I have a little tradition to celebrate the bringing on of Winter. The first night it gets below freezing I sleep outside (usually in my back yard).

Anyone else do this? Now I am getting some requests from my buddies to do a first night below zero camp out too.

We'll probably post pics and a TR tomorrow.

my life is exciting... I know.

Got a lot of frost at the MCA Blue Mounds gathering, so it might've been freezing?
Hiked a section of the SHT last weekend, but I think it was still in the mid 30s.
Contemplating another one this weekend, though some think it's lame to skip halloween parties...
Definitely going to try at least one more trip up there.

I live in an apartment building, so it'd be a little weird to pitch a tent in the 'yard'.

Have fun!

neoday wrote:Now I am getting some requests from my buddies to do a first night below zero camp out too.

My boy's former Scout troop used to do this -- we'd get hushed calls in the evening, "Hey, buddy, it's going to be below zero this weekend. Do you wanna?"

ha ha, that is how a lot of this started. We were looking for excuses to get outside.

We'll have to do another one for when it gets to be -20F or colder...

Anyways, this one was pretty uneventful. A nice night out under the starts. It was really windy (you probably heard about all the wind in the mid-west) and without a bivy, I was nice and tosty in my winter bag. I actually wanted to sleep in.

Until next time...

Thats a great idea! A buddy and I have a campfire night at least once a month every month of the year no matter what the weather is but, that sounds like small time stuff to camping. I maybe trying to camp out in the backyard once a month what ever the weather.

grabbs146 wrote:Thats a great idea! A buddy and I have a campfire night at least once a month every month of the year no matter what the weather is but, that sounds like small time stuff to camping. I maybe trying to camp out in the backyard once a month what ever the weather.

Go out in the woods, it'll do you good.

Remember: there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices.

Arthur Digbee wrote:Remember: there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices.

Amen to that...

Remember: there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices.

Words to live by in Minnesota- especially in winter.

In the debate of function vs fashion, it always makes me chuckle when I see fashion winning when it is -10 or colder. Mind you, I am chuckling inside the warmth of a TNF 8000M parka...

I do this too (actually sleep outside on the lawn couch often), but at my house just 30 miles north of Los Angeles it's usually Mid December by the time it happens. Last year the lowest it hit all year at my house was 26F and the daytime high on that day was 51F.

I won't be doing it the first night, but I plan to take my fiance up to my parents place and build a snow shelter for us to sleep in. She's never done something like that and it has been a few years since I did it in Boy Scouts, so I figured it'd be a fun thing to try.