Dressing for Extreme Cold Winter Weather at the Off Grid Cabin

Description

With the extreme cold winter temperatures all across the east and north of America and Canada right now, dressing properly and using the right gear is essential. Starting off with drone footage of the cabin covered in snow, this video shows the cold weather clothing I wear to survive a frigid winter in the north, including complete clothing systems from my head down to my feet.

For hats, I recommend layering a headband, hat liner and wool toque, or a pilots fur winter hat. On my head, I wear Tilley, Cabelas or MEC.

On my upper body, I wear Icebreaker base layer top, followed by a wool Fjallraven Canada shirt, an Arcteryx Goretex rainjacket, a heavier wool sweater, an Eddie Bauer down puffy jacket or Basspro Outdoor World guidewear rain jacket.

On my legs, I'm wearing Icebreaker 200g Merino wool long underwear covered by Fjallraven Vidda Pro black pants.

On my feet, I'm wearing a base layer synthetic sock with a Smartwool wool sock over top.

My warmest boots for the coldest weather, down to -70 degrees, are Baffin Control Max (http://www.baffin.com/product-p/epicm004.htm)

The boots that I wear when I'm active, such as when snowshoeing in the deep snow of central Ontario, I wear Cabelas Light Hunter boots, an 8" high leather boot that it is great for three season trekking.

On my hands, I wear Under Armour base layer gloves with snowmobile mittens over top. Using a glove liner like these allows me to operate my camera in cold temperatures by quickly removing my mitt, operating the camera or other equipment, and slipping it back on.

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Tags: Cabin,log cabin,off-grid,self-reliance,self reliance,tiny home,small home,shelter,bushcraft,survival,living off the land,homestead,dick proenneke,cabin living,alone in the wilderness,joe Robinet,shawn james,tiny house,primitive technology,primitive living,TA Outdoors,Survival Lilly,Canada,Ontario,primitive skills,carpentry,gear,clothing,winter,extreme

Video Transcription

everybody welcome back to the cabin it's New Years Eve actually December 31st 2017 and I've been away for a few days visiting family over the holidays and just getting back up here and it is cold it's minus 20 Celsius minus 30 Celsius with the windchill which is about minus 22 Fahrenheit so very cold luckily not too much wind and the sun shining so that's helping a little bit I'll just go over this quickly and it'll show you what I was wearing earlier as I hiked in here and what I typically wear when I'm snowshoeing and then what I have to put on once they stop alright so when I'm on the go actually this is too cool for this out right now because my ears and my face are exposed so let me put a hat on typically so here's my my radar cap from Tilly as well it's 100% merino wool doubled up on the ears so that keeps my head warm that's typically good enough for me and even in the coldest conditions when I stop except if there's a wind it's not dense enough to stop the wind from going through most important thing to do anytime really when you're in the outdoors but it's particularly important in the winter is to layer that part of the layering system this one's made by Tilly I mean that's an ideal system in to go down to any temperature if you do that then that and I wanted the thick wool tooks again that's almost as effective as the fur but I do prefer the fur now the forgets if it gets wet mind you it's not very good insulation where the wool continues to keep you warm even if it gets sweaty that's your perspiration or if it warms up and you get some rain or melting snow on you when it gets really cold out like my mice fishing which I will be in the next couple of weeks that's a real rabbit fur in this hat been around for a long time

and you can't beat fur I'm not gonna get another whole discussion about forget synthetics obviously I'm not anti fur and I should be idea synthetic if I was gonna be anti anything because that is not sustainable good for the environment this is extremely extremely warm and this is basically the Arctic at your not good and cold wearing this thing and a couple of different ways to wear it get overheated or you want actually here and you flip it up so extremely warm exactly we'll keep that log it's quite cold and it's getting a little bit colder alright pull of the other layers it might as well talk about what I have on my core right now so this is the Canada shirt by fjällräven and it's 100% wool as well do you like to wear a wool sweater sometimes and a lot of people do because it's the more complete system doesn't have air gaps but like I said I overheat so much when I'm active I've been snowshoeing as low as about -42 Celsius plus windchill and I still find that this is more than enough I have to strip basically down to this layer and then as soon as I stopped off to put something warmer on so I like the flexibility this I can open this up let the heat escape when I stop button it up a little bit underneath I've got a an ice breaker 100% merino wool this is a 200 weight

again I can't wear heavier weights I just overheat too much above like minus 10 Celsius or so I'll just wear the t-shirt merino wool t-shirt underneath with the short sleeves instead of the long sleeve and I find that warm enough all my bottoms we're in fjällräven bit of pro pants it's g1000 material it's a cotton blend which I never typically wear caught and I'd never wear it on my upper body or my head or hands but the you know when you wax them they are quite warm and they're durable extremely durable and spark resistant as well it's one of the problems with synthetics is that they can tend to to burn from sparks from fire and then underneath these what I'm wearing is again 200 weight 100% merino wool long johns made by ice breaker so long on door right now on my feet what you see is these Baffin they're rated down to like minus 70 I love these things they're packed boots so you can pull the liners out dry them off when you're at Camp the leather uppers breathe well they're watertight these are my go-to boots for things like ice fishing just anywhere where I'm gonna be base camping so I'm standing around a lot people complain about their cold feet all the time and they blame the boots but but rarely is it the actual boots that are causing the issue if they're well-made or it's a good brand reputable brand they've been around awhile I mean if they're raised to minus 70 and you say well I've been cold in minus 10 it's not because the boot doesn't have enough insulation of the made poorly it's because your feet sweat likely so layering system on your feet is important so I'll show you what I'm wearing on my feet right now the liner thick that is I think that's the best liner in the market I used to wear these when I was a tradesman long ago and these are the only boots that really kept me what oh my foot smart wool socks I also wear either Tilley or darn tough because I like the tighter weave on those two other brands under that but under that I have a synthetic but I prefer merino wool base layer sock as well

that's the leering system on my feet again those boots are not boots that I'd wear if I'm going to be active that what all wear is these Cabela's it's a light hunter or ultralight hunter they do have Thinsulate ultra insulation in them so they are warm enough and they're warm enough I would go all the way down to like minus 30 Celsius minus 22 Fahrenheit in these if I'm active and again leather uppers so they breathe well so I'll wear these when I'm active where are these snowshoeing in particular or a similar type boot something lighter like that feet are gonna get cold when I get to camp in these however so I want to have some other type of boot to change into what I'm stopped and if it's not a pair of boots like these boffins and it'll be more like those mech camp shoes that I wear and I'll show you those as well so on my upper body when I'm when I'm moving when I'm active wools a fantastic problem with it if it's not a really tight weave or if it's open like this is that the wind bites through it that goes on over top of everything it stops the wind and then I convinced the Pitts if I need to so I can still let perspiration evaporates so again it's getting extremely cold right now the temperature is starting to drop as the Sun Goes Down I'm gonna throw this 100% thick tight weave wool sweater on there's a system even when in really cold weather that if even with some wind if I'm working up a sweat it can actually evaporate through both these layers these are all three layers of wool the under layer as well the base layer when I get to camp like I said I've been out in temperatures as low as minus 40 or 42 Celsius I don't might have been beyond that in the past as well but let missus recent I'm talking about when I get to camp this is the jacket that I put on now I have a vest that's exactly the same it's 800 fill this one's made by Eddie Bauer but most of the outdoor brands make a down puffy jacket and this is incredibly warm like like I said I will wear basically just this over top of that Canada shirt or one sweater or something like that and it keeps me warm problem with these is that they're not very durable so I've got little holes probably from Cali nipping at me or Sparks they'll tend to burn this material really easily it's very thin nylon material what I do like about is i packs into a really small pocket and I can carry this I because I could fit it into anything so I'll carry this almost year-round actually in fact pretty well every one of my trips regardless of its middle of the summer or the middle of winter this is the jacket and the best that I pack i use it as a pillow when I'm on canoe trips and if it gets cold I throw this layer on and it keeps me warm and pretty well any temperature the insulation just doesn't work if it gets wet however because it is down and this nylon shell it's just too thin to be waterproof so you have to protect it once it gets wet you're pretty well daunting for the rest of that trip because it can be hard to dry out so my hands I have a base layer on these ones are made by Under Armour of course that's not enough when it gets windy or just sustained cold so over top of those we'll put another glove and then a mitt typically or often just a min overtop of them is enough so put something on like this it's a three-in-one mitt the other parts are just other thin layers of mitt that go inside there as well so 2 or 3 layers that be in the outside rubber to wipe off goggles because if it's really cool I need to protect my face then I can wipe that off or advise or something so that's that's what you really need in the winter to keep your hands will warm you need mitts not gloves gloves or they just don't have enough air trapped inside to keep your hand warm so you actually have to have these mitts but I like to be able to then pull off the MIT operate my camera or whatever gear I'm working with and then put the gloves back on as my hands for the mitts back on as my hands get cool I would say 90 percent of the time even when it's cold I don't wear long underwear because again I just overheat but as soon as I stop those are big muscles here lower body has big muscles and they tend to heat up quickly but they also cool down and you need to keep them warm so I throw on a pair of gore-tex pants that are watertight waterproof so I can sit on the snow or stop the wind from coming through that basically is all I need on my lower body again if I wear something like a pair of snow pants or something I just find those a little bit too hot get lots of people asking me about these pants you know what I bought these for muskie fishing out on Georgian Bay and october/november yeah their guide rain wear guide where I think they call it at Bass Pro and at Cabela's gore-tex these have an inner layer as well just really really durable like well great great weaves a very durable exterior lots of pockets in them this is the bib so lots of body coverage and then I also have the rain wear top as well or your guide to wear top as well that goes over top of this that's like bomb-proof rain here and I find in the winter it's awesome as well because it holds in the heat keeps the window and it's fairly good for for moving in I don't want gear that's too tight or too bulky to loose even that just catches on things and makes every s-step awkward and difficult so we want to be able to wear gear that's as light as possible for what you're doing gives you a free range of motion and that you can strip layers off put them back on these you know thinner layers that you can pack up and put into a bag so your going to carry them more often

are extremely important it's about moisture management in particular you need to maintain or manage that moisture need to let it escape and not accumulate in your clothing which means cotton is completely out you want to avoid synthetics that don't dry quickly and that don't breathe properly and you want to make sure that you're layering getting a great big jacket like a Canada Goose jacket or something like that and like a big parka unless you're sitting on a snowmobile or something you're either too hot or too cold because you take that thing off to cool down and then you don't have enough on underneath so so that's it for this video I appreciate you watching and if you haven't seen the cabin series if you haven't seen me building the cabins you can check out this playlist and I'm gonna be doing a lot more up here over the course of the winter and in this coming year 2018 lots of exciting stuff up here but if you have any questions about my gear or you have any requests for other videos that you'd like to see me do please comment below and I'll try to try to get back to you but like I said thanks for watching this video look forward to seeing you up the cabin again next week take care [Music]