Cold Weather Gear for Winter Camping

   It's a frosty -22 celsius outside so I have my mind on cold weather gear.  I would like to do a winter camping weekend somewhere this season.  Frontenac Park, Alggonquin, Killarney, Tobermory maybe?  But this year in particular has had it's share of wwell below zero days and nights.  Got to have some good gear to be prepared, so i ordered some recently.
     I just ordered a Hadron S down filled hat from Black Rock Gear. It's ultra light, warm and protective with the siliconized coating.  They just had some come back in stock.  Most of the gear they sell has been sold out, likely due to the frigid climate this season.  This one I should be getting in a week or so.
     I also ordered a pair of custom down pants from Goose Feet Gear.  Again, this is a favorite of the ultralighters, there's no zippers or pockets to add unneccessary weight, and is ultra customizeable.  I chose to get mine with proper baffles instead of sewn through construction, filled with 4.5 oz. of down, and with ultralight fabric.  Should be nice and toasty.  I can layer it with fleece or capilene base layers and over top it with some snowboard pants or a lightweight shell to up the warmth when the mercury drops.  I hope I get this soon in time for a winter camping expedition, although they say it can take up to 10 weeks for custom gear.  If not, i will have them on hand for next year.  It took me a while to find these guys, i originally was going to get some Montbell or Western Mountaineering pants.  I actually ordered some WM flash pants from an outdoor company in Texas but was told they couldn't ship to me due to some BS> about tarrifs, or so someone from WM told me when I emailed them about it.  In any case I am glad that didn't work out, since the flash pants I ordered only has about 2 oz of down fill and would have been much colder than the Goose Feet Gear pants I ordered.. not to mention the GFG pants are almost the same cost!  Long live grassroots small gear manufacturers of quality products.
     Down apparel isn't all that cheap, especially when enveloped in lightweight fabrics, but it sure does keep you warm.  I'll do a first impressions review of these good looking pieces of gear, and hopefully get to test them out with a nice backcountry weekend somewhere in the near future.
       In the meantime, here's an entertaining video with some crazy dude named Shugemery I stumbled upon while surfing Youtube who's hammock camping in Minnesota in -40.  Yes -40.  At that tempterature celsius and fahrenheit are the same.  That's hardcore.

 

Underwater Hockey + Sony Action Cam HDR-AS30V

    I took my Sony Action Cam to the pool for an underwater hockey practice this week.  I shot the video in 1080P.  The performance of the camera in an indoor pool is good.  It is a little grainy and at times out of focus under water, but in general it is decent quality.  The sound is pretty fantastic, that and the POV perspective makes you feel like you are actually underwater and playing.

     I used a strap mount from the the universal head mount kit BLT-UHM1 to attach the action cam to my diving mask, making it as low profile and compact as you can get for a video setup - I am not sure how you would even do this with a GoPro with it's big square front facing form factor.  I didn't notice the camera or the drag much underwater. Some people playing didn't even realize I had a camera on my head during the game until I posted the video later.

Ontario Provincial Parks User Fee Changes for 2014

     It is an unfortunate comment that, among all of my many blog articles, the one that gets the most hits both overall and on a continuing basis is my first entry which laments the high costs of user fees for Ontario Parks.  People search the web wondering why the costs are so high for camping and day use fees in Ontario Provincial Parks and end up finding my blog.  This shows me there is a disconnect between what people are expecting to pay for a night of camping and  the actual fees that are being charged for using these parks. 

    I have now taken it upon myself to analyze the Ontario Provincial Park user fee increases year by year when they are released since I don’t think anyone else out there does this.  Sometime in November, Ontario Parks quietly rolls out the next year’s fees on their website without any comment s explaining what the increases are, so I collect the data from past and present years and analyze the data in a spreadsheet and make some comments to give some transparency to park users who are concerned about the user fees for Ontario Parks.

     For the analysis regarding the fee increases between 2013 and 2014…  this year’s increase from 2013 shows a moderate increase in camping fees.  Per night, the fees have increased in the neighborhood of 3%, similar to last year’s increase as well.  This still is three times the inflation rate.   The inflation rate in Canada for 2013 was 0.91% according to this.

     Fortunately many of the other fees show no increase – reservation fees, group camping fees, and most of the day use fees have been frozen from the year before.  The only other thing to note is the fees for cross country skiing see a substantial increase of 18% up to $13/day for 18+ regular rate users.  Senior, youth and group skiing rates have also gone up 9-11%, not as much as the regular rate user fees.  Some roofed accommodations have also been adjusted upwards, fortunately not the yurts.

     Crown camping accessible areas which at one time had offered a solace from the crowds of the Provincial Parks are themselves becoming overcrowded recently, as people look for backcountry alternatives that you don’t have to pay exorbitant fees to use.  There’s many spots that are difficult or impossible to find parking spots at crown land access put ins because so many people are opting to use crown land instead of using Provincial Parks for their backcountry trips.

Excel Spreadsheet with the user fee data and analysis from 2011 to 2014 is located here.

Links

OutdoorJay - High Cost of Camping in Ontario Provincial Parks

OutdoorJay - 2012 Fee Increase

Ontario Parks website – 2014 Fees

Ontario Parks website – 2013 Fees

"Feels Like' Temperatures are Bullshit

     When the temperatures drop and become very cold, or conversely when it is very hot out, you hear it everywhere.   People saying  "OMG, tomorrow it feels like -40 out!" on Facebook, Twitter, and people you talk to, your friends and around the office.  There's a subset of people like myself who are annoyed with the 'feels like' temperatures the media likes to spew out.  My problem is it's a perfect tool for the general population to sensationalize the temperature.  I's say a good majority of society likes to complain about the weather, it's too cold, too hot, too rainy, too humid, they hate the snow etc.  Please just deal with it and shut the fuck up - the weather in Canada is always variable, there's nothing you can do about it and just learn to deal with it.   Whining about it only annoys others and doesn't accomplish anything, and the 'feels like' temperatures only feeds these whiners with more material to whine about the weather.  I personally love the weather in all it's forms, it makes life interesting to me.  Sure, sometimes I would prefer to to have to shovel the driveway, scrape the windows and white knuckle drive my way through a snowstorm somewhere, but still it makes life interesting.  It changes the landscape into a type of beauty that changes with the seasons.
     Don't get me wrong, the wind and humidity do affect how it feels like outside, but they are separate variables, and you can't manipulate the temperature with a formula to come up with some kind of equivalent.  Environment Canada attempted to combine these things that feel different and with a formula wrongly, oh so wrongly attempted to spit out a 'feels like' value, and even have the balls to call it an equivalent temperature.  You see, thermal conduction depends on different things.  The heat transfer through materials and from radiation (infrared) and through convection (transfer to a fluid) are all different, so you can't just make an equivalent number of of some formula.  Sadly, i don't think the wind chill and humidex will go away, since people like to sensationalize and this is toll for them to do so.  To me it's -22 and windy outside...  not 'feels like -40'.


Related Links

Farm & Ranch Guide - ‘Feels Like’ forecasting is equally frustrating, annoying

Slate - Wind Chill Blows - It's time to get rid of a meaningless number

Grumpy Owl - Bullshit Alert:Wind Chill 

 Wind Chill and Humidex - Critique of the Indices

The Globe and Mail - Love it or hate it, ‘wind chill’ here to stay
http://contrarian.ca/tag/wind-chill/

 

 

Sony Universal Head Mount BLT-UHM1 First Impressions

Demonstrating the parts that come with the Sony BLT-UHM1 Universal Head Mount kit and the uses of it with different head bands, goggles, and helmets with the Sony Action Cam HDR-AS30V.