Hanging in the wind with no help from my high/wide pitched tarp, HHSS

[BillyBob58]

Was out hanging at 36F with 9 mph winds fully hitting the hammock. This has been enough with some of my UQs ( with the tarp pitched high and wide and no UQP) to cause a nice toasty warm back(even at temps well above 36) to be transformed to cool or even down right cold at during a peak gust.

This basic Hennessy Hammock Super Shelter(HHSS) system has - as best I can remember- proven just OK for me right at freezing. IOW, not actually getting that toasty warm feeling but not cold either. But probably not much different than what I feel while sitting in my recliner in PJs, just neutral and comfortable, neither aware of warmth or cold. I find that acceptable for a ~ 20 oz system, and if I need a bit more just adding a fleece jacket below the pad makes a noticeable difference. Or, I add even more when necessary.

But I don't think at those 32F temps during early testing I was dealing with any wind, like today. I can't remember for sure, but mostly I was shielded in some way from the wind. There was one trip- my 1st with a hammock- where I was blasted by the wind, and did fine, but I'm not sure of the temps. First night(no wind) was about 22F, the other nights were still cold but not that cold, maybe 30s-40s, but I'm not sure.

So, this time, completely exposed to the wind, I was toasty on top in a hooded SMR 30F Inferno(17.8 oz), and just warm enough on bottom, about as usual I guess. However, when the largest gusts would hit, I could not really tell any difference, even though my hammock was moving around and the net was flapping in the wind. If there was a dif, it was very minor. I know from experience that with out good protection from a tarp, a sheltered site, or this under cover, it would have been VERY noticeable.

My daughter happened to come by near the end of my nap. I heard a voice say "You beat all", IOW I must be insane to be laying around in that biting wind. But, a rare opportunity for me, she wanted to take and share pics of this preposterous sight! ( you would think my family would be used to me and my hammocks in the cold by now) In this pic I am using the built in hood that is part of this <18 oz TQ, and I am totally warm on top, and warm enough on bottom.


in this pic, maybe you can tell that the brown sil-nylon under cover(UC) is barely pulled up above my left shoulder and elbow. That is because I have rotated the UC so that it is highly biased towards my right side, the windward side. All of that cold wind is just going right over the top of my body by a good distance, so IMHO the TQ, as well as the under insulation, is getting some much needed wind protection. For some reason, itlooks like the UC is coming up to about an inch below the net, but I don't think it was that high, I don't know why it looks that way. It is not that high, but it is plenty high to block all wind.

[BillyBob58]

I put a fleece jacket under my butt and lower back, under the OCF pad, and that boosted me to the toasty warm category pretty quick, a big help as always. But the temps had gone up a few degrees, so that probably helped as well no doubt. Wind still made no difference though.

[BillyBob58]

I guess my personal temp approximate rating for this system, without adding any clothing and such under the hammock, remains right about freezing. Last night, with just the basic system, at 25F -no wind, but it wouldn't have made any difference- I was OK. Very warm on top with an SMR 30F TQ and it's built in hood, and at least OK on the bottom. I felt some cool spots along my left leg, but not enough to bother me. Usually, I do a mod for this that involves an extra piece of thin shock cord that pulls the left side of the pad/space blanket up more snugly against the left side of the hammock, but I did not bother with this last night.

Surprisingly, there were times after I had been in for a while, that I actually felt some warmth(rather than just neither cold nor warm) against my back and butt, the usual toughest part to warm. The only actual cool spots were along my left leg, easily fixed. Do to my usual inability to sleep in the back yard, I did not stay out all night. And we know how things seem to really cool off during those deep sleep hours just and right after dawn. So even though I was fine at 25F, I will continue to call it about 32F for me. It has been consistent for me with my on and off use over 12 years.

Went back out early this morning and replaced all of that with the SMR Inferno 30F UQ. It had warmed up to the low 30s. I really like that UQ, and I think it actually felt a bit warmer than the HHSS, especially in the legs. But with my tarp pitched high, I felt even the smallest breezes, it made a noticeable difference. But of course we know well that we have to keep our UQs out of the win, that is a basic. It's just that all of that is already taken care of in the HHSS, every time.

[BillyBob58]

There is a thread in progress about the SMR Ninox hammock and SMR in general. I just stumled onto this thread, where I was testing their very UL(18 oz with hood) 30F TQ in the mid 20s- low 30s, so as a ref to the general quality of SMR products, I think I will link to this thread over there.