Winter camping in Alaska - an RTT / lessons learned thread

Went on a weekend get away trip and spent a night out in our CVT Shasta at sub-zero temperatures. Highs during the day reached the 20's and the low at night was -15F. Brought a large size Mr. Buddy propane heater along and slept in a large two person sleeping bag rated at 0 degrees, with an extra thick blanket/comforter.

We started the trip off with a dog sled ride, which was an absolutely great experience.





Did some snow shoeing, cross country skiing, and general exploring.







Experienced a few things related to the RTT and the extreme cold that are worth sharing for those interested in winter camping in their RTT.

The RTT's thick fabric did a great job insulating. We ran the heater for the first hour of our time in the tent, which was warm enough to be comfortable outside of the sleeping bags in a t-shirt and pants. However, the temperature difference between the ceiling of the tent and sleeping surface was significant - at least 15 degrees if not more. Next time I will bring a small battery powered fan to hang from the top of the tent, to blow the heat down onto the sleeping surface.

During this time I kept one of the windows 1/2 zipped in order to ensure adequate ventilation for the heater. Once we crawled into our sleeping bags, I shut off the heater and completely zipped up the window. We slept for six hours in our sleeping bag, relatively comfortable. I have slept in much colder conditions for work (-35F, no heater, snow shelter, mummy bag) - my wife would probably describe the experience a bit differently.

At 0300 I woke up and turned on a light. There was a significant build up of frost on the inside of the tent, formed from the freezing condensation caused by our breath. I fired up the heater and the frost quickly began to melt. I used the blanket to wipe away all of the drops that were forming. There are tents out there that will avoid doing this ("Arctic Oven", extremely expensive but very nice tents). In this case, it would have been a better move to have left the window cracked just a bit.

The second lesson learned came when it was time to put the tent away. Earlier, when it was still above zero and the sun was still out, I had pushed the tent's cover underneath the tent rack and into the bed of the truck, for a cleaner appearance. In the early morning, when it is coldest, that tent cover lost flexibility and was difficult to extract through the tent rack again. I ended up putting the heater in the bed of the truck for 20 minutes to soften it up. Once I had the cover out, it was difficult to fit over the tent - required prying on the corners with the handle of a shovel to get it to fit again. Was not able to get it to zip due to lack of flexibility, but was able to drive home with just the straps holding it down without issue.

These conditions are certainly outside of the normal range of use for this type of tent, but we were happy enough with the tents performance.

 

yup, imo its best to stick with a ground tent for that cold of weather. I dealt with the same problems, it was manageable but would have have easier going without the hassle of tucking in the frozen fabric while trying to not break the zipper on the cover, which broke anyways.

 

Awesome

 

nice write up. thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for the info. I have camped in my RTT in 11F, it was awfully stiff in the morning but I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to let it sit in the sun for a bit before I folded it up.

 

Did you leave your heater buddy on overnight? Carbon monoxide detector ? About to camp in some cold weather soon. 20s... First time camping in cold weather!

 

Shouldn't make an appreciable amount of CO, any CO2 issues should be solved by the low O2 sensor cut off. That said, I like having a portable CO detector for piece of mind (even if I do end up shutting it off as the beeping gives me a headache).

I've camped in my van in 10f weather and left the little buddy going all night.

 

Do you carry the small 1gallon coleman or you have it hook up to a bigger tank?

 

I had the exact experience a couple winters ago in my CVT. Massive temp difference between the top half of the tent and where you actually sleep. I've purchased a small fan I can strap to the top pole. Also, the bottom half of my tent fabric was encrusted in ice by the morning - frozen condensation. It was pretty bad. All in all, it kinda sucked.

Focus on nice sleeping bags, and maybe even extra foam for the floor - as that's where you lose almost all your heat.

 

Low of 20's is perfect. You'll sleep fine with proper sleeping bags and clothes, and no heater. Waking up will still suck though...

I've left my Buddy Heater run most the night. Make sure to have a bit of ventilation - which I get sounds a bit counter productive. But fresh air in a tent is always important.

 

Yup, this biggest issue for me is always the morning after trying to pack everything up in subzero temps. The RTT is all frozen and stiff, and the PVC cover is more like plywood which makes the experience a general PIA. That coupled with trying to find gloves that are good enough to give you the dexterity needed to fold everything up and get the zippers zipped and all that. On a really cold morning, Id say it almost doubles the time needed to pack everything away.

Buddy heaters are nice from the standpoint that they burn clean enough to run indoors with little to no CO. The down side is any combustion reaction gives off water vapor. No matter what. So running that inside the tent plus the vapor from breathing really makes a lot of condensation / frost.

Diesel heaters are the way to go for ultimate warmth and dryness but they are way bigger and require an extra diesel tank..

 

The little green cylinders. If I were to set up something more permanent a 2.5gal with a hose would be tempting