[at-l] winter hammock sleeping

[Ryan Crawford]

I tried several ideas before I found the one that seemed to work the best 
for me.

For clothing I wear long johns with a sweat suit over top of it.  Heck I 
wear the sweat suit to sleep inside during the winter months since I 
normally don't keep my house much warmer than 60 degrees all winter long.

The sleeping bag is an Ozark Trail Artic zero degree bag I bought at 
Wal-Mart since I always sleeping in a sleeping bag and I needed to replace 
my old North Face Blue Kazoo that I had slept in nightly for the past 
several years.  Since I sleep in a hammock I don't use sheets/comforters, 
throws, etc.  I just always sleep in my sleeping bag.  Heck even now during 
the summer months I'm sleeping in with the temps above 60 in the house.  I 
have no trouble staying warm during the winter or cool during the summer. 
It all comes down to the clothing...summer I may only sleep in a pair of 
short with no shirt on.  I've only unzipped the bag to sleep once so far 
this 'summer'. There hasn't been much of a summer this year thanks to the 
cool, wet weather we've had up here in NH.

I found the real trick was to add insulation inside the sleeping bag.  I 
took a sleeping pad, bought at Wal-Mart several years back and cut it in 
half.  I laid it lengthwise in the sleeping bag starting right at the bottom 
of the mummy head and it extended down to my knees.  I'm 6'3" tall.  I put 
both pieces in so they overlapped each other...side by side, barely.  I 
wanted the shoulders protected from the outside with extra insulation. 
Pretty much the entire shoulder area not just underneath the shoulders but 
also around the shoulders.  By doing it like this I knew I would give myself 
insulation around the shoulders where I was having the most trouble keeping 
warm.  If you're not warm you won't be able to sleep very well.

Now, knowing better from what I learnt this past winter I would take two 
full sleeping pads instead of cutting one up and do the same thing.  Sure it 
may weigh and extra pound or whatever those sleeping pads weight but it does 
the trick and with an zero degree sleeping bag I was sleeping comfortably 
for several nights below zero.

The only thing I have yet to figure out how to get rid of is the moisture 
from the mouth.  It always seems to want to freeze up on the sleeping bag 
right below the mouth.  I thought I might have figured out the secret one 
night to only have it fail on me the very next night.  I do like the idea of 
adding a piece of fleece wrapped around the face.  It does make it much 
easier to breath/sleep when you are sleeping in air that is that cold.

Now if I could only figure out how to rig up a tarp for snow protection 
during the winter months I would be all set.  I do have another idea but I 
need to get my hands on a decent working sewing mahcine so I can try it out. 
Heck I might even be able to do away with the need for a tarp during the 
summer months if the idea works.

MEANT 2B