Keeping snacks & gadgets handy & warm on winter hikes.

[Cymbidium]

Yesterdays sub zero hike on Tom yielded frozen camera, windspeed gadget and snacks.

After using an insulated waterbottle holder and freezer pack this past summer to keep my sandwich cool, I had this idea.

Insulated water bottle holder and a handwarmer. Would that work to keep snacks from freezing? Could my little nikon coolpix go in there too??

I would love to hear how others keep food, camera and gadgets handy and warm.

 

[mahony]

Body Heat

I bring mostly dried type foods, but if a Snickers bar gets too cold it turns into a rock anyway. In these cases I just put the snacks near my body; pants pockets, inside my outer coat etc. that is usually sufficient to keep it non-frozen.

 

[Oldsmores]

I just keep things in inside pockets as much as possible. The camera is the biggest problem because I want it quickly accessible and there's also the problem of condensation as you heat up. I usually hang it around my neck inside my outer layer and hope for the best.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Yesterdays sub zero hike on Tom yielded frozen camera, windspeed gadget and snacks.

After using an insulated waterbottle holder and freezer pack this past summer to keep my sandwich cool, I had this idea.

Insulated water bottle holder and a handwarmer. Would that work to keep snacks from freezing? Could my little nikon coolpix go in there too??

I would love to hear how others keep food, camera and gadgets handy and warm.

Hand warmers can get too hot to touch. They usually come with a warning not to touch them. Also, I'm not sure if your bottle holder allows any air into it. If not, the hand warmer might not even heat up.

Maybe if you keep your food and camera slightly spaced from the hand warmer, with the zipper slightly open, it will work.

Experiment and let us know!

 

[TrishandAlex]

I wear a small "fanny pack" strapped around my waist, with the pouch contents resting on my tummy. My backpack is put on overtop of this.

I keep camera, (unopened) hand warmers, snacks, map and compass in there. Since it's resting in front of me, close to my torso, nothing inside ever freezes. I could open the handwarmers and place them near food/camera on a subzero day...but so far I haven't had to, even on my -22 degree hike up Cannon last year.

 

[JohnL]

My camera is also kept in a small fanny pack turned to the front. If it is really cold, the battery goes into my mitts. I usually wear thin liners so this keeps the hand sweat from making direct contact with the battery. Gadgets (compass, Kestral (wind, temp), chap stick, pills) are kept in a small pocket strapped to my left pack strap at chest level. I keep my food in my pack. In the winter, my snacks consist of 'soft' foods (Fig Newtons, cheese, PB&J sandwich, thin chocolate bar or M&Ms).

JohnL

 

[KRobi]

I have thought about the handwarmer idea but have not tried it. I have done the camera close (small nikon coolpix) which works well, but the drawback, especially on a day like yesterday is that you have to keep removing heavy gloves and unzipping to get to the camera. I also carry spare batteries which I keep close to me. Usually even if the camera stops the "old" batteries will work again once warmed up. The tribulations of winter hiking. As for food, I usually end up keeping it in my mouth for a bit until I can chew it. Hope the handwarmer idea works as this seems much simpler.

 

[J.Dub]

I just keep things in inside pockets as much as possible. The camera is the biggest problem because I want it quickly accessible and there's also the problem of condensation as you heat up. I usually hang it around my neck inside my outer layer and hope for the best.

Agreed that it's a pain to dig down several layers to get to the camera, but it's the price of winter hiking, IMO. Keeping it easily accessible in an outer layer means it'll get cold and, at best, kill the batteries quickly or, at worst, kill the camera.

As to the condensation issue -- which is a very real one, as today's advanced electronics are no friend of water -- I keep my digicam in a zip-top sandwich bag. It only takes another coupla seconds to pull it out of the bag, and this system has kept my camera operational with good battery life on a number of above treeline winter hikes in the Whites and ADKs.

 

[DougPaul]

2. In the past couple of years, when I've used a digital camera exclusively, I have not had any problems with the camera battery freezing or loosing power quickly. The camera battery I use now is a 7.4V lithium ion re-chargeable "pack".

I supply this amount of detail so that someone else on this forum might be able to shed some light on why the smaller batteries were freezing/non-functioning at very cold temperatures...?

And, this might apply, too, to folks who use small digital cameras that take small (AAA or AA) batteries versus larger battery packs?

The issue is less battery size than the battery chemistry.
* Forget alkalines--they perform poorly in the cold
* Lithium ion (Lion, rechargable) is medium in the cold.
* NiMH (rechargable) is medium in the cold
* NiCad (rechargable) is better in the cold
* Lithium (primary cells, non-rechargable, AA or AAA) is best, but some cameras can be damaged by them. See http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=33776
* Fresh batteries (and freshly recharged rechargables) do better in the cold than old or semi-discharged ones.

There is some info on batteries of various technologies vs temp in http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/temperat.pdf

One strategy is to keep one set of batteies in the camera, another warm in your pocket. If the set in the camera fails, swap them.

Oh -- and to echo J.Dub's post (above), I keep my camera in a heavy-duty zip-loc bag to keep out moisture.

Moisture is the enemy of your camera in the cold--it can freeze the moving parts or fog the lens.
* Don't exhale on your camera
* Don't even hold the camera up to your face (or in your hands) for too long--moisture from your skin is likely to condense on it.
* When you move a cold camera to a warm moist place (ie under clothing, inside a heated or occupied building), keep it in a ziplock--otherwise moisture will condense on/in it.
* Chemical hand warmers give off moisture--keep the camera in a ziplock if it is near a hand warmer.

As for food, I just let it get cold. (Carry only freeze-tolerant food...) Some foods (eg chocolate) get very hard in the cold--warm them in your mouth before biting down. (You could save a tooth or two.)

Doug

 

[daxs]

I put my snacks (not choc though) in a small fleece bad with a toe sized hand warmer to keep them from freezing.

 

[Little Rickie]

I just keep stuff in my pants pocket or an inside pocket and body heat warms them up. It's easier for me to grab a snack from a pocket than dig in my day pack.

 

[Cymbidium]

Lots of great ideas!

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I did a little experiment with my original idea but making sure to put my camera & anemometer in one zip loc bag along with a couple of dessicant thingys I got from my vitamins, a Gu energy gel and a granola bar in another zip loc bag as suggested. With two hand warmers. Temps today ranged from 7-14 degrees. After 6 hours, temp in the bottle was 54 degrees!! Not bad! I am going to experiment with your other suggestions on future hikes. Moose on Sunday! Happy New Year all!!

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Freeze-tolerant trail mix in a small Nalgene bottle clipped to your pack and easily accessible. I mix M&Ms, peanuts, raisins, dried cranberries, and Honey Bunches of Oats "Just Bunches" for my snack bottle.

I get almost a whole winter season out of the Energizer lithium primary in my Canon A570IS.

I could never have a fanny pack on my front. I'd soak it with sweat in no time. I need to keep that drip zone from my chin straight down clear.

Tim

 

[stocks]

Ya i use a fleece long shirt that has 2 zippers in the front that can fit alot of things. thats where i put stuff that needs to stay warm. i can fit a camera and snickers in there.

 

[DougPaul]

Freeze-tolerant trail mix in a small Nalgene bottle clipped to your pack and easily accessible. I mix M&Ms, peanuts, raisins, dried cranberries, and Honey Bunches of Oats "Just Bunches" for my snack bottle.

Agreed--freeze-tolerant food is the way to go, IMO. Makes the whole thing a non-issue and you can carry as much as you want in your pack.

Certain freezable foods are fine if prepared properly. For instance, cheese freezes but that is OK if you pre-cut it into small pieces before taking it out into the cold. Similarly anything that gets too hard in the cold to bite off (eg chocolate bars, various energy bars, etc) can be OK if broken up into bite-size chunks. (Simply rewarm in your mouth before biting down.)

Doug

 

[bikehikeskifish]

FWIW, I switch to Pop Tarts for the winter. They never freeze solid, and are quick and easy. I also bring a thermos of hot (well, warm by then) soup from which I will try and get some protein and fat to go with the pure sugar from the Pop Tarts.

Tim