My old Wool System, Sleep and Pack

That looks like a nice set up considering that your gear choices are limited. I would highly recommend getting a decent down bag which would drop your weight considerably. You can make a cotton bivy or cover thing to keep sparks off the nylon. A 5 pound wool blanket won't keep you warm at freezing without a fire. You also need some kind of ground insulation to keep you warm. I don't see any kind of insulation for the top of your body. You can find cheap fleeces at thrift stores which work fine.

thanks! for the ideas. It's true even these two blankets won't work well in freezing. that's why we find shelters under boulders here, so we can have long lasting fires when we return in the winter until we slim down our reserves. for insulation I layer twigs, rottenwood moss and fern under my legs, less soft items under my torso pad (which damage the environment less) takes a good 15 to 20 minutes to get right. sharing body heat works well too in combination. I overcompensate with my worn wool items(which weigh a lot too), plus I sleep hot. I've got this style of hiking to work for me.

I did make an apex climashield quilt which is working better than expected, yet to go through a winter with it. I just cannot spend 300-400 on a recreational down item yaknow, plus down gives me a headache.

Where are you hiking?

This is exactly what explorers used for hundreds of years. Most of us these days are too soft to even try it for a night, let alone use it as our primary backpacking gear. Kudos.

Quoting Daniel Arnold from Early Days in the Range of Light:

"The men had no tents or even sleeping mats. At night they rolled themselves into blankets atop piles of pine needles. Trees offered some protection from weather, but when it stormed or snowed they simply got wet. [William] Brewer described the sensation: 'You cannot imagine how cheerless and uncomfortable it is to lie out in the rain – how one looks up at the black sky, lets the rain patter on his face, saturate his hair and beard, as he thinks of home and its cheerful fireside and luxurious comforts.'

… And yet, from under a blanket there is a prickly kind of pleasure in the anticipation of an oncoming mountain storm. Our ancestors made gods out of wind and lightning for a reason: the power in those forces is awesome to behold. The only difference now is that we rarely expose ourselves to the weather. We're urged not to, as if our bodies were too soft and weak to endure the experience. Well-meaning protectors tell us these sorts of things. Find shelter! Seek cover! But it's hard not to stay and look when the clouds start to rub up against the mountains and the whole sky begins to crackle. Brewer may have dreamed of the fireside, but he never turned away from the mountain.

With a tent, those evening thunderheads would have been an annoyance, a reason to retreat under the rain-fly and read a book. Without the tent, those same clouds reclaimed their natural stature as elemental powers. Met forthrightly, a good storm wakes my insides and reminds me that, just like the bears and marmots, I am built for this place, built to survive and enjoy these rumbling demonstrations. The equipment and machinery we use to make travel in the wilderness more comfortable cannot help but blunt the experience. The loss is our own. At worst, we grow forgetful that the same basic potency that animates the storm animates ourselves."

Well thanks! I appreciate it, not to mention nylon wasn't heard of, longstrand Egyptian cotton in tight weave was probably hard to pay for, I tried an iron oxide impregnated shelter. works well for at home, weighs a least a million pounds.

I live and hike in Wa. olypics. where we're happy when it rains because then it's probably not freezing

Thanks for sharing. Reminds me of my youth nearly six decades ago…..I grew up in PA outdoors, my poor parents couldn't get me indoors very often, I lived to be in the forest, rain, or snow. In fact the more the better! I learned to prize my inherited pendleton blankets like the treasures they are. And I made clothes from the canvas I was lucky enough to find at sewing stores. I learned to wax it to make the canvas last longer. Survival skills came early in life for me and I never had the adversions to eating natural foods my schoolmates had. I packed my kit in my blankets but used a waxed canvas ground cloth to protect the wool from briars and stickers as I preferred bushwhacking to trails and tracked game everywhere.
Now I feel quite SPOILED with all this high tech gear, but I'll never forget the "good old days" when I slept out in the storms loving every thunderclap and enjoying the snowfalls glittering beauty and stillness.

Hey Russel, have you heard of the site bushcraftusa.com? I think you would like it. The people on there are into the same kind of minimalist/old school camping that you are. Lots of good info.

No I haven't thanks for sharing. I do enjoy bushcraft activity and talk but I find they prefer to camp and nest. I like the push your calorie efficiency, go anywhere mentality here. glad you guys enjoyed this, i wanted to share a gear setup and figured this would be a more interesting sight over my typical 10# bag. thanks!