Tips On How To Build a Winter Campfire

Enjoying a campfire with your family and friends is not only done during the summer months. In fact, even during the coldest months of winter, outdoor campfire can still be enjoyed.

Starting a fire in the snow during winter is not as hard as it seems. The challenge is on how to maintain the fire throughout the night for everyone to enjoy.

Here are few tips on how you can start and maintain the perfect winter campfire.

1. Choose Your Location

Choosing the right location for you to set-up your fire is the first step to a successful winter outdoor campfire. After you have chosen your location, shovel the snow beneath you until you reach a solid platform for you to put a base of your logs in which you will be starting your fire on. If the snow is too thick, pack the snow down and build a solid platform in which you can set-up your materials for starting a fire.

When building your fire on snow, dig a 2 feet deep pit into the snow. Cut thick logs into the same lengths and line them at the bottom of your pit to make a solid surface to build your fire. Use any materials you can find to build your fire and focus on keeping your fire going for as long as you can.

2. Gather Your Firewood

If you do not have enough firewood to last through the night, then I suggest you gather some firewood. Search your area for fallen timber, tree branches or anything that can help sustain your fire.  If the snow is heavy and packable, try searching for dry wood under thick vegetation.

3. Starting Your Fire

If you plan to have a winter outdoor campfire, just remember that starting a fire during this time of the year can be a difficult task to accomplish without the proper fire starting tools. That is why using fire starter from your local outdoor store, such as tubes of fire ribbon and tablets made of petroleum can be a great help.  For your source of kindling, fallen pine needles, pine cones, and bark will do the job.

4. Maintaining Your Fire

After you have successfully started your fire, maintaining it will be your next challenge. To keep your fire going, surround it with any logs that you have not used yet so that the heat of your fire will dry them out. Doing this will make it easier for the logs to burn once you need them. Also, all of the other things that you have collected like those small tree branches and fallen timbers will help provide extra stash to add to your campfire as the night moves on.

Also Read: Starting a Fire in Wet Weather

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