>go on a 60 mile hike in Finland
>thought it would be a good hike
>turns out that Finland is really cold in the winter
>way colder than I thought it would be
>temperatures dropped to -30 Celsius
>completely unprepared
>wearing full British milsurp
>spent the whole trip shivering and smoking cigs to keep hands warm
>made a makeshift shelter out of my tarp and some branches
>collapsed in the middle of the night
>had to spend the night huddled under a pile of leaves and branches
>trying not to freeze to death

>thought I saw a bear
>heard a rustling in the bushes
>saw a huge shape moving towards me and panicked
>ran as fast as I could but tripped over
>wake up later
>just my imagination
>there wasn't actually a bear

>finally made it back to civilization
>was so cold and exhausted that I could barely move
>managed to catch my return flight home and vowed never to go on a winter hike unprepared again

>tl;dr: my 60 mile hike in Finland was a total disaster and I almost froze to death because I was unprepared for the cold weather and I thought I saw a bear that didn't actually exist
I thought I would be prepared for winter - spent last winter preparing in Scotland which is meant to be harsher (because of strong, cold jetstream winds) but that didn't seem to help.
Are there any secrets to winter camping that I should know? Experience and YouTube doesn't help at all.