Hot Tent Winter Camping in -33 Degrees

oh hey guys it's Steve from boondocking camping Steve and boondock talk and all that other weird stuff but tonight I'm sleeping in this ice shack out in my backyard I'm gonna set it up as hot tent and the reason I'm doing it tonight is because it's gonna be minus 33 degrees Celsius not sure what that is in Fahrenheit I'll put that below probably maybe but it could have a fire in there test out that Alpine Camp Chef stove to the fullest potential and I hope that thing is gonna keep this thing piping hot because it is freezing out and we're gonna see how freezing that is in a second here so if I throw boiling water in the air right now fitly turns to snow sure people in Alaska will know that maybe a few of the really cold states but that's one thing we do here when it gets this cold you can take boiling hot water you got instant snow so that's what we're up against tonight I got a ton of layers on and I'm kind of used to this cold but I'm gonna be keeping temperatures up on the board throughout the night and we'll see just how beautiful it is with a little bit of firewood roll a shack in a small stove ice shack which is gonna be home for the night is a fairly simple wood stove freezing cold very thin collapsible backpack style fishing hut I've got my bed set up which is a cot right there got the wood stove simple chair some firewood and I'll get a little bit more firewood but yeah it's pretty frosted up in here I'm suspicious that most of this is gonna be dripping on me as soon as I start up the fire in here fact I'm certain of it but we'll see how that goes I got a stove jack going through the roof there it's not really a fixed yet but I've tested it before and it seems to work all right so that is the way it goes I got a little fan that's powered by the the ovens heat but let's get this fire started because I am freezing out here and we'll get some temperature updates going and see how this thing actually works in the middle of winter in Edmonton Alberta alright so first things first in this crazy setup we're gonna get some natural light that of this LED light going this will provide a little bit of heat to and then we'll get the fire started so I feel it's thrown heat already but the light makes it a lot more comfortable natural light instead that brilliant blue stuff so we're gonna get on the fire next okay so one of the things I've learned about firewood birch is my new favorite by far it packs an energy wallop the bark is it burns like potato chips it's really unbelievable and it smells nice it's everything you want the wood so I got to get this started soon and Forester to freeze up here so basically I'm not even chopping it into small pieces I got my company training manual here I'm just gonna rip a few okay here's out company policy stuff and get that in there you know a little while back I want to go start a fire with this stuff and I figured you know I'm just gonna put the torch underneath of a piece of birch and let fern until the birch is burning but my torch gummed up after just a few seconds I pulled it out the thing lifts and it burns all night so few worries it's very easy stuff to light and I'm not bushcraft guy and I'm gonna sit here and shave you sparks on it because this is it's minus 40 with the wind chill and I'll explain that later to people who don't know the wind chill you don't mess around in this weather trying to do a little push grouchy stuff you just have to get warm if that means don't put some lighter fluid on it or like I'm doing here a bunch of birch bark and a small piece and then another bark piece on there I think that's really gonna go you really hope so cuz get a chill out here I honestly think this big of a cluster is actually gonna burn and light for the night itself with this stove there's the damper I'm sure you can't see from that angle but anything about wood stoves that you got to know if you're opening this door open that damper please please you just have to stay going that's all I ask the heat feels good he feels very good now the catch is the bark we are in business and if not have to find some vitamin gasoline normally I carry some lighter fluid and that really helps with fires when you're in a hurry and -30 are usually in a hurry to get a bit of a fire happening seems like we've got some bark ignited which is all we need to get this party started and the fan works quite a bit of snow in here to actually bake off at the oven I could have wiped it off but Shirky the fire is starting to do its job seeing some coals in there yeah the no kindling special just birch that's all you need to get her started okay so now I've got some good roar going in the fireplace and a lot of firewood but I'm just gonna I'm gonna start sealing up the door here and add in a little more wood getting ready to hunker down for the night those who have seen me before now i hunker down and I'm gonna keep you updated on the temperatures and just how cozy and probably drippy this thing gets because she's starting a mouth on me already but we will keep you updated here all right now one of the things you need to do on a stove like this once the fire gets going which it is is there's a damper up here now this depends on the stove but when you close a damper off like such it prevents all that heat from escaping straight up the flue so that's what you want to do is keep it some people say a third closed two thirds closed it all depends as long as you're still going to get draught through the through the furnace there through that through the heater you'll be okay alright hey everybody uh things are really actually starting to warm up in here I haven't taken a temperature yet but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna pour myself a quick whiskey and we'll talk about safety for a second because you're in a ice fishing shack or a hot tent and you want to not die so a few things one it's best to keep a knife beside you in case it catches on fire and you can slice through the outside that's something I'd keep in your bed when you got the wood stove in here I got a lot of flack on another video where I cooked in my truck but what I didn't mention to a lot of people is that I am I'm a ticketed gas fitter I work with propane and natural gas all the time one thing I bring with me is this you get him for 20 bucks carbon monoxide detector that'll go off if you're asleep and in danger and that's the perfect thing to have a smoke detector would be good to have to a second guy that I bring with me is this is what I use at work it is a carbon monoxide meter and this shows me a live readout of how many parts per million are in here and that's what I use as far as looking for carbon monoxide leaks in people's houses so those are the few basic safety things obviously keep everything a good distance from the from the fire but it's really throwing a lot of heat already and it's about - 29-30 outside right now but we'll take some temperatures so we'll hunker down for a bit and we'll explain what wind chill is for people that don't know so Cheers all right now it's warming up in here you can see all that frost just dripping off that's the worst thing about an ice shack is that it's uh they do tend to build up frost they don't breathe the way like a canvas tent would they have these little vents in them which help but yeah once it does start getting hot and it is that's what happens here is there's a lot of thawing out but sure nice to be warm all right my thermometer when I stick it outside reads minus twenty nine point three or four degrees Celsius it's minus twenty point nine Fahrenheit and it's still getting a lot of radiant warmth off this tent so this thing is really getting toasty in here okay so inside right now I'm reading about thirty degrees Celsius or 85 80 86 degrees Fahrenheit so you're looking at a 60 degree difference in Celsius between the inside and the outside of this paper-thin sweaty wall here so I think so far that's a very good endorsement for this alpha in wood stove but it's also not the type of stove you'd use in Shutts or small thing usually I've even got gaping open window with the fog coming through the outside but I'll seal this up a little bit better and I'll be gonna be right back with some updates and getting ready to have some dinner in camp out here well it's not sleeping outside or camping unless you cook something so sloppy joes yes always good to have nice and hearty food and actually it is outlandish ly hot in here so I'm gonna have to actually take off a layer or so and start cooking some sloppy joes oh it's better [Applause] [Music] camping food gotta love it all right so let's get into the wind chill I was talking about earlier for those that are in Canada or really northern places you'll know what I'm talking about now that's when the temperature is say minus 20 degrees and with the wind it makes it feel colder like 30 degrees so there's an equation based on the temperature and how fast the wind is that tells everybody you know get to your outside your exposed flesh will freeze in one minute or thirty seconds or whatever whatever it is and it's similar to in hot climates where you have something like a humid X where if it is you know 80 90 degrees the 100 degrees with the humidex it's gonna feel the hotter and it's the same type of thing but just in Reverse when it comes to cold weather but the condensation here has not really proven have been a problem it's really evaporating fairly quickly and this this setup really doesn't make it a challenge to and given that it's minus 33 Celsius minus 21 is Fahrenheit upside that's not too far off from minus 40 which is essentially as cold as it gets in a lot of Canada so this I would feel very comfortable regardless I think of how cold they got outside as long as I have enough firewood I've been in here about an hour too and I've burned just three or four logs and on a t-shirt so this is really good so I think gonna have some benches with this guy just testing it in the yard for now but it's gonna really work out good I think I'll be too hot tonight if anything to be honest and yeah it's still cold outside alright time to add some sloppy joe sauce this sloppy joe meat time gotta wait for me I was listening to music and make some whiskey and it's late it's about 2:00 in the morning still about minus 30 degrees outside Celsius minus 21 or 22 Fahrenheit for my American friends which are most of the viewers I get but I mix this in because it's a nice simple one pot dish oh and I know you can't smell that for there but it is surely nice to have a nice party beefy warm milk as sloppy joe is just there one of those things you can just kind of leave simmering and come back and grab more as you need so I'm gonna consider this done bump some funds and I will chow down oh right and I found these buns they market them as Italian buns and I picked them up because you can use them for pretty much anything from hot dogs to sloppy joes or cut the burger huh I'm doing it ghetto style but it's gonna heat these guys up then we're gonna be eating in no time then hunkering down for the night you'll have to forgive me as I pig out on a little bit of sloppy joes here but quite late and it's about time to roll into bed I check the temperature in it's still about as cold as it was before looking at basically the morning is probably gonna be - 33 -34 but I'm gonna have some grub it hey and wake up to probably throw a log in or - I'm saving these big guys to throw in at night I close the dampers write down so burn slow and I'm pretty Hardy as far as the cold temperatures so I can deal with just a few normal blankets and not too much but that's that's the plan for tonight so I'm going to get a chow down crawl into bed give you a quick tour the the outside it actually looks pretty impressive as to what the stove is doing to this side versus the side you can't see so I'll show you that because it is quite interesting but I can eat up and and we're gonna hunker down and see how cold it is in the morning and if I could make it to night that's good joke if we go around the tent we can actually see the difference in frost cover and it gets very frosty and very icy towards the back but close to the fire it's a okay so I'm probably moving the bed to the other side where I can put log 10 more excessively and I'm gonna have one more little little snack tonight and then I'm gonna call her a night and that should be all good I've got the bed moved over to the other side and it's easy to access the firewood to load that up as I need I don't have much for sleeping bags tonight I got a pretty much a summer mummy bag underneath that I got another sleeping bag I'm using as a ground sheet but got company over actually my sister from out of town so she's using my powerful winter sleeping bag so I'm just using this stuff out here and it's probably warmer in here than it is in the house so that's alright and I can keep it loaded the fan is blowing nice on me it was a great night in this tent and I think there's gonna be a lot more camping happening with this setup but thanks for watching so far I have my thermometer sitting right over there it's still at about minus 30 Celsius and then we'll take a morning reading and yeah there's ice building up on the far parts from the fire but I think this is gonna be a very good setup for a lot of exploring the wilderness sleighs snowshoeing off-grid cuz this whole tent collapses into backpack size thing and anyway I gotta get to bed and I'll keep this closed pretty much full off and full of wood and I got my carbon monoxide detectors and my carbon monoxide meter because I'm a gas fitter and that's what I do so if you have any concerns about that don't be too concerned that see you in the morning guys good morning all morning has brought temperatures same as yesterday I've stoked the fire up this blanket was a little thin for last night because the fire in this lasted about three hours and then it needed to be stoked again so by the time the three hours comes around it was getting a bit chilly but I got to cook up some breakfast in here and something just real simple and probably go under the house see what see what's happening today alright today we're gonna make just a little bit of real simple tea bush tea and make up a little egg mix this sort of thing that's the plan for breakfast I'm pretty sure this hand on the side here is actually going to be hot enough to cook the egg without going right over the fire just not any major hurry to to eat quite yet but we'll get it cooking I have with just a simple Earl Grey tea it's a more camping I've done over the years the simpler like to go with the food just a few ingredients and minimal dishes used to go crazy with the trying to have the most elaborate meals when I was camping but it's camping right so it actually did cook up the egg all right on there I'll see if I can get this on to get this I'll do an English muffin I better be able to because I don't have any dishes Oh ground food well it worked kind of so that's good and here's a probably quite messy breakfast that's right but that's that's camping in the in the hot tent for the night thanks for watching guys I'm just gonna finish off my breakfast here and get at it have another day to productivity hopefully but we'll see and in the meantime always boondock quite good

Channel: Steve Wallis

Views: 1,188,007

Rating: 4.7822976 out of 5

Keywords: winter, camping, hot tent, tent, wood stove, firewood, fire, alpine camp chef, cold, ice fishing, shack, boondocking, cooking

Id: o1Z2bdSSyGo

Length: 26min 49sec (1609 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 30 2017