Mama Mia, Its a cold out side or CBS time
Along this section of the NC coast, snow once a winter is unusual and already we are on our 3rd snow fall of the season.
As temps are going to drop into the low 20's Saturday night I figured I would set up my rig in the back yard and sleep under my new Warbonnet Big Mamajama.. I am on blood thinners right now so I really feel the cold in my hands and feet and I wanted to have a place to retreat to if needed.
I set up everything in the early afternoon and and the dogs decided they had to help by grabbing sticks and running under the tarp while I was trying to set it up. It was snowing hard and very windy the whole time while I was setting up making for a fun time trying to stake out the tarp. Had to take a hot chocolate break as even with gloves on my hands were very cold.
This will be my first time sleeping out in the hammock in the snow. The forecast called for up to 2 inches and we got closer to 6+ inches. It stopped snowing about 8PM
The set up:
Big Mamajama tarp from Warbonnet
Black Bird 1.7 double
Arrowhead BBO
WallyWorld blue waffle pattern pad
North Face Dolomite Sleeping bag spread out open as bottom insulation in the hammock
37+ year old North Face Ibex sleeping bag used as a top quilt
I wore long pants, cotton socks, t-shirt, fleece jacket, a 550 fill down coat, fleece gloves and a fleece pull over on the head.
Its about 10:00 pm now and I will be heading out to test out the rig in a few minutes knowing if it doesn’t work I have a warm house to retreat to.
Results in the morning.....................
Things did not work out as I hoped. I spent about 3 hours in the hammock and then my hands and feet got really cold (due to blood thinners) so I decided to be safe and go inside. As I was leaving the hammock I checked the temp and it was 18 degrees, several degrees colder than the 22 low predicted.
I got the BBO for my wife and this was the first time I have used it. I thought I might feel confined with the BBO but that was not the case although I missed being able to look out thru the bug net.
Also need to work on the tarp set up. I used Amsteel as a ridge-line for the tarp and hung the tarp over the line as I was worried about snow building up on the tarp. For the most part the snow slid off the tarp as we had a very dry powdery snow which is in contrast the wet snowball making snow we normally get here. Ended up with more sag in the Amsteel ridge line than expected. Should have used one of my Figure 9 biners to get a tighter ridge-line so there was not as much sag.
Conclusion...If it had not been for the blood thinners I believe I could have spent the whole night outside as I was nice and warm except for my hands and feet. So all in all I figured it was a good test and I did get to hang out in the snow for a few hours.
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