Are you going winter camping and your clothes keep getting wet?
Do you stress about how to dry your clothes when the temperature is so low?
If you’ve ever been camping in cold weather, you know how important staying dry is to keep warm.
But sometimes, there’s no avoiding getting wet.
This is when it’s critical to know how to dry clothes when winter camping.
When drying clothes while camping in winter, you may start to panic. Cold temperatures work just as well with drying out clothing as heat does, but the water often freezes before leaving the material. Instead, follow these steps:
- Get Them Out Of The Wet Place
- Allow For Air Circulation
- Add Heat
- Keep Them Moving
- Sleep With Them On (Optional In Certain Situations)
Look at the rest of the article for specific directions and recommendations.
What You’ll Need
This section covers the items we recommend you have to help you dry your clothes.
Rope – A rope or line is a must to get air circulating under and around the material.
It doesn’t need to fancy, but we always recommend a durable and light rope when camping for multiple uses.
Check out the TRIWONDER paracords.
They’re affordable, durable, and serve many uses in camping.
Heater – While it’s certainly possible to dry clothing without heat, heat does work faster.
A campfire will do the job, but you need to be able to start it.
Plus, your clothes will smell like smoke.
If this is fine with you, go for it!
Otherwise, check out a portable heater.
It doesn’t get more classic than the Mr. Heater Buddy portable propane heater.
I’ve personally used this when hunting and camping in the cold Michigan winters.
Cover – The first step to drying out clothes is to stop getting them wet!
If you don’t want to bring your wet stuff into your tent, you’ll need another form of cover to keep them out of the snow or cold rain.
Tarps serve a useful purpose for this.
We like the Terra Hiker camping tarp.
It’s light, tough, and water-resistant.
Sleeping Bag – Sleeping bags are perfect for drying out clothes in one of two ways.
First, they are a cozy place to huddle up while your wet clothes dry out a little.
Second, they actually will draw the moisture out of your clothes into the air if you sleep in wet clothes.
I didn’t believe it either until I tried it (but more on this later).
Get a good cold weather sleeping bag like the Coleman 0° F mummy sleeping bag.
Instructions On How To Dry Clothes When Winter Camping
This section covers the steps and suggestions for drying clothes when camping in winter.
Not every step needs to be completed, but keep them all in mind when your stuff is soaked.
#1 Get Them Out Of The Wet Place
Get your wet clothes away from the thing making it wet!
Sure, this seems obvious if it’s raining or you fell in a stream, but you’d be shocked how many people stand there in the snow and wonder how they got wet.
Snow may not seem like it right away, but it’s just as wet as rain.
Use a tarp, tree cover, or tent to get the clothing out of the wet area.
If you have a campfire going, use the tarp to half-cover the fire (not too close, though!).
With the fire half-covered for you, the smoke will still escape.
It traps the extra heat, which helps to dry clothes.
#2 Allow For Air Circulation
If it’s too cold to wear, take the clothes off and lay them on a line or rope.
Warning! Do this only if you have other clothes and enough heat nearby.
Your body will warm up and dry out the wet clothes in time.
But if you take everything off, you have no protective layers.
If you’re hanging up clothes, you want as much of the material exposed to air as possible.
This helps the moisture leave the clothing quicker.
But you need the next two steps…
#3 Add Heat
Heat isn’t an absolute need when drying clothes, but it will work faster than cold.
Use your heater or campfire to dry the clothes out.
Warning! If using fire, make sure to keep an eye on the clothes.
They probably won’t burn up, but embers may burn holes in them.
You won’t enjoy your jacket when it’s leaking air and water.
#4 Keep Them Moving
Whether you use heat or not, the biggest struggle with drying out clothes in winter camping is how the water molecules freeze quickly.
To prevent this, they need energy added to them.
How do we do this?
Either use heat or keep moving the clothes.
Your socks won’t freeze if you turn them over and move them every couple of minutes.
In time, they’ll dry.
If you have to wear wet clothing, moving is perfect for speeding along the process.
It does two things:
- Prevents freezing
- Increases your body heat
#5 Sleep With Them On (Optional In Certain Situations)
If you have a quality sleeping bag, you have another option for drying out clothes:
Wear them to sleep.
What? Crazy, right?
It’s not.
Your body heats the clothing.
The sleeping bag traps the heat, further increasing the air temperature.
This causes the water in your clothes to enter the air.
When the air in the bag is humid, it needs to move to drier air.
The moisture goes through the material of the sleeping bag and out into the tent.
It really works.
Note: Don’t do this with a down sleeping bag.
Down loses its insulating properties when even a little wet.
If you’re a visual learner, check out this video.
Note: This is on drying clothes in general, but the technique is roughly the same.
Final Thoughts
We hope this guide on how to dry clothes when winter camping.
A trip-ender is avoidable if you know what to do, and now you do!
Just keep the clothes from freezing, keep the air circulating, and add some heat if possible.
In time, they’ll dry out.
Don’t forget the sleeping bag trick either; it does work!
Now get outside and enjoy the fresh air!