Went out with my nephew today, to show him how to set up a hootch with a poncho. Also, wanted to test real world my new swedish stove. It was about 20F today, with gusty winds. My nephew has never set up camp like this, and, as he was off of school all week, I figured it would be a good day to try it. We got a little more snow cover last night, about 3" or so. Anyway, a teaser pic:

Me drinking cocoa:


I realized that the pics were huge, so I took the others off & only left one. For more pics, and a complete writeup, you can check my blog in my sig. Thanks!

I don't see any blog link anywhere...

Looks fun. Cold, but fun. But I thought you said there was gonna be hootch?

Was this a test of gear, or did you guys actually sleep out?

BTW, good for you for taking time with your nephew.

No, I'm sorry, this was merely an instruction. Cold weather camping would require a little better gear . I was only demonstrating how to set one up, primarily this setup would be a spring & summer one. We were just out enjoying the new snowfall.
And, for the hootch comment, are you advocating youth drinking ?!?!? ;)(this was only a joke..)

The link to my blog is in my sig. I can see it...can anyone else?

Certaintly not! (Although it worked for me. ) Seriously, your nephew looks like a good kid. Big fella too.

And the link is definately there.

He's scrawny. Tall, but scrawny. Not really built for New England

Looks like you had a good time. Too bad there was all that white c**p on the ground. [:)] Come down to Texas, it was 75F all this week!

What knots did you use to set up your hootchi?

-Blast

p.s. I enjoy your blog.

The knots I used were an Evenk figure 8 & a taut hitch. Both work extremely well for both setup & takedown, and are simple to learn (well, for an ADULT to learn. Apparently, teens have some kind of learning block ). However, he was using some cheap slippery cordage that you find at walmart. These will work themselves loose, as they are slippery. To avoid that, we simply put a stick in the release loop, to keep it from releasing. The knots were shown on a video someone posted here a while back (I couldnt find the link, sorry) as well as can be found here.
They are simple, effective, and, timing myself today, I got the ridgeline up on my poncho in under a minute. It took mer longer to find some quick stakes for the 4 supporting lines than it did to set up! Although, it was fairly easy to push them into the snow. Glad this wasnt for real...it would have been a PITA to hammer something into frozen ground. Of course, at that point, I would have resorted to tying the corners off to boulders.

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