Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

In a message dated 4/27/2004 1:53:37 AM Central Standard Time, bekosso@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

> I beg to differ, coming from an area of the world where the armed forces
> have made a science of cold-weather survival. I have participated on winter
> maneouvres with an an artillery unit, when we had to camp in canvas teepees,
> six to a tent, with arctic sleeping bags and no tent heaters, while outside
> temperatures dropped to -40. The cardinal rule was to keep your air mattress
> inflated to preserve heat. Trapped air is, in fact, a remarkable insulator.
> I didn't sleep too well myself - one of the other "journalists" had a leaky
> air mattress and swapped it for mine while I was out lurking around. I
> crawled out at 4 a.m. and spent the rest of the morning wandering around
> camp. Thank God for the arbitrary tot of rum issued later that morning -
> truly the Great Canadian Attitude Adjustment.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Brenda K.


I've always heard that the layer of air in an air mattress just conducts the cold from the ground right up to you.  My husband and I found this to be true at a Dec. ride several years ago...we were absolutely miserable in our tent and air mattress (about 5-6" thick mattress).  We luckily had a little propane heater, which we had to replace the canister on every 3-4 hours or so.  We spent 3 nights in that tent.  Up side is, the next weekend my husband said "Let's go trailer shopping!", and 10 days later we had our LQ trailer!  I'd have dragged him to a cold ride a long time before that if I'd known that was all it took to get a LQ trailer!  <VBG>

Dawn in East Texas