>>904704Get wrecked, son, never gone winter camping and this weekend is going to be -20C.
Fire is priority numero uno. Even if its snowing on you and this wind isn't too bad, you'll be fine with just a fire and no shelter. It won't be fun but you won't die. Get lots of firewood so you can have a relatively large fire going all night. Most people over emphasize the need to have a roof over your head. A lean-to or whatever you make that simply stops the wind without providing much overhead shelter is fine. It really doesn't matter if it snows on you as long as you're covered up as you should be. So.. just stop the wind.
Don't do anything that doesn't let you keep one side completely open so you can expose yourself to the heat of the fire. The warmth from the fire is way way way more important than any insulation you get from a shelter that completely covers you up. So no full A-frames. There are some shelters that have the roof slanting downward, trapping warm air, those are fine but take forever to build. Keep it simple.
When its really cold like this its better to actually stay up during most of the night doing work and sleep during the warmer daytime if possible. Sometimes its just too dark.
Because its pretty cold out, you might have to get up in the middle of the night and start moving around a bit to get warmed up. Sometimes you have to do this several times if your shelter sucks or its just cold.
As for the fire with a backstop, don't bother. Its not worth the time and effort. Just build the kind of thing in the pic. It will shoot heat out from the sides because of the log on top. This way you can have your friend on the other side with his own shelter. Even if its only for one person its more efficient to do this and this long fire will only need replenishing once or maybe twice during the night.
Ok that was fun seeya
