How to Stay Warm in an Outdoor Hammock During Winter

Silver Fox Bushcraft www.silverfoxbushcraft.co.uk Tips on Keeping Warm at Night Part 2b (The Hammock) Hi. Sean the Silver Fox and this video is going to be part two to keeping warm during winter. The particular one would be about the hammock and now this is in response to a comment I was given by another YouTube user called Paco Warabi and specifically what he asked, ‘what do I do in order to keep warm during winter when using a hammock?’ Well those of you that have know me, know the—on the ground we use hammocks. So I did go out and I bought a cheap hammock and I’ve been experimenting with it for a few weeks and I’ve got a few ideas. So, what I will do, I’ll quickly—it’s always at my bed row which you’ve seen in previous videos. It’s just a—I’ve got a fleece on the outside here in case we need it for later and it’s all packed inside here. So what I’ll do, I’ll quickly open this up. Now, this hammock I bought is just the cheap hammock just to experiment with. This hammock is made by a company called Tenth Wonder and it’s perfectly a good hammock for the money it was and it came—so it came with these green tag, controls are very impressive but I didn’t like the way you secure them to the tree and I thought I come up a better idea. I’d seen Paco had come up with an—his own idea which is called the tree hugger and I chose to copy these and principle with rigging the hammock but I want to use something that would have to be more versatile and have more use for me and so, Paco thank you for this idea. It’s a brilliant idea. But what I've used is—I’ve got the tape to come with the hammock and I’ve cut them. So now I’ve sleeved this Para Cord. Now this is a thick heavy-duty Para Cord. It’s four meters in each length, okay and again, it’s one continual piece. And then I’ve put knots increments down the hammock, now down this, the rope. Now all these knots are just simple over hand knots so I can release them and adjust them up and down the rope as I need. The reason I’m preferred this idea is for any reason should I need. And all we do; pass it around the tree like so. Put your rope through the loop before you made. That is the up, that’s it, as simple as that. That won’t give or anything. Now, on the end of the hammock, again, I’ve used a small piece of Para Cord, a meter’s worth. Okay, so I’ve used a small piece of Para Cord and set this one meet as where the Para Cord. I’ve looped it through twice, so it’s a double thickness outside. Okay, so it’s two piece, two thicknesses there. A small piece of nylon tape and all the nylon tape there is for is to stop—is to prevent the chafing and then I bought a couple of these screw threaded fasteners. You can just buy snap clip mountain carabiners. These were a hell a lot cheaper and then all I need to do is just clip that through where I need it and screw it up. So there we go, I have it set up. Now, as you can see, I keep the hammock very low to the ground and there is a reason for this is I want to prevent or create as little and movement underneath me as possible. I want to get off the ground. So I have—I’ve got four inches. I may adjust this up slightly make it up to say okay. So the next thing I need to do with the hammock is I need to make a mattress. I need something to insulate me from the cold there below me. I do have things like Therm-a-Rest. I have foam cell mats but I don’t want to really take the extra bulk of a—you know a roll—another roll of that sort of size. So what I do is in my bed row, I carry two large black thin bags. Now with these, I collect up insulated materials; that could be leaf litter. It could be ferns. It could be bracken. It could be spruced bows, pine needles, anything out there and you can make a decent mattress and what you are looking for is to better line the inside of your hammock with about six inches, four to six about yeah—four to six inches of an insulate material. Because when you lie on it, it’s going to compress down. The hammock I’ve got is water proof, therefore I need to use the beanbags to keep the moisture out and also keep your hammock clean but if you’ve got like the new DD Hammock and that is made of waterproof materials, so you need not bother with the beanbags if you don’t want to and—but your hammock will get dirty. So that is what I am going to do now, I’m going to collect up the leaf litter and where I am, it’s an awful a lot of beach and beach and there are a few oak leaves here but it’s mainly beach leaves so. I’m going to collect up some beach leaves, fill these two bean bags. I’ll get back to you then. Okay, so I got the top right up behind me at 45º angle. I’ve got the hammock with the bean line that is full of leaf that it’s at between but it’s close to the ground, so I’ve got layering underneath itself. The next thing I’ll do would be to build a reflector in front of me and a fire; a long fire. By using that set up with the logs behind the fires reflector in, I am circulating the heat around myself in this area and that’s fairly warm. Again, all I’ve got in my bed is my wool blanket that you’ve seen before. I’ve got my sleep bag liner and my wool liner and that’s it over the clothes I am wearing. One last thing I will do before I went to bed as well would be have a hot drink and I will have a warm meal because both of those will help to keep you warm at night. And then follow all the other tips I gave you on part one and you should have a roasty toasty night. So what I’ve got is my wool blanket. I got my wool sleep bag liner and then the clothes I am wearing and then you could follow the tips I gave you in part one and before you go to bed, have a warm drink and something warm to eat and you should be fine all night. So thank you Paco for your question. Thanks for your invention of the tree huggers. They’re fantastic design, so easy to put up and totally adjustable. I love them and if anyone else wants to checkout his website, the link is on the screen now. Have a look at YouTube channel is what a lots of other crazy inventions on there which are brilliant.