TENT CAMPING In HEAVY SNOW Fall - Buried In Snow - SNOWSTORM

Hey everybody, welcome back to the YouTube channel. Do not be deceived by this calm weather because apparently there's a lot of snow on the way. The forecast, you know, for a snowstorm. Well, low wind but heaps of snow, which is not really unusual for this time of year in New Zealand, but the amount that's forecast, I'd be surprised. So we're fully loaded, heaps of stuff in the pack, all the winter gear, got some new stuff as well, which I'm super excited to test out, but we're heading up tops. We're going to find the snow and have an awesome camp, but thanks for tuning in guys and enjoy this one because this will be the last snow. I think I said that last time, but you never know. All right everybody, we've made it up to camp. I just absolutely love this spot. If you guys watch the channel regularly, you would know that I camp here quite frequently because it's just perfect and I enjoy it. So I'm up, the pack was good and I've got my weird and wonderful Nemo Kuni tent, which I'm going to get perfectly orientated in this little grove and get the tarp up before the snow comes. Feeling good, got to get these wet clothes off and we'll get everything set up. Look at this thing, it's a strange tent. It's got these little carabiner things that clip in here to stop the poles from moving, but it's strong man. This will do good in wind and it can take a lot of snow. I've used this in massive dumps before, but it pitches in a first, which is not ideal if it's raining, but we can get away with it on a trip like that, or like this one. And look how taut it is, it's so nice inside. All right, I'm gonna chuck some of the stuff into the tent. There's no point doing the tarp just yet, so I'll get that stuff set up, then I'll do the tarp. But man, look at this, looks nice. Welcome. Man, it's cool in here, look at this giant pocket. Pockets everywhere, super taut, spits of rain, so I don't want to be caught out without the shelter, so I'll get on to that now. I love this tarp, absolute workhorse. I have a link in the description to Elton, so you can get one of these if you want. This is the 3x3 meter, perfect size I reckon. This will do for now, I can fiddle around with it later, but it'll give me some protection. The snow's going to accumulate all over it, but you know, I like to whack it off. Hob nobs. No tea this time, just a dirty instant coffee. The rain's starting to come in, just in time for wood collection. But you know, we got the beast. I think it's a little bit blunt from last camp, but it should still be pretty sharp. Yeah, it's still sharp enough. Wood time. I've got a pretty good stack of wood here. There's an abundance in the forest behind me, so no worries to find heaps of good dry wood. As you can hear, it's starting to rain, and it's, well, it's sleeting almost. I think it's supposed to turn to snow in another few hours, but you know, it's getting cold, so I think it's going to happen. Anyway, I've got all of this to chop up. I might have a rest, then I'll do it. The snow's set in. Gotta chop this wood up and get the fire going, because it's getting real cold. This has got to be a nice snowy wood montage. Let's go. Oh man, the snow's really falling now. This is beautiful. Human chainsaw. Oh man, oh man, I've got to stack all this up now. Everything's starting to get covered in snow, this is amazing. Full enthusiasm. Oh no. Oh man, I think there's ice getting on the lens. This is just incredible. The snow's falling. Can't wait to get the fire going. This wood stack is something else. Oh, can you see me? Past all the snow. Yeah, it's fully coming in. The forecast was accurate, and I think it's supposed to snow like this pretty much all night long, so we're going to get some pretty good accumulation. I've got the massive wood pile here. I've got to baton it all up, get it all prepped up, and then get this fire going, because the temperature's just absolutely plummeted. I have to sort my tarp out as well. It's sagging pretty bad. I've got my knife here. I'm going to baton some wood. Let's put some of these big pieces up to make some kindling. Make a little pile over here. Split bits. See this? That's nice and dry in there. These are nice dry pieces. I'll put those aside to get it going. All right, I've got quite a bit I think I might wait a little bit to light the fire. I might get a cup of tea on, just chill for a bit, because it's still pretty early, believe it or not. The snow has come in way sooner than expected, but I've got a massive pile of lots of split wood, little bits of kindling here. I'll build the fire up, cup of tea, just enjoy the snow. Oh, isn't this what bushcrafters do? Stuff like this. They get their knife and they make little shavings to help light the fire. I may appear to be incompetent to some of you hard-out Canadian bushcrafters, but fire starters actually work better. But I'll give it a go. Roast me in the chat, please. Look, it burns. Bushcraft. Using a lighter is not bushcraft, but the feather sticks. This wood's just too wet. Is it going? Stuff that and use a fire lighter. You know, there's nothing romantic about these, but if you want to get your fire going, they work absolutely fantastic. Just a big hunk, you get it in there, and that should do it. I might chuck another piece in for good luck. Man, this is magic, the snow falling. Really didn't expect this mid-October. All right, guys, I've got something pretty cool to show you. This is my new down jacket. Very high-tech. It's a Montbell Plasma 1000 Alpine, and it's extremely lightweight. I purchased this from Japan. It arrived the other day. It's almost weightless. I think it's 250 grams, 1000 fill power down, 7 denier outer shell, and I think it looks incredible. You don't want to get this wet, and it's not very durable, but I'll chuck my rain jacket over the top of it. Oh, man. How does this look on the camera? It's an interesting color. It's like gray, kind of bluey, and it has the most cozy, incredible hood. It fits so nice on the head. The down is fully lofted, so yeah, Montbell. It was quite cheap to purchase because the exchange rate between the New Zealand dollar and the Japanese yen is quite favorable, so oh, yeah, you can feel the heat coming off it. Well, getting trapped inside it. That's nice. That's real nice. The jacket has this unique baffling pattern to allow the down to loft more and to create less cold spots, so it's quite a unique jacket, especially being so lightweight with 1000 fill power down. I like it, man. Oh, it's so warm. It's amazing. You would only get a spark on it, burn a hole in it. That would be quite upsetting. I have a fascination with down products. I love down jackets. I think it's because they're so lightweight, and they provide so much insulation. For some reason, they just excite me. There's absolutely massive flakes of snow falling now. It's just like big, thick chunks drifting down. This is it, man. It's going to dump if it carries on. There's going to be snow just everywhere. The ground's quite warm, so yeah, it's warmed up a lot since winter, but man, this is proper snow coming down now. How magical. As you can tell, I'm excited by it. It's falling. There's so much. Oh, my goodness. Wow. The sky is just thick. It's like a swarm of bees, but it's all snow just spinning around and swirling. There's almost no wind. It's like the absolute perfect camping conditions. I kind of wish I brought a bottle of wine or something, some crackers and cheese, sit by the fire and enjoy the romance of the snow. Might have to chuck my rain jacket back over the top of the jacket. Don't want this thing to get wet. Far out. This is epic snow. Just walked out from the tarp. It's like a full-on blizzard out here, although it's not too windy. It's just falling, thick chunks. It's so amazing. Man, this is something special for October. Guess who it is? It's the Weka. By the way, these are native species. I'm not supposed to feed them or eat them or harass them. I just endure their presence up here. Here he is. He's just looking for food. Maybe I'll give him some of my meatballs, snowing like this at this time of year. I know the forecast said it was going to, but yesterday I was driving around in town where I live and it was 24 degrees Celsius. So you don't expect it to become full-on winter wonderland the next day. I am at a pretty high altitude though. It's about 1,350 meters above sea level. So, you know, the weather can change quite fast up here and we are close to the South Pole in New Zealand. So you just get that cold air comes gushing up and in the mountains you just get snow. It's a wet snow at the moment and the ground's quite warm, so it's melting away. But it should cool down more overnight, snow more and build up. Hopefully tomorrow it's just everything's coated. off. Put that down over there. Now a big pot of water. And what I can do to heat the water up quicker is use the top of the lid and it will keep this warm. Big bag of pasta. I'm getting real hungry now and we have some pretty great accumulation on the ground. Fire's cranking. You can feel so much heat coming off it and everything is going good in the winter wonderland. I got full protection. I don't need the tarp to cover the back of the tent because the tent's obviously fully waterproof and snowproof and everything. I can sit here. It's absolutely chucking down with snow. Beautiful fire and a massive meal. Oh, I'm looking forward to it now. Lift it probably a little bit late but, you know, got all night to digest. This pasta's probably about done now. Give it the test. It's a little bit longer. Then I'll drain most of the water out, put some of the tomato puree in and add it all back in, stir it together, add my olives, parmesan cheese and then we're good. Look at this fire and the snow is just continually falling. It hasn't stopped once. Drain off most of the water. Now I've got olives, garlic and herb olives. Get those in there and a little bit of oregano, salt and pepper. Flavor that up. You see that? The snow just blew off the trees right onto the fire. I'm going to show you this. This might quite possibly be the most epic thing I've ever done. Oh, I'm so hungry. Oh yeah, the addition of olives definitely helped. This shouldn't be possible, the amount of pleasure that you can feel from camping and eating this food. If you guys go out and cook food in the snow like this next to a campfire that you've made, you'll understand but hopefully I can portray the pleasure of such an activity. Man, I gotta take a photo of this one. I'll put it on Instagram. Go follow me. I'll put a link in the pinned comment in the description and I'll probably also put some baby photos and stuff on there too but I gotta take a photo of this. Get a little bit more cheese on there. Brought the whole bag up so might as well eat it. Thanks for coming with me on this camp guys. This was an absolute pleasure to get the snow right up until this point. I think it's only going to get better after here but man, I'm going to indulge in this and just enjoy the experience. Take a few shots so you can see it with me. I think I'll come back to you after dinner. Oh, sorry if you don't like watching people eat. All right people, this is the current state of affairs. I think there's been about 20 to 25 centimeters of snow and it's supposed to go all night long. The temperature's dropping so it's starting to accumulate more on the ground and yeah, everything's awesome. Just look at this. Man, it might double this much overnight. Oh yeah. Yeah, it's freezing up. Getting colder. There's snow all over me. I'm a little bit concerned that my down jacket's going to get wet but I might sit by the fire for a bit and dry out. Try to dry this rain jacket off but I think it's just going to keep coming down all night long which suits me, you know. I've got a strong tent and my tarp's probably going to collapse but that's all right. Big bits of snow just fall off the beach trees and a little bit of wind comes through and it just smashes down. Sometimes it hits the fire and it's just like the steam goes everywhere but the snow hasn't relented. I don't think I'm going to have my hot chocolate now. I'm just way too full so I'll let this die down and I'll keep drying myself off. I've actually pretty much fully dried now and I think I'll get into the tent and give you guys the ultimate tent tour and have a chat in there but I'm feeling pretty tired and I just checked the forecast. It's snow all night long so tomorrow morning is going to be interesting. It's good to get into the tent. This jacket by the way man, oh that's lovely. It's retained its loft pretty good. It doesn't seem to be too damp. There wasn't much rain so it's mostly snow which is good but yeah I'll get the boots off and get cozy. I'm in the tent tonight. I'm sleeping with the Zen Bivvy again, the negative seven. 900 full power and I think about 600 grams of down. I like it. It works really well for me using the Zen Bivvy pad as well. It's just comfortable. I love the hood too because I sleep with my arm up so I'm just, you know, I can relax and be warm and not get cold anywhere and this thing just lofts up massively. Look at this tent. I love this thing. It is a weird tent. The Nemo Kuni 2P. It's got some of the best ventilation of any tent you've ever seen. You can see here you can zip these right up mesh or not and the fly doesn't go right to the ground but you can see like the bathtub floor comes up really high so there's no risk of anything getting in and there's also just like unlimited pockets like here, here, here, here. Another big vent there. Zip this side down too. It's just awesome. I think I'll probably have these open a bit tonight but yeah man I love this thing. Oh look at this back. Lofty. I'm so cozy in here. This is the hood. I'm not sure if you can see that too good but there's like a big down filled hood that just attaches to the pad with these little side flaps that the Zen Bivi hooks into. It's a good system but yeah this jacket's been amazing too. The Montbell. I might get some more stuff from there because it's just so, it's just good. I can't believe it. It's like considerably lighter than my other jacket but you know it felt good. I need to test it in some strong winds to see if the the loft with the fabric can retain the warmth but you know for this trip it's been amazing. But anyway guys I think I'm gonna go to sleep. I'm very tired and I've just got a lot of food in my belly to digest but man it's been epic so far and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. But yeah I mean the tarp might collapse. If it does I'll get the camera out and show you guys but if not I'll see you in the morning. Good night everyone. Good morning everybody. The situation is there is a lot of snow. I can tell because the tent's kind of buckling and yeah my internal volume has been diminished by the weight of the snow on the tent. There's no condensation in here which is actually, it's amazing. This thing, this tent is incredible. But I think I have to get up and clear the snow off because it's freaking me out. If wind comes and blows off big chunks from the beech trees, it could cause some damage to my setup. I think I'll get a coffee on first. It's gotta be pretty intense out there. Oh no. It's still snowing now. I'm completely covered. The tent's getting pushed down. Oh no. Okay where's the coffee? Usually I can sit in this doorway and it's propped right up but the weight of the snow is collapsing everything. Oh cheers everyone from the igloo tent. Man. I just got a message from Tony, AB Camping. He sounds to be, you know, in a pretty rough situation. Stuck up on the mountain. He's about 150 kilometers that way and a bit higher up. This tent's actually got a lot of headroom and width with that cross pole so when you're inside it by yourself it's actually really nice to sit up in. The doorway is just very sloped. I think it's to make it aerodynamic. It's more of like a little mountaineering tent I think. But I'm gonna have this and then I'm gonna venture out and clear the tent. All right it's time to get up and do this. This is gonna be fun. That is some perfect floppy snow. I don't even know how the tarp's still standing after that and the snow's still coming down. Wow. Man it's cold. That's probably like over 30 centimeters of snow and this is kind of trapped from the trees. If I go out there where it's just flat ground there's probably even more. So this is where I was sleeping last night encased in the igloo. There's very low wind and the snow flakes just gently falling. But it's cold out here. The jacket's just warm enough but if I'm not moving I can feel it. We don't get snow like this in New Zealand very often. There's a lot of it. That's better. Okay we're done. I'm impressed with the tent. There was a lot of snow pressing down on it and it's all good. I'm actually overheating now from moving around. I'm sweating under this jacket but I might sort my stuff out. Maybe get back into the tent. I don't know because it's still real still real early but get another coffee on get the fire going I think. This might be the most snow I've ever seen in this location. These trees are just coated. So much weight on them. Look at that. That's what I was worried about. If wind came and this fell on top of the already existing snow on the tent, it could collapse. This is my rain jacket. As you can see it's frozen. Put that aside. We'll use that later. But now we're gonna get this fire going. I'm not sure if in the shot you can see but there's some still embers remaining from last night. So I think we want it going. It's gonna liven up the campsite. We probably won't need a lighter. I reckon if I just put the fire starter onto the embers we can get it going. Flames. Hopefully that goes because they have no more fire starter and they're quite big pieces. What a morning. For this to happen in mid-October, it's breathtaking. Get a brew on I think. Dirty brew and a hob knob for breakfast. The fire's roaring and the scene is set. I kind of want to pack up relatively soon so I can have like the incredible walk out through all the snow and everything because that's just walking back when it's like this man. You only get it like maybe once or twice a year. I just savor every moment of it. There's a little bit of light coming in the sky now. What a camp. The tent performed exceptionally nice. No condensation. Now you've seen how much snow was on it and there was none. Completely dry inside and it took all that weight of the snow on the tarp pressing down. It's a good tent. If you The water's freezing. I'm just gonna go out for a little walk to survey the surrounds. Clearing up a bit. I can see up into the mountains and stuff. Oh man, there's quite a lot of snow on the ground. It looks amazing everywhere. Every angle. Wow. Whoa. It's so dark out that way. The sky is black. The trees are absolutely covered too because there was low winds. All the snow just accumulated on those beach leaves and built up like massive big chunks. It's like cauliflower. I'm gonna go back to my fire I think. Yeah there's definitely more snow and I think it's coming towards me. Might have to hunker down for that before pack up. It's quite a lot of snow man. Look at this. I'm a little bit concerned about the huge dark clouds that way. I don't really want to pack up in a blizzard. Might have another brew. Chill for a bit. Then I think we'll probably pack down. That's nice. It's coming in thick. Welcome to the winter wonderland. The unexpected snow dump. Isn't this just amazing? Look at it. I don't want to pack up. I could just stay here forever. My feet are going numb though. It's cold. As you can probably tell there's snow everywhere. But I guess I've got to get into the tent and clean up, slowly pack down, and then we can enjoy the walk out. My pole bend a bit. This will be good. They're pretty thick poles on this tent. I think they're 9.5 millimeters. Fingers are getting real cold. Look at this. Just an iced up mess. For those of you who are wondering how I do my tarp, it's got a carabiner attached to a line lock with some cord. Easy. This thing, you know, the Alton tarp, I've used it probably a hundred times now and it just works. You guys should get one. I've got a link. It's an affiliate link and check it out. We've got some more Alton stuff coming, so it'll be nice to test out too. It's good gear at reasonable pricing. Okay. I think I have to put the big camera away. It's too wet and snowing too much to film walking out, but I'll come back to you guys on the GoPro. Then we can traverse through this winter wonderland. All right, let's get out of here. This is going to be hard work. Got to get back onto the track. I just realized, hopefully I can get out with my car. I have to go over quite a high point. I don't have chains or anything. Nice snow coming down. This is the ultimate winter wonderland. Honestly, this is probably the best I've ever seen it. It's incredible. Everything's just covered. Oh man. Got to get moving. It's quite cold. I took my down jacket off. It's a funny thing. You know, I come up here often, but seeing it when it's covered in snow like this, I just can't believe it. I mean, the amazing transformation and just the beauty of it. It's hard for me to comprehend. Oh man. Just look at this. That's where I've walked down. The whole place to myself. We're into the enchanted forest and I got to put the hood on because big bits of snow could fall off and go down the back of my neck. It's horrible when that happens. But look at this. Look at it all up there. Caked on the trees. Back down to the lake. It's about another 20 minutes until I'm back to the car. The snow hasn't made it down to here, or if it did, it melted. It's warming up quickly, so I should be able to get the car out okay. But I'll make my way along the lake and I'll catch back up with you guys at the vehicle. We made it. Thank goodness. My body's broken. Get the pack off, get in the car. And yeah, that's the video guys. That was an epic camp. I really hope you enjoyed it. I'm in camp heaven right now. I think I need to go home, clean myself off, go to the pub and have a beer and process what just happened. That was incredible. But anyway, thanks for watching and I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.