FeatherSticks · Water
How to Keep Water from Freezing When Camping in Winter
Your bottle freezes at the lid first. Turn it upside down.
Quick facts
- Main trick
- Bottles upside down, insulated
- Never freeze
- Hollow-fibre filters — keep them warm
- At night
- Warm bottle in the sleeping bag
- Safety
- Never walk onto ice for water
What you need
- Wide-mouth bottles with a reliable seal
- Insulated bottle sleeves
- Vacuum flask (0.5–1 L)
- Single-wall steel bottle for hot water and thawing
- Zip bag for the filter
- Chlorine dioxide tablets as backup
- Stove with winter gas mix or liquid fuel, windscreen
Step by step
-
1 Carry bottles upside down
Ice forms at the top of the water. With the cap down, the lid end freezes last. Use wide-mouth bottles in insulated sleeves.
-
2 Start the day with warm water
Fill bottles with warm water in the morning and carry a vacuum flask with a hot drink. Warm water takes far longer to freeze.
-
3 Keep the filter warm
Frost can destroy hollow-fibre filters invisibly. Carry the filter in a zip bag in an inner pocket by day and in your sleeping bag at night.
-
4 Blow water back out of the tube
After each sip, blow the water in a bladder tube back into the bladder. In deep cold, leave the bladder at home and use bottles.
-
5 Warm bottle in the sleeping bag
Fill a suitable bottle with hot, not boiling, water, close it tightly, put it in a sock and take it into your sleeping bag.
-
6 Stay off ice you cannot judge
Never walk onto lake or stream ice to fetch water unless it is certainly safe. In doubt, stay on shore and melt snow instead.
Common mistakes
- Carrying bottles upright in an outside pocket in frost.
- Using narrow-neck bottles or sports caps in deep cold.
- Leaving a wet hollow-fibre filter in the pack or tent porch overnight.
- Leaving water in a bladder tube after drinking.
- Filling the sleeping bag bottle with boiling water or using a bottle that leaks.
- Cutting chemical contact times short in cold water.
- Walking onto lake ice to fetch water.