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Camping in Freezing Cold Weather
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May 22, 2024
I'm going to give you practical tips on how to not just survive but thrive while camping in the freezing cold, along with some handy and practical tips and tools to keep you warm. I've camped in nearly every weather condition you can imagine, including in 2 feet of snow with no shelter. Learn from my mistakes, and learn how to make the most out of your winter camping trip! Gear I talked about: Pocket Bellows Tool: https://amzn.to/37mOb0t Carhartt Hat: https://amzn.to/37k2D9A Fleece Balaclava: https://amzn.to/37mQqkh Jersey Gloves (4 pair): https://amzn.to/3dk27vO Estwing Fireside Friend Splitting Hatchet: https://amzn.to/3qsEWTZ Zippo Hand Warmer: https://amzn.to/2ZmiiRd HotHands Hand Warmers (10 pack): https://amzn.to/2ZnecbG Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:18 - Clothing for Camping in Freezing Weather 6:25 - Campfire Tips and Hacks 9:10 - Sleeping in a Tent in the Snow 13:44 - Hand Warmers
View Video Transcript
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Hey everybody, it's Simon from Lake Hub
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We're sharing the joy of lake life. That means everything from boating to camping and fishing, hiking, and all kinds of stuff around
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the lakes. Today we're talking about camping in the freezing cold. It's about 15 degrees Fahrenheit and snowing, and I'm going to share some tips I've learned
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from years of camping in the freezing cold with you. If you learn one thing today, learn this
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Right clothing is going to make your trip. Gear up properly. If you do that one thing right, you can do that one thing right, you'll do you
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can do everything else just okay and you'll have a great time because you'll be
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comfortable you don't need an amazing fire you don't mean need an amazing
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sleeping setup if you take care of your body's heat then you'll be fine you're
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warm-blooded you eat food your body makes heat that's how it works all you have
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to do is you have to keep that heat inside keep in mind there is no such thing as cold there's only absence of heat so cold cannot get into your body
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only heat can leave your body. And your job, your job when you're camping in the freezing cold
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is to keep that heat in your body. It starts with the layer closest to your skin
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I thought about starting with base layer because that's where most people would start
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but we're going to get a little close first. We need to talk intimates
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We need to talk undies, chonies, whatever you call them. No cotton allowed
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Don't wear cotton. The layers next to your skin, no cotton. Don't wear cotton, okay
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Athletic underwear is your friend. If you just do that, you'll be fine
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Your worst enemy when you're camping in the freezing cold is going to be sweat
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getting your skin wet. That's going to lead to hypothermia if you don't take care of yourself
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So the layer next to your body, athletic, synthetic, okay? Next up is your base layer. Now I'm wearing a polar fleece with a waffle pattern
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This thing is amazing. I got this base layer from Cabellas but there's all kinds of great brands out there that make really solid heavy-duty base layers. This thing is so
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awesome. You sweat in this it takes it right off your skin. Okay and then you're
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fine, you're comfortable. Even when you're sweating and the freezing cold, you're
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comfortable. If this thing zipped all the way up, then from here, all
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all the way down to my ankles, they're taken care of. I don't have to worry about that
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All right. So then you just need to worry about from here up
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which we'll talk about head gear in a little bit. And then your socks, now your socks next to your skin
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No cotton. Don't wear cotton. You can go old school, tried and true, wool socks
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Those are great. You can go with synthetic, that's what I'm wearing right
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now I'm wearing synthetic heavy-duty boot socks and those are great too all right
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then we're gonna talk mid layer and outer layer from my mid layer now you can do
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cotton I give you permission you can wear cotton and then there's your feet I have
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insulated hunting muck boots these these go up about shin high so I'm not
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worried about you know waterproof and all that kind of stuff they work great
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The only deal with muck boots is that your feet are going to sweat
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So extra socks when you go to bed. You really can't have enough socks when you camp in the freezing cold like this
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All right, then there's your hands. So obviously if you in the snow I can find anything better than snowboarding gloves ski gloves I mean they waterproof they insulated snowboarding gloves go past your wrist They go up a little bit Really keep the snow out I mean you can find
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a better glove than that. The trouble is you can't use your fingertips, right? So let's say you're
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out in the woods, it's cold, it's snowing, and you're making a YouTube video like a knucklehead
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fingerless gloves. These are actually for fly fishing. But they're great. I mean, I've got my fingertips
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But my fingers are starting to get cold. I'm going to have to switch in a little bit. So obviously there's a downside to that
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When I'm sleeping, here's what I like. Good old-fashioned jersey gloves. These are just cotton jersey gloves
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These are like dollar store. They're at every single gas station, you know, three pairs for four bucks or something like that
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You can find these all over the place. Truckers like them. These are just great, you know, better than nothing gloves
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I like to sleep in these because they're comfy too. All right, then there's headgear. Now, right now, I look like I'm exploring the ice planet of Hoth
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And that's okay because my face is warm. So it's okay. Don't worry about it
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Here's my triple threat for my face and my head. This is down to about zero degrees Fahrenheit
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Proven for me. It may go below that. know a thin balakalava which a bottle clava is uh you know it goes it goes all the way down it's
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just like this one on the outside this is my heavy duty one so it goes over your head
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covers back your neck around your chin and then you can pull it up over your face too i won't do
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that because then you might not hear me so my thin one that's fleece material and then over
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top of that i have a hat and then i have my big heavy duty balaclava on top of that on top of that
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So if I'm gonna really gear up, I'm gonna pull this down and the reason why I put the hat on is because balkalavas have a tendency to go up around the hairline. Okay
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Up over my nose and then up over my nose again and I'm set. If you're still cold
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try it again just make sure you can hear me. If you're still cold, Ski goggles
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And then you don't have any skin touching the elements. All right, next up after making sure that your body's taking care of
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there's gonna be a fire. A lot of times when I'm camping, I'm gonna want to set my tan up and get all my gear set out
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and that kind of helps kind of ease my mind so I can relax a little bit and then, you know
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around about sunset, that's when I start building a fire. But when it's freezing cold outside
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you can run a fire all day, long and you probably should. Now what I like to do for kindling is just to make sure that I have
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dry kindling is I'm always collecting sticks and stuff that you know my backyard front yard
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parked on the street I have my kids do it for fun and we just keep a big box just a cardboard box
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full of dry little sticks so when it's time to go camping just wrap up a quick bundle of those
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and I'm guaranteed to have dry kindling when we get out into the woods. Now when it's cold and it's
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freezing cold outside. If I could be dangerous if your fire's not taken care of. So don't be
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afraid to cheat a little bit. I hope you can hear the kids having fun of the snow behind me
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That's great. I just love the sound of kids having fun in the woods. It's hard to beat
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Anyway don be afraid to cheat a little bit It okay You have my permission and my blessing because it could be dangerous Just being very real camping in the freezing cold it can be dangerous
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Hypothermia is a real thing, so don't mess around. Now, one of the handy tools that I found is called pocket bellows
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So it collapses down. It's like a straw, right? So bellows is like the, you know, the big accordion thing that you use to blow air on a fire
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Well, check this thing out. fits my change pocket and then it goes out to actually really long let's see here we go
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so I can blow air on the fire from a couple feet away this things are great there I
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got two pack for like under ten bucks I'll put a link down in the description too for that
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this is my favorite hatchet so this is called the S wing fireside friend it's a four
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pound hatchet I got it lows it's a unibody construction American made. I used to buy the cheapest hatchets money could buy and then
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you know I wind up just destroying it and when a hatchet head breaks off the
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handle it's just an ugly thing it's an ugly thing and I thought you know what
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one of these days I'm really gonna hurt myself with these cheap hatchets so finally sucked it up and bought a good one I'm so glad I did I mean I'm gonna have to
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put this thing in my will I think it's gonna last so long okay once your fire's going
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Now it's time to set up the tent in your sleeping arrangements. So behind me, you can see right here, I'm going to move over a little bit so you can see it
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Perfect little tent spot. It's about 15 feet wide. It's got trees and brush on all three sides
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And the side that's open is not the one that's open to the wind. So this is a great little wind shelter
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That's a great tent pad right there. It's flat. It's even. So that's a great spot for a tent
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If you don't have wind shelter, and it's windy and it's freezing cold, then you need to make your own wind shelter
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I mean, even if it's like a lean two with sticks and stuff or a tarp kind of between two trees, something
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Get your tent out of the wind. My wife had this genius idea one time. We have two tents, little two-man tent, and then a big five or six months
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man tent if it's just the two of you or if it's just one of you you want the smallest
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tent you can because um just the amount of air around you you don't want your body trying to heat up
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all the air around you right so the most compact space that you have fill it up with your gear
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and surround yourself with gear um that'll really help out it's like filling your freezer up
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you know it makes your freezer more efficient same idea um so it's super windy she put the little
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tent inside the big tent. There you go. There's your windbreak right there. Genius. And it was warm
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It was fine. It was great. So that's a great solution if you happen to have two tents
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You know, another thing that you need to concern yourself with is the ground. So if it's freezing
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cold, do not sleep on a cot. That gives air circulation all the way around your body. Don't do that
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That's more opportunity for heat to leave your body. So what you do want to do
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is some kind of sleeping pad, even if it's like cardboard. I mean, it's better than nothing
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An air mattress is great. A thin air mattress, a foam pad, any sort of insulation
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but you do want to be on the ground. That's important. Obviously, if there's, you know, if there's snow or if it's been raining
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it's super, super cold and the ground's wet, then you want to take care of the bottom
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You don want to wake up in a puddle of water I done that before Not cool not fun Okay So make sure that your tent has a tarp bottom or if it doesn then make sure you sleeping
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on top of a tarp. And if it's snowing or if it's raining, freezing rain, or even if it's just
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super wet, make sure that the tarp isn't a whole lot bigger than your tent. You really just want it to
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be just to the edge of the tent. And so if you need to pull it up the sides of the tent, you
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and put some rocks or logs to hold it up because otherwise you're going to get snow accumulation
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on top of the tarp and then that's going to get your tent wet. Another thing to think about when you're sleeping is your sleeping bag
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So there are different ratings, right? And those are manufacturer ratings. And they may or may not be accurate
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So it's best to way overshoot that. So if like my sleeping bag is good to freezing
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All right. A day like this, that's not going to be enough juice. You know, we need some extra blankets
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So what I would do is make sure I'm sleeping on a pad underneath. And then I'm going to take a blanket
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like a fleece blanket, and I'm going to wrap my lower half in it. I'm going to wrap it around the
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end of my feet inside the sleeping bag. That's going to give me a lot more insulation and protection
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from the cold than another blanket on top of the sleeping bag. If I wrap myself up inside the sleeping bag
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sleeping bag and then let my sleeping bag be my outer insulation all right also warm dry socks when
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you go to bed I'm not changing out my base layer if if I'm camping in the freezing cold
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camping in the snow I'm not changing out of my base layer so you know I'm going to keep that
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the same but I'm going to change my gloves to those jersey gloves and I'm going to change my
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socks and there's there's still going to be heavy duty you know wool or insulated
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boot socks but they're going to be dry and that's the last thing I'm gonna do
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right before I get in bed change my socks get in bed so I want to talk hand
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warmers for a sec there is a zip oh hand warmer I haven't tried it yet but it
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looks interesting he uses a zippa lighter fluid and a catalyst rather than a
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plane and so you have to light it and let it warm up for a little while let it
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kind of the catalyst start to burn and then you can put it in your pocket interesting
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of watching a couple videos on it and I think they're less than 20 bucks might be
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worth trying someday but in the meantime I'm using these so temporary hand warmers
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they come in two packs because most folks have two hands or two legs or both and
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so these are for your extremities you take care of your core and these are great to
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shove into your boots or or you know even double up your socks while you're
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sleeping keep your toes warm that's for me that's that's that's the hardest part
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about sleeping in the freezing cold is just making sure your toes are warm, right? So these are great
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The way that they work, though, is it's a chemical reaction with oxygen
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So you open up the package, you shake them up real good and mix up the elements that are inside the little pack
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And then you have to let them sit. Let them sit for five or ten minutes
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I just love this. Kids are having a great time. ève just look at that. There's not even like a ton of snow, but they're just, they're having a blast
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I love it. Um, so that, yeah, that's it. It's just make sure that you let these sit out for like 10 minutes until they start to warm up and then put them in your boots or your gloves
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So that's it, folks. That's camping in the freezing cold. It's really not too complicated
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You just need the right tools and the right equipment. You'll be fine. You'll have yourself a good time. You don't need to be crazy to get out there in the cold and have a good time
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You know, it's just something to do in the wintertime. And if you like what you saw, we're a lake hub
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We've got plenty of more outdoor stuff coming. at you so subscribe and stay tuned
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