A Cold Butt Saga

[Cold Butt Stephen]

Hey everyone,
It's great to be a member of Hammockforums now, and I have already gotten tons of information from the site. My first hang was last winter in the Shenandoah Valley. Up until that point, I had always had hiking buddies with gear, ie. a tent, but without them I needed a tent. I had a friend flying in from New Orleans to come with me and was planning to buy the cheapest tent they had a REI (what can I say, I'm cheap). Anyways, it was early January and when I went to buy the tent, they had been cleaned out from Christmas and only had expensive tents left. My stingy nature took over and I managed to convince my friend that we should buy hammocks instead.
Well, I know many of you will cringe, but there we were with our blue ww yard tarps, cordolette suspension and no underquilts (it never occurred to me that all the loft underneath my +15 degree bag would get compressed and lose its warmth ). Well, it got down to 9 degrees that first night with 25mph winds, and although we cut the trip short and it was the coldest night of my life (and I think I was only saved from frostbite due to some handwarmers) I have been hooked on hammocks.
I know that I am already wiser from the info on these forums and I am getting psyched for the repeat trip this January. I am planning on making my own, whoopie slings, winter tarp with beaks, underquilt (probably synthetic because I'm poor), and maybe even hammock.

Glad to be here,
CBS (Cold Butt Stephen)

[Bradley]

Well a warm welcome to ya Cold Butt
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[Muskrat]

Welcome . . . and experience is always the best teacher.

Can you say . . . "been there, done that, and ain't looking back ?"

[G.L.P.]

Welcome

my first tarp was a Blue Poly tarp too
if your a DIY guy you could always make a SPE real cheap and use 2 cheap WW blue pads till yu can save up for a UQ

[dejoha]

I got a laugh because I've had a similar transition to hammock camping. My first few hangs were in the summer in Virginia when I was boiling up with a fleece throw on top of me. I had such a comfortable sleep, however, that I was forever hooked. But, as temperatures dropped, I went weeks with miserable, cold sleeps. My cloud-like sleeps were still such a strong memory that it kept me through the freezing winter to find solutions to keep warm.

Bottom insulation is about the most important piece to a successful hammock sleep, I'm convinced, so the best of luck to you and may your path cross an underquilt soon!

[MacEntyre]

My first hang in the woods was with a mil surplus hammock, without any bottom insulation, on a night that got to 51*F. It felt like it was freezing! I never knew you could shiver in those temps!

[Cold Butt Stephen]

Ha ha, well I knew you could shiver at -11 degrees with windchill, but I never knew so much of my body could be numb at the same time.

A good learning experience I hope to never repeat thanks to an UQ I intend to make. My first excursion was just an ENO single and my cold butt exposed to the wind.

[Peter_pan]

Drive on down to Yorktown next week... Find all the warm solutions you will ever need... all in stock too...

Pan

[Shewie]

Hi CBS - welcome to the forum

[Poppabear]

Welcome to HF! If you put into practice what you learn here. You will have no problems staying warm.