View Full Version : A New Low Temp
txulrich
12-17-2007, 17:18
This past weekend, my scout troop went camping here in North Texas. The official temp recorded in the nearest town was a low of 25 Sunday morning. We had a digital thermometer at the site and it registered 23 and some change with very little breeze (less than 5 mph). This is a new low temp for Tango61 and myself by about 10 degrees.
My hammock configuration was as follows:
My Hennessey a-sym
A JRB ORM clone on the bottom
A JRB Nest outside of that
A Kelty 20 degree synthetic bag as a top quilt
A MacCat Deluxe for my tarp.
For clothing, I wore:
Synthetic boxer briefs
Synthetic t-shirt
Silk long johns
Micro Fleece top and bottoms
A knit hat
Heavy socks.
During Friday night/Saturday morning, I had a cold spot at only my bottom (the temp was in the low 40s/upper 30s). In reaching through the slit, I could feel a gap of about 5-6 inches. Knowing that the temperature was going to drop, I tied some para cord from side to side in three places to pull the quilts up. This closed the gap to only an inch or so. I felt no cold what so ever Saturday night.
I believe this to be the limit for this rig. I refuse to use a pad if I can help it due to condensation. I don't want to get wet when it's that cold. For colder temps, I'll have to switch to a top loader with a hammock sock and other features.
slowhike
12-17-2007, 17:28
it's a nice feeling to be comfy & warm in your hammock when it's that cold out isn't it?
txulrich
12-17-2007, 18:18
Yeah it is! That's about as cold as it gets here. We might drop into the teens if it really get's cold.
FanaticFringer
12-17-2007, 18:20
Congrats on your new low hang.:cool:
Now, as Paul Harvey, the rest of the story...
Friday night was around 38-44F as TxUlrich said, what he forgot to mention was that it was drizzling/raining up until about 10pm. It quit for a couple of hours and then started raining a little harder around 1:30am and lasted for about 30 minutes. Great gear testing weather!
My hammock set up was:
Top loader hammock (no-name off e-bay - I refer to as the 'body bag')
3/8" blue foam pad covered by two fleece blankets
(thanks to TxUlrich; in the rush to get everything done and get packed I left the sleeping bag that I was going to use as bottom insulation)
RayWay quilt (20F version)
Black Bishop tarp (Gray Ghost)
Friday night I slept in just Thermasilk longjohn bottoms, Peachskin top, micro fleece sweater, thick socks and a knit cap.
The wind really kicked up on Saturday (20-25mph) so I knew I might be in big trouble. Fortunately, it died down around 5pm and it was just cold. Real cold!
Saturday night I wore the same things from Friday but slept in the wool pants I had been wearing during the day, added another fleece top, plus my Lands End Squall jacket. I managed to stay pretty warm through out the night if I stayed on the pad (which I did!). My quilt has the draft stoppers so it really helps to be able to grab hold of them and pull the quilt in tight.
Note - if you wear pants to sleep in that have a button fly, leave the fly unbuttoned. It makes that 3am trip to water the trees much easier. Especially when it is 23F.
Sunday morning, we had ice crystals on the top and underside of our tarps and I had them on the ends of my hammock. I had dropped the north side of my tarp all the way to the ground. We were somewhat protected from the wind but not much.
I'll definitely be making us some hammock socks over the Christmas break and start working on an underquilt.
Sunday was a beautiful day! Wish we could have stayed longer.
I'll try and link a couple of pic's
Tango
http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery/showimage.php?i=2354&c=10
http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery/showimage.php?i=2355&c=10
GrizzlyAdams
12-17-2007, 23:41
I got a kick out of the title of this thread...for the last month I've been eyeing the 10 day forecasts looking for lower night-time lows coming up. I'm very much in the experimenting with DIY hammock and how much to insulate business.
Mid-30's are attractive because I might hit that this June at night, up high, in Vermont, on a week-or-two long hike. What's the lightest setup I can use to stay comfortable?
Mid-20's are interesting because I can expect to see that in the Midwest in early and late winter, and I do aim to hang then.
Lower than mid-20's are interesting because the winter hang is coming up. I won't have the luxury of bring along stuff "just in case", what goes in to the pack at home is what I'll have on the mountain.
Was good to 15 degrees for a couple of hours this evening using (inside my hammock sock of course) a Thermarest Prolite 4 between my two hammock bodies, and a custom pad up in the hammock with me. The bottom of that pad is 1/8" Gosamer Gear Thinlight, then a layer of Insul-brite fabric, with a top cover (sewn through) of ripstop. The bottom of the pad is exposed Thinlight, which grips on the hammock fabric pretty well and doesn't slide around. Oh, the pad is 35" wide, so this is what kept me from cold spots when bits and piece of me wander off the (narrow) Thermarest.
I had a go at 5 degrees a couple of weeks ago, with a downmat between the hammock bodies. But I needed a better way to cinch up the lower body so that I got deeper into the downmat. Bailed out after a couple of hours, there was a chill down there. Fixed that, I think, and repeated the experiment last night at 15 degrees. Solid.
Now I need to
(a) spend more time inside at night so that the mrs. isn't looking up "divorce lawyer" in the yellow pages
(b) take a shot at 5, and 0 when they come along, as they must surely will.
Glad you guys had a great time. Happens that I was standing outside the DFW airport this Wednesday morning waiting to catch a hotel shuttle and it was COLD. Twenty degrees, easily. I bet you could have picked up a new PR temp-wise Tuesday night.
Grizz
Yeah, we use these monthly camp outs to test our gear.
I forgot to mention what all we had to eat. This was the annual patrol cooking contest so there was plenty of good food.
Here's are various samples:
BBQ chicken tenders, garlic mashed potato's, mixed veggies
Beef Stroganof
Lasagna (not store bought)
Steak & baked potatos
Maximum burgers
How is this related to hammocks. Good, hot warm food helps keep you warm AND because we're planning the NTARHA hang and TxUlrich and I will be cooking! We're thinking about sometime in March in SW Ark.
We'll keep you posted.
Tango
slowhike
12-18-2007, 06:51
wow, you guys ate in high style compared to what i usually eat on a cold weather trip.
good thing the scouts were having that contest. that kind of food is good for the furnace<g>.
it's good to put faces w/ the HF member names we see all the time, but who's wearing blue & who's wearing tan?
GrizzlyAdams
12-18-2007, 08:45
wow, you guys ate in high style compared to what i usually eat on a cold weather trip.
good thing the scouts were having that contest. that kind of food is good for the furnace<g>.
Tim, better read the fine print on the HF moderator's contract. Artlcle 7, paragraph 3
Moderator shall atttend all officially sanctioned HF hangs (established by plurality to exceed 33%, achieved in public balloting open to all HF members). In said official capacity moderator shall provide 1 (one) hot dinner to attending participants, in total comprising at least 3575 calories. Menu for same shall be established no more than 7 days before event by public balloting among registered participants. Moderator may at his discretion discharge this obligation through employment of caterer, Pizza Hut delivery, or Boy Scout Troop-errant.
I bet if you got Txulrich's boys out to Mt. Rodgers that would work. :)
Grizz
txulrich
12-18-2007, 10:17
wow, you guys ate in high style compared to what i usually eat on a cold weather trip.
good thing the scouts were having that contest. that kind of food is good for the furnace<g>.
it's good to put faces w/ the HF member names we see all the time, but who's wearing blue & who's wearing tan?
Tim's in the blue and I'm (Joe) in the tan carhart.
Tim forgot to mention that the adult patrol also cooks it's own food. We had some awesome chicken stew and bread for dinner. For dessert we had a mixed berry dump cobler that was downright tasty.
txulrich
12-18-2007, 10:19
Tim, better read the fine print on the HF moderator's contract. Artlcle 7, paragraph 3
I bet if you got Txulrich's boys out to Mt. Rodgers that would work. :)
Grizz
It would take us 2 or 3 days just to get there!!! BSA rules that we have to drive the speed limit (almost never happens:) ) and must stop after 10 hours.
Our Old Goat Patrol has been known to put up some pretty good chow. Pot Roast, some tasty mexican dishes, stew, breakfast burittos. I better stop now, I'm getting hungry.
GrizzlyAdams
12-18-2007, 11:19
It would take us 2 or 3 days just to get there!!! BSA rules that we have to drive the speed limit (almost never happens:) ) and must stop after 10 hours.
Our Old Goat Patrol has been known to put up some pretty good chow. Pot Roast, some tasty mexican dishes, stew, breakfast burittos. I better stop now, I'm getting hungry.
I want to join your patrol. Ours ("the Seasoned Oaks Patrol") tends to stick to freezer bag meals. Which are alright, as far as they go. But they don't run to Fine Dining like you guys.
Grizz
(must be getting close to lunch-time...)
Sasquatch
12-18-2007, 13:39
Was out about 10 days ago with Doggiebag and a few others. He took to the ground on this trip wanting to give his pooch Aldo a warmer place to sleep. I still hung. We were down in MD and the first night I hung in the Shelters loft was nice to avoid the wind. It was 9 degrees when I sent to sleep and was warm all night. No real change from other setups other than I stuffed all the pockets on my Clarks NA with inflated ziplock baggies. This my clothes and, yes i was bundled up pretty well, my Therma-rest was all I used. We have another trip planned for mid Jan in NY along the AT if any fools wish to join us for a 3 day treck in the snow and ice.
slowhike
12-18-2007, 18:29
Moderator shall atttend all officially sanctioned HF hangs (established by plurality to exceed 33%, achieved in public balloting open to all HF members). In said official capacity moderator shall provide 1 (one) hot dinner to attending participants, in total comprising at least 3575 calories. Menu for same shall be established no more than 7 days before event by public balloting among registered participants. Moderator may at his discretion discharge this obligation through employment of caterer, Pizza Hut delivery, or Boy Scout Troop-errant.
hey, no fair... jeff didn't tell me about the fine print:eek:
Just Jeff
12-20-2007, 19:36
hey, no fair... jeff didn't tell me about the fine print:eek:
Well, we were in the process of writing new regulations, that (as of today) have superceded the old ones Grizz quoted from. It's still secret so I can't publish it all here, but basically we changed "...provide 1 (one) hot dinner to..." to "...judge 1 (one) hot dinner from..."
Gotta find out how Grizz got ahold of that old copy... :(
:D :D
GrizzlyAdams
12-20-2007, 19:44
Well, we were in the process of writing new regulations, that (as of today) have superceded the old ones Grizz quoted from. It's still secret so I can't publish it all here, but basically we changed "...provide 1 (one) hot dinner to..." to "...judge 1 (one) hot dinner from..."
Gotta find out how Grizz got ahold of that old copy... :(
:D :D
Just look in your computer's access log files. Textbook pentetration and grab. Came in from Romania (home to half of Europe's brown bears). IP address 81.181.203.20. Catch me if you can :p
:D :D Grizz