I travel with a tent, but have never tried winter camping. Despite feeling intimidated by the prospect, I thought my visit to Iceland would be a great place to try it with my friends Christine and Marissa. A few benefits of winter camping: no bugs, it’s free or cheap accommodation and you can have the beautiful landscape to yourself since no one else is crazy enough to be sleeping out in the snow.
To prepare, I had to see if 3 people could fit in my GoLite Arcadia 2 Person Tent. We set the tent up inside to test it and decided that yes we could squish three people in it. Having the proper gear is important and I was prepared with an Arc’teryx Fission SL Jacket, Kanfor hat and The North Face Cat’s Meow Sleeping Bag all featuring ultra warm Climashield insulation. I highly recommend using an air mattress to insulate you from the cold ground. I also used hot hands to warm up the inside of my sleeping bag faster.
Christine had never been camping before so I taught her how to set up the tent. After the sun went down the temperature dramatically dropped. I made a rookie mistake and left the tent with two sleeping bags in it to grab some stuff from the car. I came back minutes later to find that the entire tent had blown away in the wind that appeared out of no where. I immediately handed Christine my supplies and took off running over the ice and snow into the dark after the tent. I ran about 200 yards and lost sight of the tent. My headlamp was shining pretty bright but I could not see the tent anywhere. I climbed over a fence, went over a hill and arrived at a lake-still not tent. I was beginning to lose hope as I traipsed back to Christine. A few moments later I found my tent down in a ditch. I felt relieved and returned it to it’s rightful place, we enjoyed a good laugh. Sleeping in the cold was definitely an adventure way outside of my comfort zone. The stars were incredible-you can even see some Northern Lights. I hope you enjoy the photos.
Disclaimer: Climashield provided me with some gear, all opinions here are, as always, my own.