Sharing just to give this community a little bit of content. This December has been temperamental with snow – we've gone from tons to nothing and back several times. I do prefer it like this, last winter was just tons and that sucked XD
Three of us took to the sticks to make some good food, enjoy some homebrew beer, sleep soundly in the fresh -5 °C conditions and perhaps get up before sunrise to take the shotgun for a walk. Did all that save for the early walk, everyone chose sleep instead :)
Tried cooking with a 'jätkänkynttilä' / log torch for the first time. It was a revelation. A single log that would make four pieces of firewood lasts long enough to cook a whole meal if not two. This was cut from fresh pine that had been felled by wind two weeks earlier. The log torch is going to see a lot more use in our future adventures, for the winter it's perfect!
My sleeping arrangements consist of a self-made monofil / silnylon double layer hammock, an Enlightened Equipment short down underquilt rated for 20 °F ( -6 °C ) and a Carinthia Defence 4 synthetic sleeping bag, I think that promises comforts down to -10 °C. Forgot to pack a tarp, so I had to use my ground cloth in it's place :o) I did also put a string up across some trees and put some pine branches on it to make a windbreak towards the lake.
