutions or experience with this? Would a vapor layer solve it? Venting the spindrift is what I will try next, but if this is the only solution then the spindrift to me is only useful as basically a UQ protector.
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