You have assorted options for a heated space for cold weather use. You can get a tent that is intended to be heated via a stove or an open fire. Or you can create your own shelter, using a combination of natural and modern materials ? as is the case with a tarp tipi ? or you can create one entirely from nature?s own materials. The second ability is especially handy in a survival situation.
Heated tents are often built to be used with a stove and thus have a chimney that transports smoke and waste gases outside the tent. This implies a clean, smoke-free and very warm space. These can be in the shape of a cone as in a tipi, chum or lavvu or the classic frontier A-frame shape.
Alternatively an open fire can be had, either on the ground as is the typical way of old or in a firebox or on a fire-grate. The latter also prohibits damages to the ground, which can sometimes be helpful if it?s an issue or safety concern at the site on which you have pitched. This sort of arrangement is restricted to conical formed shelters such as tipi, lavvu or chum. This shape of shelter is well suited to smoke rising above where you are sitting and good central ventilation out of an an opening at the apex.
Canvas makes and very good outer covering for a heated space. But if you don?t wish to get a canvas covering you can use a heavy builders? tarpaulin.
Sometimes people fret about the risks of having a fire within a tent, whether it is open or within a firebox or even inside a stove. Actually you need to be careful of burns and damaging clothing with each set-up. Each set-up also has some specific risk factors that are worth consideration.
Unlike tent nylon, a builders tarp is hard to ignite and for it to melt on a structure of the size we?re talking about the fire inside would need to be exceedingly massive indeed ? much bigger than would be acceptable for anybody to remain inside the shelter. This sort of structure doesn?t need a large fire to keep it warm and there is a very tiny chance of setting fire to the outer material.
Canvas will also pose a fire risk if you get it hot enough and for heated tents of a conical shape or A-frame based structure, you have to be careful, particularly when using stoves and chimneys. When winter camping you typically have to maintain a 60 degree difference between the inside temperature of a tent at floor level and the background temperature outside. This means an air temperature at the ridgeline of an A-frame tent of almost 50-60 degrees Celsius.
The cooker will be very hot and the chimney will be also. Where this passes near to the canvas, care must be taken and with modern canvas tents there is regularly a square of non-flammable material where the chimney passes thru. This , however , is the most effective way to heat a tent, particularly if the stove has a chimney damper to keep heat from escaping out of the chimney pointlessly.
For a conical shelter like a tipi, chum or lavvu, with a little fire inside, I think the fire risk is the same whether you are using canvas or a heavy builders ? tarp ? i.e. Very small. Either way you should have a knife to hand to cut your way straight out of the side of the shelter in the event of fire.
A bigger concern with having a fire in any enclosed space is carbon monoxide poisoning. Whether or not you are using plastic, canvas or any other material, you should usually ensure that ventilation is more than adequate at all times.
Additionally, you can build a tipi-shaped shelter of a relatively small size that is snug for the number of people but still have a fire inside. This is despite thatching it with naturally occurring materials such as brush from coniferous trees that could, in other circumstances, be used as firewood. If this is done well, it creates a perfect space within which to have a fire to keep cosy. While the risk of setting fire to the shelter is greater than with a canvas or plastic covering, it is still a not a huge risk.
But before we get too carried away with worries over the dangers of the shelter itself, it?s worth keeping things in perspective: A bigger risk for a group stuck in the wilderness would be NOT building such a shelter and being at grave risk to hypothermia.
Paul Kirtley teaches bushcraft and survival skills. He?s passionate about nature, the great outdoors and remote travel. This is something that comes across clearly on his bushcraft courses.
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