On Wednesday the 31st of January our Outdoor Education class of 24 people set out on a 15 minute walk from our University campus to Jagersburg for an overnight camping experience. The weather was around 0 to +3 degrees and rainy, providing us with the perfect opportunity to test out our wet weather gear, warm clothes and our camp craft skills.

We set our tents up immediately after arriving as there was a break in the rain and shortly after we set up a large group tarp to cook under. I support the idea of having a group tarp for cooking. As a leader it allows you to monitor what the group is eating, allows everyone to seek shelter other than their tents and gather together boosting group morale and it reduces the risk of any members burning their tent while attempting to cook in the vestibule.

Before dinner each country presented an ‘ice breaker’ game from back home. The focus of these games were to get people moving (increasing warmth), to provoke thinking and to be enjoyable. My two favorites games were Chicken in A Hen House by the British and Naughts and Crosses by the Hungarians. The chicken game involved everyone responding to the action that was called out with their partner. These funny actions caused some laughs, I will definitely use this to expand a group’s comfort zone in the future. Naughts and Crosses involved a rely style game where 2 teams played X’s and O’s on a field made of sticks. This was a very enjoyable game that forced the use tactics whilst keeping us moving and warm.

At dinner time we begun cooking on storm kitchens under the group tarp. I support the use of storm shelters as they are versatile and are basically bomb proof. They are simple to use and are reasonably stable and safe. The only negative aspect is their weight and how bulky they are compared to other lightweight options such as screw top gas burner stoves.

I learnt that the key to cooking a tasty nutritional dinner on these stoves is that few ingredients are needed, sauces and seasoning are lightweight methods of adding taste and that preparing food beforehand will make the job of cooking after a long day much easier. Easting a lightweight, warm, nutritious and tasty meal at the end of the day is very important on extended trips.

I learnt that we need to choose an area with a small incline so water will not gather under the tent but too much incline can make sleeping uncomfortable (always set the tents up so heads are facing up the hill). We needed to seek shelter from the wind so we set up next to the gull between 2 small hills. We also needed be aware of other users of the area and consider the environmental impacts of the camp.

To keep warm I had to remember to increase layers of clothes soon after arriving to camp to maintain the body heat produced from the walk. On this trip I had a spare insulating down jacket in my pack that I was able to put on under my hard-shell which kept me warm up until bed time. I wore a pair of thin soft shell pants which worked fine for this walk as it wasn’t raining too much and the temperature was close to 0 degrees, but o future trips in the mountains I may need to add a wool layer underneath.

Overall I stayed warm, dry and healthy on this overnight trip. I am happy that my gear stood up to the first test and I look forward to our upcoming trips in the near future.