Out camping and hiking with the NVA Zeltbahn ponchos. Ive had this idea for a while wearing two polish lavvu ponchos over each other. But the East German ponchos were more suited for this. I was afraid things would get too thick and heavy on the feel but there was hardly any difference. The dispersed weight like this makes it disappear. The two layered canvas made it a very warm poncho and it wouldn't surprise me if it can stand up against rain and wind really good. It's difficult to film and explain exactly how I did this. When lining up the ponchos make sure to have the armholes etc the right way. There are two ways to do this. Simply unbutton everything but the bottom part of the ponchos preventing them drag into the ground and put on one poncho at a time over each other. However I wanted to take things one step further. Two ponchos can be buttoned together with two rows of buttons making a tight seal against weather for shelter making. I wanted to just pull off the poncho (ponchos) and have a huge tarp to make a shelter right away... and don't spend too much time fiddling with all those buttons. Specially nice if its cold weather outside. All lavvuiers messing with metal buttons in cold and ice with bare hands know what I'm talking about. People complain the buttons are hard on the hands but that's just an issue first time. After a few uses things get easier. Solution was half way there. Leaving one row of buttons undone, leaving a flap left to be able to button against the outer poncho layer on the other side to have the poncho buttoned around you. The under layer of that side can hang freely.
Improvised 6 shelter setups on site. Came out pretty nice. I can also think about a few lean too's with floor and a few on the fly, but felt 6 was enough this time. The shelter I decided to use here was huge to sleep under for me and plenty of room for my gear. I gave each shelter a number hardcoded in the video so I can discuss any of them with you guys.
Second day the weather cleared up in the afternoon and went for a good hike in temperatures that dropped rapidly. Awesome views and ended the trip with an hour of listening to the ice sing in a dark golden sunset.
As always thank you for watching!
#bushcraft #camping #survival #asmr
