With snow likely to hit the northeast of Scotland soon, and the weather getting cooler after the recent warm spell, it might be handy to have some tips for keeping warm.
Camping in really cold temperatures can cause the risk of catching flu or hypothermia, which is why it is important to take extra steps to keep yourself as warm as you can if you're wild camping while on one of Scotland's famous routes such as the NC500.
Dan Yates, founder of outdoor holiday booking company, Pitchup , is warning those camping in the colder temps to take extra precautions during the freezing temperatures.
Here are Dan's top tips for keeping warm when you are out and about in Scotland.
Keep moving
As long as you’re moving, you’ll stay relatively warm, so make sure you have a period of body-warming activity before getting into your sleeping bag.
A few sets of jumping jacks in the snow or a brisk jog to the toilet and back should be enough.
Rotate your layers regularly
Throughout the day and before bed to make sure your core stays toasty, keep rotating your layers.
Your base layer - the clothing nearest to your skin - will become sweaty over time, which will cause you to cool down fairly quickly.
Therefore, it’s important to find a base layer that can wick the moisture away from your skin. Alternatively, you can replace this layer with a fresh one every few hours.
Keep your nose and mouth outside of your sleeping bag
As tempting as it is to keep your face tucked into your sleeping bag, breathing inside it will quickly lead to condensation, turning your warm and toasty bedding damp and cold.
If you find your face is still too cold, try sleeping in a balaclava for extra warmth.
Don’t sleep in all your clothes
Despite extreme conditions, you want to stay comfortably warm rather than hot. This will ensure you don’t overheat in the night and start to sweat, which will quickly cool you down.
By keeping some clothes in reserve, you’ll also have extra layers to wrap up in when it’s time to leave your cosy tent in the morning.
Also when you go to sleep, put your clothes for the next day inside the bag with you so they’ll be warm when you put them on.
Use a bin bag
Another very handy and cheap tip is to get into a bin bag before you get into the sleeping bag.
This will help warm you up in no time and you can slip out of it before you fall asleep (so you don't sweat too much and then wake up cold and clammy).
Shake out your sleeping bag before bed
Before jumping inside your sleeping bag, give it a good shake. Your sleeping bag needs to trap a decent amount of air for your body to heat up before its insulation really kicks in.
By moving the sleeping bag around, you’ll ensure that the feathers are evenly distributed.
Keep your tent insulated
Insulate your tent from the ground by adding a layer of tarp before you pitch the tent.
The ground often feels colder than the air when the temperature drops. That’s why it’s so important to add a layer of protection between your tent and the ground before you pitch your tent.
Fortunately, most tents already come with a sewn-in groundsheet for this exact purpose, but it’s also possible to buy a footprint to add more insulation from the cold ground and prevent damp soaking into your tent.
Whilst footprints can be expensive, a cheaper option would be laying down tarp before you assemble your tent. Tarp is waterproof, so it’ll keep out wet weather and do the same job as a tent footprint.
Ensure your tent is properly aerated
Having good airflow in your tent can help you to stay warmer. Condensation from your breath cools down when it touches the cold tent exterior and can even freeze in sub-zero conditions, so it’s always better to keep the vents open in chillier weather.
Build a campfire
To help you get warm before bed, build yourself a campfire. Whilst some campsites have a designated campfire or firepit area to ensure the safety of all guests, you may be in an area where you need to choose your own spot.
Look for a position on flat ground and at least three metres away from trees, bushes, tents and anything else that could catch fire. The base should be bare earth rather than grass, so you may need to scrape away some grass if you can’t find any plain soil.
You will need; stones or rocks, tinder (small bits of dry wood and leaves that will burn quickly), kindling (larger dry twigs or small branches), fuelwood (sizeable branches or bags of firewood), a firelighter (optional) and water for safety precaution.
Simply construct a ring of stones or rocks to form the outer edge of your campfire, then create a central bundle of tinder in the middle of your ring of rocks.
Build a ‘tipi’ or pyramid of kindling over the top of the tinder, making sure you leave some space between the twigs to allow some air to get in.
Then finish your tipi with a final layer of fuelwood propped up in a similar pyramid shape.
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