The tent is to keep off wind, rain and snow. It won't imsulate well, so you still need to keep warm inside. I second the comments about being very careful about CO gas in a tent. Personally, I would not use any fuel that burns, unless you do the cooking right at the moth of the tent and the gases can exhaust outside.

To stay warm: Buy yourself a very good sleeping bag, and then if you are still having problems with cold - put something warm inside the bag. You can get those heat generation pads from an outdoors store, or boil some water (outside the tent) and put it in an old-fashioned hot water bottle.

the other Pete

> I was thinking about hanging a space blanket liner inside but am pretty sure
> condensation would make that a bad plan.

Yeah, if we pull the space blanket over our heads in the winter, our breath condenses so much moisture on the underside of the space blanket that it soaks our bags. Those blankets are impervious to moisture. Same with your tarp - if it's outside your tent, be sure there's a gap so the tent can breathe and not have the moisture collect on the underside of the tarp. If the tarp's in contact with the tent, condensation will wick through there. I've had that happen in a rain storm. Not fun.

Our tent:

The tent and fly are integral. You run the poles through, and the whole thing is set up in one swell foop. Makes it hard to clean, though, after a week at Burning Man.

I've only setup a tent in moderate winds a couple of times, most of my camping is in forested areas with little wind. It's really not that bad, though, you just need decent stakes. Once it's up, at least on the tents I've had, the wind doesn't get under the tent, the risk is of the wind blowing the whole tent over.

The idea of the fly is that the tent itself is only waterproof for the bottom couple of inches of the floor, to keep water out. The rest of the tent is breathable. That is, not windproof, not waterproof, just lightweight nylon fabric. The fly goes on top, and at least on mine is staked out just a few inches wider than the tent itself. The fly is waterproof and non-breathable. The whole thing was developed before breathable waterproof fabrics existed.

The reason is that for a small tent - mine is an old Timberlite - you don't get condensation build up inside, and you also stay dry from the rain. It's comfortable in the summer and the winter. A fully waterproof tent would be dripping wet inside from condensation and you'd be cold because of it. A bonus is that you get a little vestibule area by the door, where you can keep your pack and stuff dry outside the tent. Mine is a two person if they're very friendly, a tapered a-frame shape.

On down bags - When I was first camping the tent I would borrow had a leak, and it would always rain, so there would be puddles inside the tent. This was annoying. Down isn't as bad as you might think, though, if you keep the bag on some insulating pads and out of the water it's fine. If you don't you have some cold wet spots, which is the annoying part. In winter, it's much less of a big deal because there's no rain to worry about. My down bag was actually an old korean or wwii surplus army set, a bit tattered but worked great. In winter the worst thing about a down bag is that you do not want to get out of it in the morning.

"the worst thing about a down bag is that you do not want to get out of it in the morning."

Yup.

No that not the worst, having to pee during the night and no pee bottle is worse.

No that not the worst, having to pee during the night and no pee bottle is worse. [/quote]

Yeah that's a bad one.

Years ago I advocated a double wall inflatable frameless tent. I think they even make such a beast. IMHO, this would be a tremendous thermal advantage in extreme cold conditions. Imagine three pieces of rubber coated canvas seamed so that it has baffles that overlap (like HD corrugated cardboard). It might be bulkier, but it'd be tough, and it should, in theory, be awesome as a cold barrier. Very low thermal conductivity, waterproof, windproof, crushproof, and built in air mattress to boot.

A tent designed for heating (not the modern backpack tent) can be wonderfully warm in the winter. I have lived in tents of several designs (most of them double walled) including wall, wedge, tipi style and the GI large tents. Heaters have varied from Coleman lanterns or stoves to box heaters and large wood stoves. In the Antarctic I have had reasonable day temps and fine sleeping down to about 65 below F.

The key is that the tent be designed for the job. The Kifiru is the only modern tent that I know of that is designed for the job. If you want to know how it can be done, read Paradise Below Zero by Calvin Rutstrum. Some moderns call him old fashioned, but you can still go out into any weather and enjoy life using his techniques.

One of the big problems with today's tents is that they are all designed for backpacking. In the winter you don't need to carry it, so like canoeing you can carry a little more so that a tent need not be so light.

The open front tents like the forrester and the Baker are great down to well below freezing if you are willing to keep a fire going all night in front of them.

The best,

Jerry Fountain

Another strategy I have seen for heat is getting a pile of rocks hot in an outside fire and bringing (tin) pails of them into the tent.
A bucket full of hot sand or stone radiates a decent amount of heat for a few hours anyhow. Just be careful about getting fabric against it. Rocks can easily be hot enough to melt or even burn fabric.
Come to think about it I guess it could give you a nasty burn too if you touch it when it is real hot.

I had an experience with hot rocks in September of this year. I took part in a Sweatlodge ceremony with a First Nation instructor as the conclusion to a week-long Native Awareness course. The rocks were so hot they were beyond red, almost translucent. I have never been in a place so dark, so hot or so spiritual in my life.

Mike