Solo Winter Tarp Camp in a Snowstorm - Freezing Temps, Cooking Steak and Snow!

Well, it's snowing. So yesterday I was sat watching the football, not the football that you kick with your foot, you know, this football, American football, and on the TV popped up a weather service warning that there was a winter storm approaching for the following counties. And I decided, you know what, all hands to the poop deck, man the main sails, get my stuff together and go camping. I've never actually done anything like this before. I mean, if I die, someone delete my browser history. I'm kidding. I've got in private browsing on. No, but seriously, yeah, you've probably just seen me wrestling that wood through the undergrowth like an absolute beefcake, because, you know, I'm a beefcake. Now, I know some people are probably going to be like, oh, it's not winter yet. Oh, technically, technically winter doesn't start. Listen, right? I'm from Leeds. I'm from the north of England. It's minus six degrees Celsius right now. Tomorrow night, it's going to be minus 14. Then the day after, it's going to be like minus 18. That's unheard of. Like, we don't, that doesn't happen to us. If anyone who lives in England will tell you that minus 15, minus 18 doesn't, doesn't happen. And considering the fact that, you know, it's probably going to be like that for the next four or five months, to me, it's winter right now. Okay? Okay? If you don't think it's winter and this isn't cold, then you know what? Put on your shorts and flip-flops and you can come with me next time. All right? But for me, this is winter. So anyway, I got my tarps up, as you probably saw that as well. I did a weird, it's a very weird, very odd, uneven configuration. I went to one spot up there originally, and there was just nowhere good to put a tarp. There wasn't even anywhere good to put a tent, so why they decided that was a campsite, who knows? But yeah, so I tried to close off the ends of the tarp to stop the wind from the lake blowing straight up into my tarp. I would have liked to do it even, so it had a steeper angle on this side, right down there. But if I do that, I won't have enough length inside for me to lie down, and last thing I want is to get snow on my head or snow on my toes. So yeah, so my plan was originally to do it with like a, you know, either a wind shelter or an envelope style, have a fire out in front of me, but it just, the spot that I'm in doesn't really allow for that. There isn't enough room on that side, and now that I think about it, I could have done it the other way, but my fire would have been too close to those trees behind me. So I just went with a modified A-frame, as it were, and I have my zero degree sleeping bag, zero degree Fahrenheit sleeping bag. Say it's minus six, it's gonna be minus six, and I think that's rated to like minus 20, minus 40. No, minus 40 is when they even out, right? I'm gonna have to get better at these configurations. All I know is it's probably in the 20s right now, degrees Fahrenheit wise, so I should be okay. Rely on that to keep me warm, I got plenty of layers. Yeah, we'll see. I thought I chose like an easy hike to get in here, but as it turns out, it wasn't that easy. It looked like it just went along the side, you know, up the little... up the lake outlet, just followed it along, went around the side of the hills and stuff, but no, it decided to go up and down and up and down over the hills, so I must have looked at an oversimplified map or something, and it was further than I expected. So I don't have snowshoes, I don't own any snowshoes, I've got winter boots on that go above the ankle, so I don't know. It's snowing now, you can already see kind of how much snow is accumulating at the bottom of the top already. It's the afternoon now, and it's supposed to be, it's supposed to do this now until, I don't know, the afternoon tomorrow, so I wonder how much snow there'll be when I get up. Who knows? Who knows? I didn't even look at that either. It could be buried under snow, but I think I'll be alright, and I have everything I need to survive, hopefully. I've got layers, as you can probably see, I've got layers on now. I've got my winter pantalones on, fleece lined inside, and I've got some thermal underwear in there to put on. I've got spare socks, I've got another fleece to put on, and like I say, zero degree sleeping bag, so if I can't survive, it sucks to be me. Beefcake. Beefcake! I wonder why my knees hurt. I'm old, that's stupid. 28 years old, that's old. Old man stuff. So I think what I'm gonna do now is light the fire, because there's nothing else to do, and it's snowing, and it's cold, so might as well. Here's my wood pile. So what I've got is, obviously, some bigger pieces, smaller pieces, there's my fire pit. On top of there is all pine underneath that stuff I got from that tree, which was hardwood. So I'm going to light the fire, try and get it started with the pine, and then move on to the hardwoods. Trash bag I brought, put my stuff in, but it didn't get wet, because I forgot a sit pad. Right, I don't know how well this is going to take a spark, so I do have a lighter, if not. Oh, she's going, she's going. Do it, don't I lose my fire steel? Of course, the smoke was blowing straight into the camera, so you couldn't see, but there you go. Man, I wish I brought a sit pad. Didn't bring any beer with me this time, but I did bring still house, red hot whiskey, corn whiskey infused with red hot liquor. Yeehaw! So sat by the fire, figure why not, if I can get it open. Comes in this cool little metal can. It was only ten dollars, so it's just like fireball, pretty much what it is. Fireball. I don't want to drink too much of that, but it's nice. Oh, that fire feels good. I wish I'd brought something to sit on. I was supposed to pack my Reflectix as well, and I didn't. Stupid. Right, better get this steak cooked before it gets dark. I don't have a plate, so that's easier. It's not an ideal. All right, beautiful. Oh, baby. Oh, baby. Look at that. Oh, I can't wait. Right, steak looks about done. This storm in winter storm is starting right now. Oh, you know what I mean. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. Perfect. I don't have a plate or anything, so I'm just gonna kneel here and eat it. Hopefully, I don't drop it in. Now, let some of the fire at the back cook it on that side, but I got a big bone here. I don't know. I can't remember what this is. I just grabbed it out the freezer as soon as I thought I'm going. I just grabbed it, and it's good right now. The snowflakes are definitely getting fatter. It's starting to come down more, so I'm going to eat this, get this fire going again, and chill out for a bit. My camera's getting absolutely soaked right now, so I'll get with you guys in a little bit. I don't know how well you can see me. I don't know if you can see. Like I say, the storm part of the winter storm is coming in. The snowflakes are getting fat, like palm-sized snowflakes, and the wind was picking up. I tried to stay by the fire as long as I could, but the problem with the fire is it only warms you from whichever side is facing the fire, so I decided to get into bed. It's not even six o'clock yet, so yeah, it's 5.45, so I got a while, but I did end up getting some pine boughs and making a wind block at that end. I'm doing the same up here at the head, try and stop the snow coming in, because when I got in, obviously the snow with the wind was blowing in, and once it gets in, it'll get stuff wet, which is what you don't want. Anyway, this is my, like I say, this is my first real winter experience. I've done late winter camping, sort of like end of March, when there's snow, but not like this. Anyway, right, I got a long wait, so I can leave. It doesn't get light till seven, so got a while. If anything interesting happens, I'll get back with you, but if not, I will see you in the morning. I'm looking forward to seeing how much snow there is by the time I get out of here. Well, good morning. As you can see, still snowing. There isn't as much snow as I thought last night. Some of it turned to rain, but you can probably see my little house. Those are the brows I put at the end to stop the wind. It was cold when the wind was blowing, but it's pretty well buried. Look, some fair old snow. So yeah, but it's actually nice and warm. It's just about daybreak now, so gotta get up, pack this stuff, and head out of here before gets too much snow on the trail. So thank you very much for watching. Give it a like, please subscribe, and I'll see you on the next one. Take it easy.