Heated Tarp Shelter – How to Build a Tarp Shelter in the Snow

heated tarp for snow

Check out this video from Modern Survival Tactics and their use of a heated tarp shelter overnight in the snow. We’ve also transcribed the video for you in the text below, if you prefer to read along.

Video Transcription:

Another update, here is the temperature inside the shelter (shows thermometer, 21.6 degrees Fahrenheit). It’s not bad, outside is zero.

As you can see we have snow, not much, lets say a foot, but we are expecting zero Fahrenheit or minus 3 something like that with the windchill they are saying it should be minus 28.

I brought my biggest backpack, this is I believe an army rifleman backpack, you can see it’s pretty big pack, but I need it because I need it to take basically my complete sleeping system and some isolation. Also I brought our new um, piece of equipment if I can say which we developed last week with this kind of result will be a little surprised, but I hope you will like it.

Now I will take my stuff and go in the direction to find some shelter because I need to start working on it right now if I don’t want to freeze. So stay with me guys…

So I finally found some location where the wind is not that strong because I have little brush or trees around me so it’s stopping the wind a little bit better and I choose this tree to be like, main pole if I can say and I will build the A frame structure here. I’ve got my tarps with me, so I will try to use both and to isolate it with snow, that’s the idea. I’m not sure of what I will be able to accomplish in short time because I have lets say, 3 hours or maybe 2 and a half to build the shelter.

After that I need to start collecting firewood and focus on some dinner and also stay warm. It’ll be very cold. As you can hear, wind will be very strong tonight.

I hope this episode will be somehow interesting and also special, it’s one year exactly by day from my first video and also before I will continue with construction of the shelter I want to show you what we’ve got. Do you like it? And want to have one? It’s a badge with Velcro on the back so you can put it almost anywhere that you have the Velcro. Just send us your mailing address and subscribe to our channel and we will mail the badge to you in three business days. What do you think about it?

And the last thing I need to do is secure this and to make the shelter almost done and somehow stable. I will use full tactical stake plus the finished rope. All these things were developed to help you in situations like this when it’s 5 Fahrenheit outside and you do not have time to cut stakes or I don’t know, finish the cord and make a loop or something like that, you already have it here.

Now it’s time to put snow around (shovels snow around the edges of the tarp that meet the ground). And now I will put the ground tarp, which will serve as isolation and also I’m not going to lay on the snow. I will also use the third tarp to close the door area. This is once I’m done, closed – strudel from my wife – delicious!

Ok, and I’ve finished the shelter to the stage that I’m not going to do anything more and here is the surprise time! Probably don’t know what’s inside, so let me show you…. (opens large black plastic bag). As I told you we developed this item quickly in one week. And…. I know you guys are thinking “what the hell is this?”

This we call, portable stove, something like that. It does not have official name, but it might be even tactical stove, I don’t know. Let me quickly show you what parts are here and I need to set it up, because the temperature will drop in lets say, one hour, by five degrees.

This is the main baking style, if I can say. There’s one rubber band which is holding this part. And inside I have other part. This is just the first part. Inside I packed some wire, if I will need it. And the other side you can take this out and here I have extra holding so I do not waste the space.

So what it is, is elbow for the heating or cooling ducts system and it’s very easy to put it together, just on the top put this and it’s basically reduction from 6 inch to 4 inch and on the other end, I have lets say, door like this and when you need to feed it you just open it and close it. That’s all.

The special attention was paid to come up with kind of portable chimney and it cannot be simpler. It’s just the flexible dryer hose which you can extend almost 8 feet. When you are done, you just make it small again and put it back into the stove.

So my plan is take the stove place it somewhere here, it has little legs which nicely bury so it’s going nowhere and just attach the chimney simply like this (fits chimney to top) that’s why we have reduction from six to four inch, for the chimney. Just like this and I plan to put this stove somewhere here so I can feel it when I will be sleeping or when I will just sit inside. And for now I just need to figure it out how to attach the chimney.

Alright, chimney’s up. I just put bigger stick and used the wire to secure it so it’s not touching tarp or anything, so there is space here, there is space, but it should not be that hot at zero Fahrenheit. And here is the end. I also put this reflective cheap sleeping path around when I will go sleep, I will just close it like this, somehow, so it will first block the heat from the stove to melt the tarp somehow and also it will reflect the heat back to me inside the shelter.

We tried to maximize the heating potential of the simple A-frame shelter and now I will spend my time with collecting firewood and starting the stove. You certainly will be with me when I will start that little thing up, so hopefully it will help me to get through the night. And also I put thermometer over here probably cannot see that because this camera do not focus that close, but it’s showing around 5 Fahrenheit.

Before the sun will go down completely as you can see I have 20 minutes – 40 minutes and I just wanted to show you the shelter from a little distance, so there is some kind of idea of what it looks like.

This is the extra wood which I will leave probably outside just to grab overnight if needed and I made a pile of some bigger pieces back there.

So here is a little update from inside. First I check the temperature outside, it’s around 4 degrees. Here I have 15.4 and I didn’t start the little stove yet. I closed myself here little bit with the reflective sleeping pad, here is the wood and I put good sleeping pad under me and I make little bed area.

Army BB cover, the mountain sleeping bag and my summer sleeping bag. So it’s somehow similar to military system but this is basically my system which I had in my home so I just put it together. I will show you in the morning how it looks like together and hopefully it will be warm.

Ok, I prepared the stove to be started (tries to light wood)… nope. Let me try something else. You probably know I hate to start fire with a lighter so I will do everything to avoid that.

Ok, second attempt I add good old dry in, here we are (fire lights). The first official fire in our little stove.

So here is little update on my situation. Conditions are tough, I can tell you. It’s really cold outside, it’s around zero and I started with cooking finally. I have the can, I’m glad I took it because it’s very hard in this condition to cook something outside. Stove is working nicely and noodles are heat up ready to eat. I cannot wait. Temperature at the bottom of the shelter if I can say, 19.2. And the dinner is served.

This is my feet heating set up (wiggles bare feet in front of the stove). Also for the special situation, special drink is needed. Captain Morgan is the best! Thank you bro.

Ok guys, before I will go to sleep, I want to show you my sleeping setup or sleeping system. This is the army BB cover, you know that, the old sleeping bag and I just add snaps so I can use it the same way as the army original one and this one is the mountain sleeping bag. So I will get into the sleeping system still nicely hot, I’m not planning to leave at all, I will probably sleep as a baby. So see you tomorrow guys.

Good morning! We have snow coming from the sky, okay. Not bad night, um it was really cold to be outside without any kind of really good shelter or heating but I woke up lets say around 4am and not because of the cold but I had some stomach issues if I can say. And after that I started the stove again for lets say hour or something like that, I don’t know, I fell asleep again probably around 5:30 until now.

It was not bad, it’s nice inside the sleeping bags, it’s warm, but definitely stay inside if you can in minus 3 Fahrenheit it’s not a bad idea. I will pack everything up, stove and all other stuff and I hope this video was interesting for you and some kind of special as I promised at the beginning and you will return to watch our videos going forward. Don’t forget about the badge, if you want one just send us your mailing address and subscribe to our channel and you will get it.

If you go somewhere at minus 3 Fahrenheit overnight just please think that it’s not fun. It’s not a joke, you have to be prepared for that, so take some very good clothes, good sleeping bag, some cover and especially something that will heat you up quickly.

Thank you very much for watching everybody and as always, take care.

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