Staying Warm on a Winter Camping
With extreme winter weather closing schools and bringing the United Kingdom to a near stand still it may seem surprising to hear that around 2,500 hardy scouts have just enjoyed (or endured) a weekend of winter camping fun in East London.
If you, like me, need a warm, comfortable bed at night then you will find it hard to understand why anyone would want to spend several nights sleeping under canvas in sub-zero temperatures.The old scout motto of ‘be prepared’ could never be more appropriate than when winter camping. This means having the right camping equipment and some good quality, warm outdoor clothing and plenty of layers.
The explorer scout winter camp gives the scouts opportunity to take part in no less than 70 adventurous and fun activities. These included abseiling, zorbing, orienteering along with trampolining and snowboarding.
Making certain that the scouts were all safe was a key factor. Organisers carried out risk assessments regarding the journey to the Gilwell campsite in East London as well as the dangers of sleeping out in freezing conditions.
To keep warm at night, when temperatures plummeted to minus six degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit), the hardy scouts doubled up on sleeping bags and squeezed together with fellow scouts to share body warmth.
When I spoke to a few of these hardy young scouts they told me that the way to stay warm in these freezing temperatures was to wear plenty of warm layers. They recommended at least 7 layers on the body with at least two pairs of gloves and thick warm socks. They also suggested that I should wear a warm hat as a lot of the bodies heat can be lost through the head (something to do with its surface area, so I was told).
Although I could see that these boys and girls were clearly having a wonderful time in the winter snow I was glad to get home to my warm, centrally heated house and to sleep in my comfortable bed rather than wrapped in sleeping bags in a field somewhere in East London.
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Tags: Camping, clothing, outddoors, scouts, sleeping out, winter