Winter camping: it’s a romantic idea. Being cuddled up in a tent somewhere removed from the strains of the city, while snow falls around us and a fire roars sounds immediately appealing. At least, it does to me.
I have been wanting to try winter camping for a long time. This year, our first year of intentional outdoor adventures, seemed the perfect time.
Sandra has been less on board with the idea of winter camping. It only makes her think of shivering all night until we finally cave and jump in the car. However, she fell in love with summer camping, and was hesitant to see the camping season come to a close, so in the fall she started researching options for a heated tent.
Through this research, both of us fell down a rabbit hole, reading and learning about canvas bell tents.
Canvas bell tents don’t appear as common in North America as they are across the pond, but they immediately jumped out as the perfect solution to our cold weather camping problem. They offer one very appealing feature: the camping stove. These tents allow for wood stoves with chimney pipes to serve as a furnace (so to speak), and we were quickly drawn in by photos of people lounging on beds while tea boiled on the stove beside them, snowy clothes hanging to dry.
We watched YouTube videos on how to winter camp in a bell tent. We joined Facebook groups. We scoured Google. Then, finally, we pulled the plug and ordered our tent and stove. We ordered a 5-meter bell tent through Amazon, and purchased the little stove that came recommended alongside it.
Our first problem was apparent the minute the tent and stove arrived and we realized that the little stove we’d purchased would not be sufficient. We returned the stove and ordered a larger stove, which we love, but the pipes were too big for the chimney panel that came with the tent. We thought we could fix this by simply cutting the hole a little larger. We were wrong.
Attempt #1 looked like this. We spent the evening outside, cooking hot dogs around the campfire, while also starting a fire in the stove to heat the tent. After dinner, we changed into our pajamas, carried down all of our bedding, and excitedly hopped inside of our bell tent… which was extremely smoky. We’d never used a tent stove before, so we assumed that the smoke must be normal. We checked the flue, and opened one of the window panels to vent things, while we snuggled under the covers, Addie being allowed a little bit of her favourite show, Peppa Pig, whilst Sandra and I watched an episode of Midnight Mass. It was cozy. It had the romantic glow of the wood fire in the stove. It also had an annoyingly thick cloud of smoke and frigid air from the open window. We lasted 45-minutes outside before retiring indoors for the night.
We felt disheartened after our first attempt. In the daylight, we discovered that the panel, which would typically cover the chimney panel when not in use, had been touching the chimney. Parts of it were black and charred. We assumed that was where the smoke had come from. We cut the ruined cover off, determined to try again.
** It’s worth mentioning that Sandra and I have wanted to ensure we’re being extremely safe with the wood stove. We bought a metal baby gate to keep the toddler from touching the stove, as well as a fire extinguisher, carbon monoxide detector, and knife (to cut our way out if needed). **
Attempt #2 lasted longer than the first attempt, but turned out worse. We started the fire in the stove even earlier, determined to work out any issues early on. The tent was warm and we were eager to make cookies in the skillet over the stove. We planned to run the fire until bedtime, and then let it die out, keeping warm with the electric blanket we had connected to an extension cord we’d run from the house. We were sitting and enjoying the fire, when we realized that the fabric of the chimney panel was smoking. We recognized that we needed to put the fire out, and in our haste to do so, we threw water onto the flames in the stove. This did extinguish the fire, but it also filled our little tent with so much smoke that we had to grab Addie and rush out into the snow as fast as possible. We grabbed what we could and then went inside, returning every ten minutes to check the tent and ensure the fire was out.
We think that the chimney panel simply was not meant for a larger chimney and we need a new panel altogether, as well as a proper stove jack. We plan on getting a new panel sewn in, and in the meantime, we’ve cut the panel out entirely, so nothing but air currently surrounds the chimney pipe. We’ll do some troubleshooting and research before attempt number 3, but we’re determined not to give up, even as we all feel a little less excited and wearier at the thoughts of this whole winter camping thing.