New, modern yurt build in Mongolia

[UKadventurer]

How's your winter going, guys? Are any of you living in your yurts?

In my case, I think we're over the worst of it and I'm VERY relieved. This winter was colder than most. Every 10 years or so, we get a colder than usual one. This has been one. Before now, the lowest I've experienced is -46C (-50F) in January 2011 when I lived in an apartment in the city. The last couple of nights were in the -40's (same in C or F). Take a look:



It reached -43C (-45F) ambient temperature on Monday night, -41C (-42F) on Tuesday and then just -34C (-30F) last night. Luckily the forecast is trending warmer in the -30C's to mid -20C's. Which seems positively tropical for me. Bear in mind I'm at a higher altitude than the city by 400m (1300') so my actual temperatures could be different. Probably a few degrees less. Potentially windier too.

Take a look:



How did I manage? I say "I" not "we" because my wife has a sick aunt with acute liver failure and is the designated caregiver in the family. So she's been staying bedside in a city hospital in a toasty room. It's just been me at the camp for going on 2 weeks. What difference does that make? Well, at night, it's very comforting to share warmth under the blankets. She's a great bed warmer amongst here many talents. I've missed her.

I've actually been warm enough at a significant financial cost. My December electric bill was US$370. January's will possibly be higher. This is with cheap electricity rates of about 4-5 cents per kWh. I need to heat not only the 2 gers and bathroom connection but a well-house (critical components) and an insulated shipping container. To at least keep them comfortably above freezing.

Luckily, our other living expenses are very low. We own the land and improvement free and clear.

It's actually been more stressful than anything else. I need to monitor the heat of the outbuildings (well house and insulated container) with an app, especially of the well house. If I'm careless I could freeze the 2 pumps and rupture them losing my water supply. That already happened once with the well house to gers pump. This didn't happen this time because I was vigilant enough.

Indoors, it's cozy enough (at a cost) with underfloor

heating

barely keeping up and I can have wood fires in the evening to reach a very nice room temperature but I can't keep a wood fire going all night. The fire needs frequent feeding to stay burning. Because of this morning temps in my bedroom usually drop to 10C (50F) which I've got used to. Then the sun comes up about 10:20am in our high valley and I can turn the

heating

off entirely and soak in the passive solar heat.

The 5 animals (3 cats and 2 dogs) are also something I worry about more than myself. The larger dog has a well insulated kennel but he doesn't always use it at night. His choice. The oldest cat has one too. He always uses his. The puppy is about 2.5 months old now and just sleeps on a sheepskin rug outside. She seems to suffer no ill effects at all from sleeping outside, shockingly. She's a big ball of fur now so I'm sure that helps. I thought she'd be able to share one of the kennels but that hasn't happened. 2 of the privileged cats get to stay indoors at least at night.

The big problem is when I have to work outside. I'm constantly monitoring my electricity and tripped circuits happen sometimes. I have to go to the main panel (down the hill at the power pole) or the sub-panel in the shipping container to diagnose faults. This is when I suffer with frozen hands. I can't work on electricity problems with thick gloves but when I wear thinner gloves that allow enough dexterity, my hands go numb. I try to work fast but my hands don't allow it. I get frustrated but I need to finish the job. No choice.

So I've decided that I need a bit of reorganization of the circuit breakers. I really need sub-panels in the gers themselves for heating, light and sockets. It's not a difficult job and it's indoors so that's pleasant. This change makes it convenient to reset a tripped circuit breaker and diagnose problems (loose wires, overloads, etc) without facing harsh outside conditions.

For example, last night, the floor heating circuit tripped in my bedroom ger. I didn't notice because I was asleep but if I had, I would've had to get dressed, go outside to the shipping container and reset the circuit.

We do have some advantages despite the extreme cold. We don't get winter storms when it's this cold. OR much wind so there's not much wind chill. I don't need to go anywhere beyond the property so I more or less hibernate and only do the absolutely essential chores. I'm well stocked with food, firewood and propane. All in all, it's not been as bad as I thought it might be.

[UKadventurer]

Continuing the topic of winter life in the mountains in a 'ger' (yurt), I thought I'd add something about clothing.

As a holiday present my wife had a winter 'deel' made for me. It's a traditional robe worn by Mongolians for eons. I got the winter one, lined with sheepskin. It can be made with lambskin but it costs 2x more. This cost US$230 custom made for me.



Pros: Subjectively it looks pretty badass. It's very long and will cover my boots. You can just throw it on right out of bed and go outside.

Cons: it's freaking heavy. It's made of sheepskin, not just the wool, plus the outer textile material. The weight is 4.5kg (10lb) and you feel it. Not very well sealed from wind which can blow underneath. Not as warm or as light as a down parka but more durable. Not as flexible as a parka and a bit of trip hazard. The sheepskin is still stiff. I hope it breaks in.

Typically I've been a fan of down mountain parkas from way back in the UK, USA and in recent years in Mongolia. I've got 3 now. My go to parka is a Rab brand (UK company) which I got cheap second-hand from my nephew who lived in Mongolia and then left. I think I gave him about $50. I've done tons of mountain climbs or just city walks to work. I still use it if it's not awfully cold.



Pros: it's pretty warm but requires layering if it's colder. Decent for hiking when you don't want to overheat. The hood covers part of your face too. It's light and highly compressible.

Cons: it uses a light fabric which is prone to cuts and tears but can be patched if not too bad. It uses sewn-through panels which causes some cold spots.

I always have a wool and fleece hat. If I'm going to climb an exposed mountain, I'll take dual-lens goggles because the wind chill is killer. In the next photo it was only -25C but there was a high wind. I needed to cover every bit of my skin. A fleecy balaclava is also essential to cover everything the goggles don't cover.



I recently got some locally made boots for about $90. I wear them on the daily. They are cowhide are fully lined with fur. Dog fur, I think. This photo also shows my fleece leggings which I usually wear under jeans or work pants.

Pros of the local boots: slip on, very warm, socks are optional, good lugged soles.

Cons: They wouldn't be a great choice for hiking far. They are a bit loose and can't be tightened much at all. Snow gets in unless I put my pants over the boot.

If I'm going hiking, I'll wear some Columbia winter hiking boots which use synthetic

insulation

. "Thinsulate" maybe and a reflective lining. For snow, you'll want a gaiter to seal out the deeper snow.



In preparation for moving to the mountains, I decided to upgrade my old down parka with higher performance Rab mountaineers parkas. They have a higher loft filling and use box construction instead of sewn-through, so no cold spots. Also I got one for the wife. They cost about $370-400 new.




Pros: extremely light and compressible. Extremely warm. Good hood with some face protection. Perfect for all day or night outside activities.

Cons: the nylon is even lighter than my previous jacket and can be snagged, torn very easily. I have to be careful what kind of activity I do. Construction is out of the question. Sometimes too warm and I don't think I'd hike in it but I'd probably pack it in case I need it.

Finally, to gloves. I don't have anything mega special. I generally wear some cheap wool and fleece gloves. An overglove can be added if I'm out for a long time and/or it's very windy. Generally, I just put my hands in my pockets if they get too cold, if possible.

My daily gloves are the cheap (about $10) wool and fleece lined ones in most photos. These are adequate for a short time.

The Columbia winter gloves came with fleece liners but I'd probably swap them for the wooly ones and liners if it got extremely cold and windy.

This is how they originally came:



But I've found this a better combination in the worst of weather:



I bought some electric glove liners but one has failed already. I'll try to fix it because there was some merit to this method with an overglove of course.

Regarding socks, I just use hiker socks (smartwool, etc) or some heated socks I got last year. Nothing special to say about those. The heated socks are pretty good when inactive but for hiking they'd probably wear out too quickly. Wool is better for hiking.

For me, my hands are the most vulnerable. Then feet. I'm almost never cold in my core area. That's probably pretty normal for humans but my hands get numb probably sooner than most people. I may buy some locally made fur mittens. The winter is far from over.

[TSRalex]

My recommendation:

https://tritongear.ru/

I´m sure, that this stuff - if used in onion principle - will meet your expectations....

https://tritongear.ru/muzhskoj-assortiment/


Last possibility would be clothes from this supplier:



They have nice thermo-hoods for Yurts too:

[UKadventurer]

Thanks for the recommendations. I think we're pretty good on winter clothes now EXCEPT maybe gloves. I like the mitts on the coat and how they are connected to the jacket.

I like fingerless gloves with over mitten covers. I used to have some of these (from a company called REI) years ago. Good when you need to use your fingers but not really warm enough for Mongolia. An over-mitten would be needed for our winter, preferably.



This is what I might look for locally. Fur mittens. Can be worn with a thin underglove then held near the sleeves with a loop through the inside of the coat.



Any yurt cover would have to be custom made for our 'gers'. It's very non-standard shape. However, I think it's actually quite well insulated already. We added thick, interior, door curtains for the glass doors. Nothing for the windows yet. These glass areas are the zones of greatest heat loss (doors, windows and crown). We've got single layer canvas covers for the crowns but they go on the outside. That's a hassle to take on and off every day. Our gers are very tall. We benefit from the sun in the day so we'd prefer an interior solution.

I do feel a cold draught around the bottom ring. I piled snow around the bottom edge to a depth of about 30cm and it helped a bit but didn't completely stop the draught. An insulated, windproof skirt to seal the bottom of the canvas might help a lot.

I'll be thinking of improvements to better insulate but probably for next winter. Maybe I can do window covers this year because winter is long here and it might reduce my electric bills and pay off that way.