With Sparkle & Ice 2023 only about ten days away now, it’s either a bit tight for time with advice or it’s perfect timing because you’re just reaching last-minute panic. I know at least one local leader has read my previous Sparkle posts and maybe I can become the authority on how to survive Girlguiding’s flagship winter survival camp.
(If it ever happens again after the activity centres where it’s held got sold off…)
Upgrade your sleeping bag by two seasons for just £30
I was chatting to a leader who wanted to upgrade her sleeping bag but didn’t know where to start with spec or price. If you’re only going to use it once a year for an annual camp, spending out on a four-season bag might not be the sort of investment you want to make. I would recommend getting yourself to Go Outdoors and buying a Sleeping Pod. It’s a two-season sleeping bag designed to move around in. It’s much wider than your typical bag which means it’s comfortable if you find ordinary bags restrictive – and it also means you can easily fit your ordinary sleeping bag inside it. It’s a much cheaper way of gaining two extra seasons. Yes, it’s bulkier than one tougher bag, having to carry two but it’s much cheaper and more flexible, you can use your original and the Pod year round and carrying it from the car across a campsite is no great hardship.
You can move inside
Ever since the Return of the Beast from the East in early 2019, Sparkle & Ice has realised it needs indoor accommodation in case of bad weather or girls getting really cold. Yes, if winter survival camp is too wintery, you can retreat indoors! I personally think that’s a decision to make with your unit before bed rather than tired miserable frozen girls dragging their bedding across the field at 3am but I guess if that’s what happens, that’s what happens.
Bring your camp blanket inside your sleeping bag
Camp blankets are an essential – as many of them as you can fit in the tent! – but if you lay it over yourself, it’s almost inevitably going to fall off in the night and then it’ll be no good to anyone. Drag it into your sleeping bag. It can’t go anywhere and even if it ends up scrunched up around your feet, it’ll still be filling up empty space and reducing the amount of air your body heat has to keep warm so it’ll still be doing you good.
If you can, take your socks off
I know, conventional wisdom is to wear the fluffiest socks you can find, preferably multiple pairs. But multiple pairs can compress your feet, reducing blood flow and making your feet colder. Bearing in mind your only heat source is your own body, the best way to warm a cold foot is with the other foot. Same theory as with mittens, five fingers sharing their heat instead of each being insulated separately.
Use small tents
The information does already say this but I’ll emphasise it. Your body heat needs to keep your tent warm and if you’ve got a lot of empty air above, such as in a big five-man tent, that’s a lot more work your metabolism has to do. If you can beg or borrow smaller tents, everyone will be much warmer. I have four girls this year so they’re in two two-man tents which seemed a warmer option than borrowing the Guides’ big five-man.
Keep your hat on
Try to keep the hood of your sleeping bag above your head, while making sure you’re breathing fresh air. To be sure there’s not too much head exposed, losing your precious body heat, keep it warm with a soft hat – soft because you need to be able to sleep on it.
Don’t bring an air mattress
An air mattress is just a huge slab of cold air that you’re lying straight on top of. The point of your sleeping bag isn’t for it to be comfortable – that’s just a bonus – but to provide insulation from the cold ground. Air mattresses don’t insulate at all. A cheap foam roll mat is a better option as far as insulation goes. Two, if possible. I use a self-inflating mat which uses thicker foam expanded with air. Mats with a reflective foil layer can help – I think they reflect some of your body heat back to you. Bring another blanket or two to put underneath you and make sure you have a decent groundsheet – I would never trust the one built into my tent to keep the floor 100% dry.
Just go for the Saturday night
Sparkle & Ice offers an optional extra Friday night. If it’s your first time or you have any doubt about your or your girls’ ability to cope with winter camping, skip it. Have a good day Saturday, a miserable night and then you can more or less go straight home on Sunday morning instead of knowing you’ve got to survive another 24 hours and another miserable night.
Take a hot water bottle
It does say it on the kit list but by about 9pm, all the volunteers are filling urns and flagging campers down to get their hot water. I’ll be taking a long thin one, having been jealous of those on previous camps. An ordinary one is fine for keeping your feet warm but a long one can keep your entire body warm. If you do have an ordinary-shaped one, holding it between your thighs might be a more efficient way to warm your blood.
Take orange survival bags
This is the boil-in-the-bag principle. Survival bags will really keep the heat in so if you’re cold, pull one up over your sleeping bag. On the other hand, they’re not at all breathable – that’s how they keep the heat in – so you’re likely to wake up with clothes and sleeping bag somewhere between damp and drenched. Don’t freeze for the sake of it but if you can save the survival bag for the last night, it means you won’t be sleeping in a damp sleeping bag.
Damp is the enemy
When you get into bed, have a full change of clothes, whatever the weather’s been like. Right down to the socks and including a jumper. Damp or sweaty socks will make and keep your feet colder and don’t go to bed in the same hoodie you’ve been wearing out and about all day. Stuff your bed clothes into the sleeping bag so they’re warmish, dry and easy to find when you crawl in at night.
Get up and go to the toilet
I entirely understand not wanting to get out of the tent on a winter night but you also don’t want to waste precious body heat keeping half a pint of liquid in your bladder warm all night and you’re also more likely to sleep if you feel more comfortable. I’ve tried to do the maths on how many calories it takes to heat water from the temperature you drink it at to the temperature it’ll be inside your bladder but every time I do, I get a different answer and I’m not entirely sure whether I should be looking at gram calories or kilocalories. Anyway, it’s cold and it takes energy to keep that liquid warm. Wee it out and you’ll be warmer afterwards.
Eat lots
This is one weekend when you should eat as much as possible. Make sure everyone eats as much as they can at mealtimes and if they want to bring snacks, positively encourage that! There’s a certain number of calories recommended per day to maintain your metabolism but that doesn’t take into account the extra energy you need for all the activities you’re doing all weekend or the extra energy you need to fuel your internal furnace to keep you warm when you’re outside for an entire November weekend. Eat lots.
