last weekend i was camping in the ardennes in belgium. i was sleeping on an insulmat ether thermo 6 in combination with a PipeDream 400, while wearing merino baselayers .there was stil a lot of snow and at night it was a bit below zero. the first night i was sleeping on the snow and felt the cold through my mat. on the top side i was warm. and the second night i removed most of the snow and still felt the cold getting through. now i am a bit confused about the tog ratings on the POE website it says the ether has a tog rating of 3 to 4 but a expedition mat from multimat has a tog of 2.75. higher is better, right? so would a ThinLight™ Insulation Pad from grossamer be enough to upgrade my sleeping system.
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 Hi JP I was also this weekend in the Ardennes - nearby Mont Rigi. First night was -12 and the second night was heavy snow and -9. I was using my Vaude Power Taurus Ultralight pitched on about 30cm snow. I used 2 sleeping mats (no brand names) and what helped amazingly was a piece of silver reflector on top ( the same as you buy in the DIY shop to put behind the radiators in your house). Sleeping bag was synthetic TNF Cat's Meow (rated at 0, -7 and -24). No cold at all and slept like a log the first night. Only complaint was the 2nd night when it snowed, I woke up with water dripping on my face - had about 20cm snow on my tent and it acted like insulation, warming up the inside of the tent so much, I was too warm and all the frozen condensation from the first night had melted and wet my inner tent. Anyone had this experience before and any ideas of how to prevent it ? ( I closed off the whole tent at the ground with snow all around).
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 Hi Guys, A bit off topic, where ye wild or site camping? Thanks, Stephen
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Hi Stephen Stayed at a campsite - only person there !
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Hi Belgian Hiker, I didn't relaise the camp sites where open during the winter, thats interesting to know as I am only a two hour drive from the Ardennes 
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I stayed at Camping La Plage in Robertville - would hate to be there in summer with all the caravans and open air pool, but in winter it's perfect !
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hello belgian hiker -12 is pretty cold. When i was there it was maybe -3/4. i don't think my sleepingbag, ph400 would manage -12. does the silver reflector make a lot of noise everytime you move? I was following this http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/forummessages/mps/dt/4/UTN/42399/V/8/SP/ so i was fist looking at evazote, but that is pretty hard to get here in holland. now i am trying to find some jiffyfoam captian paranoia was talking about. altough this is problably open cell and evazote is closed cell. don't know how much difference this makes. the open cell wil be lighter per m2. i am not car camping, so i am weight conscious. two sleepingmats would be to heavy. hi stephen. i was wild camping
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Hi JP The silver reflector makes no noise at all and really makes a world of a difference on keeping you warm. I've seen on the thread you have been following that somebody mentioned the foil/foam used when you put down laminate floor. What I have is almost the same and weighs 93g. One mat I used is a self inflating mat from Karimor that weighs 492g and the other oen I used is one of those foam mats that weighs 348g. I'm also not into car camping, but this trip was to test everything out to see if I didn't freeze to death. My friend on the trip used a silver survival bag on top of one mat and was cold. A useful link for webcam/ wind /temperature data for the 'Hoge Venen' is: http://www.kmi.be/meteo/view/nl/4909966-Snowcam+Mont+Rigi.html A word of warning about wild camping in the Belgian Ardennes - watch out for the wild bore ! On a trip a few months back, we woke about 3am to four wild bore poking our tents and not keen to move when we tried to chase them away ! Thankfully they did !
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Hi Guys, I have been to Ardennes walking a few times during the summer and cross country skiing in the Winter, to be honest I did not see any good wild spots but I didn't stray far off the trails, I would be interested in finding some Belgian Hiker, Was the camp site actually open. Cheers, Stephen
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 UK source for evazote, as highly recommended at BPL USA: Evazote Shouldn't cost v much to ship to Holland, JP Harten2
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thanks kingkong but the standard shipping costs are 53 pounds. i will try the reflector foil, they also have some high efficiency foil you stick on the radiator instead of the wall. see what the difference is my only concern is how durable it is. how many times you can fold it without it tearing.
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