Overnights
Every write-up starts with a night on the sheet: where we were, what it dropped to, what we built and what the tools actually did.
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Eight inches of spruce tips or a second sleeping bag?
Four nights running the comparison directly. The bed won every time, and it was not close.
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Where is the best place to set up a tarp shelter?
Drainage first, deadfall overhead second, wind third. The view comes last, and the mistakes are always made in that order.
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Portable sauna tents: what they are good at and what they are not
A sauna tent is a heat box, not a shelter. Where that distinction matters, and why we stopped taking ours camping.
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Ridge height and rafter spacing: the two numbers that decide a shelter
Get these two right and a thin cover works. Get them wrong and no amount of material fixes the night.
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Tent wood stoves: what actually decides whether one is worth carrying
Firebox volume, not weight or material, sets how often you wake up. Plus flue cleaning, damper control and the numbers from eight nights.
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How many notches does a lean-to actually need?
Counted across four builds: six load-bearing notches, and everything else lashes faster than it cuts.
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Canvas or synthetic for a hot tent: weight, condensation and ember burns
Cotton canvas takes an ember and breathes. Synthetic is a third of the weight and takes a pinhole instantly. The trade in numbers.
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What lights when everything on the ground is wet
Six tinder sources timed on the same soaked March morning, from strike to sustained flame, with the two that failed outright.
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Hot tents with a stove jack: the pros and cons after eight nights
A stove inside a tent buys 20 to 30 degrees and costs 14 pounds, forty minutes and two wake-ups. When that trade is worth making.
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Feather sticks from resinous standing dead: why the wood fights the knife
Pitch does not blunt a blade, it stops the curl releasing. What that changes about technique, stock selection and how often you clean the edge.
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Knife, axe or saw: which one earns its weight on a one-night build
Three tools, 36 ounces between them, and one of the three is usually dead weight. Which one depends on the wood, not on preference.
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Scandi or saber grind for frozen wood: nine trips of edge data
Two grinds, the same wood, nine winter trips. What thickness behind the edge actually buys, and what it costs on a frozen knot.
