Camping at Minus 40 Degrees

I’m really getting into this whole Winter thing. At this point, I’d confidently say that I prefer it over Summer. For most of my life, I avoided Winter. It got in the way of me riding my bike down to the lake to go swimming. I mean, it did offer those occasional snow days from school, but other than that, it was just cold. And the fact that I never admitted that it was indeed Winter by dressing like a fool, just made things worse.

When you move to the North country, you don’t dress like a fool anymore. When Laura and I head outside, we wear things that will keep us snug and warm. People ask me nowadays if we’re cold up here. I tell them that we’re really not. It’s not like it used to be – with me running around in slippers wondering why my feet were freezing. Most of the time, I wear boots in the house. It’s only when I get ready for bed that I notice how I’m dressed. It only took a few weeks up here for me to realize that fashion was out the window.

You know we’ve had our share of ice here. We’ve been slipping and sliding all over the place. I’ve been to the store a few times and have seen these rubber things that you can slip over your shoes. They have spikes in them to keep you steady on the ice. I almost bought two pairs when I remembered that I can easily stud our own boots for much less than what the store was asking for their solution. Check out what I did.

I studded Laura’s new Baffin boots. I also did mine, but I don’t have Baffins yet. I just have my mud boots. I’m saving up for the Baffins. And if you weren’t aware, these boots are rated to -145 degrees. That’s pretty damn cold. Here’s a view of their side.

So how did I stud our boots? Well, all I did was pick up a few screws (80 to be exact) from the hardware store and screw them into the bottom of each boot. I got two sizes of screw – a half inch and a three eighths inch. And I made sure to get the hex head so it can grip into the ice. You should see us walk around now. No slipping at all. You can actually hear the screws scratching into the surface.

This really isn’t the reason I wrote this post. I suppose I got side tracked a bit. What I really wanted to show you was a video of two guys who camped out in Minnesota at minus 40 degrees. Awesome video. You should watch it and get all sorts of inspired to try something like this yourself.

Minus 40ºF Hammock Backpack Trip in Ely, Minnesota