 You know, everyone always talks about, oh, the winter is coming, right? Because we like to sound like we're cool, like in the Game of Thrones thing. I've lived in the North my whole life. And let me tell you, I know the winter. Hey everyone, Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense. And today we're gonna talk about winterizing your kit. We're gonna go through some things that I think you should just have in your kit as winter comes. A couple notes here. One, you're gonna carry more stuff in the winter. There's just, there's not a lot of way around that, okay? It's colder, you need more layers. So you have to carry more stuff. That doesn't necessarily mean it weighs a ton, but you do need probably a bigger pack. So I'm a huge fan of the yote pack, but when it comes to the winter, I'm just, I'm sorry, the yote pack isn't gonna make it. I'm gonna up my game to like a 24 hour pack, not because it's gonna sustain me for 24 hours, but because I need the room in order to be able to keep the stuff that I think is important to have when it comes to winter time. So I went out recently on a patrol and the first snowfall of the year, it was like 20, 25 degrees out, whatever. And for the most part, I was pretty squared away, but I definitely thought about it after, and I thought there are some things that I'm going to be sure that are just live in my pack until all the snow melts and it's warm again. Because, you know, again, you get out in the winter and you're gonna get wet and you're gonna get cold. You're always gonna be cold, because it's cold, and you got a good chance of getting wet, and then you combine those and it gets much worse, right? So there are just some items that I think you should always have in your pack as we go into the winter. Now, this is primarily for my friends north of that Mason-Dixon line. I will be honest, I grew up in the state of Minnesota, and I am convinced that there is winter in Minnesota, maybe North Dakota, maybe parts of Montana, parts of northern Wisconsin, and then like everything else is a second rate winter. I don't live in Minnesota anymore. I moved just barely south and in South Dakota, and winter's more mild here, okay? It's just not as big of a deal. So for all my friends that are even further south, right? You're down in Nebraska or Missouri or Georgia, God help you. I'm sorry, but you know, again, my friends south of that Mason-Dixon line, you don't know what winter is. You don't know what cold is. Now, I'm not saying it doesn't get cold sometimes and maybe it gets below freezing every once in a while, someone in the south is gonna screw you, Dylan. But my point remains the same. You don't have the duration of cold, right? I'm talking about weather where it gets to zero degrees and stays that way for weeks, okay? Because I've lived through that. I've grown up in that. To me, that's what winter is, and these other things just aren't as cold. Doesn't mean they don't have their own challenges. If things are heating up to thawing during the day and then below freezing at night and it's doing that seesaw thing, that presents some really unique challenges, like not getting wet, right? That can be a real problem in the field long-term. But by and large, I don't think that, I don't consider anything outside of that deep cold to be real winter to me, but that's just my own personal bias and I'm acknowledging that at the forefront. So that's enough rambling. Let's take a look at some things that you should just have, I think, in your pack until the snow melts. Here we go. Okay, first things first. You need to dump the water bladder. I'm a big fan of water bladders. I love running water bladders. I would prefer to run a water bladder. But the hose that comes over the sleeve or whatever out of the water bladder is what freezes. Now, I know some of you guys might have some systems that are like, you know, make sure you're always drinking on it or whatever to make sure that hose doesn't freeze and hey, knock yourself out. If you got a system, don't let me ruin it for you. But again, deep cold, I have found that that thing will just freeze up the moment I'm not using it. So you gotta run a real canteen preferably, you know, as wide of a mouth as possible to help prevent these from freezing. And eventually, you know, this is gonna freeze being on the outside of your pack, right? So again, if it gets into a deep cold, you're talking about like keeping one of these next to your body so it doesn't freeze. You know, maybe stuff in some hand warmers in here. Like you're gonna have to do some other things, right? But at the bare minimum, put your water in water bottles. That's gonna help it not freeze. You could also take this pouch and invert it, right? So that when it does freeze, it freezes on the bottom of the canteen and not on the top so you could still drink it. Again, depending on how long you're gonna be out, what you're doing, you gotta do some special stuff to try to keep your water from freezing as much as possible. But bare minimum, start running canteens in the winter, okay? Now, I just have this in my pack because I stuffed it all in here to make this video, okay? It doesn't actually all necessarily go in the pack. First thing I got in here is I have a set of gaiters, okay? I have a set of waterproof gaiters. Now, again, these aren't living in my pack. These are actually gonna get wrapped around your boot. That's what happens, okay? This is where your heel goes. This goes under your boot. And then this comes around into the front of your boot like that, okay? And then this is just a waterproof lining of some sort and helps keep the water off your shins. Big fan of the gaiters, particularly again in the winter, they're gonna keep your lower legs dry, keep from getting snow, getting kicked up, dirt, mud, whatever. So I think gaiters are definitely a must have in the winter. I have mine in green, you know, I think a coyote brown or a multi-cam would be the best color, but whatever, it's what I got, you do you. I just got these off Amazon. I will drop a link in the below if you want these. Otherwise, you know, there's tons of military surplus ones out there, right? The second thing is a good pair of socks. Now, these I have, these are a smart wool over-the-calf sock. If I can find the link on Amazon, I'll put these in there too. But I like the over-the-calf sock because, again, if you're running a solid over-the-calf sock like this, you're running the gaiters, you're running some knee pads. You don't really need to wear long underwear pants unless it's, again, deep cold for a long time. You don't really need to do that. You can get by with just normal pants provided you have a way to keep them from getting wet, which that's a different discussion. But for insulation, we're talking about an over-the-calf sock plus some gaiters and some knee pads. Man, you're gonna be pretty, you're gonna be pretty sad. Then really the only thing that's exposed is you're like waist to knee maybe, and that's, you know, your thighs generate massive amounts of heat when you're moving. So you should be pretty warm there. But a good, solid pair of socks, whatever that means for you, I like these smart wool over-the-calf ones. Second thing is a balaclava, or in this case, I just have like a neck scarf. Okay, this is a Equix level two neck scarf thing. Big fan of this thing. Again, this will run me from 20 degrees on down. I'm gonna wear this thing. Just gives you some extra warmth. Keeps the wind off your neck. Keeps things pretty, pretty warm. So it's like a waffle top, but for your neck, okay? This is just some chintzy balaclava that I got from Amazon somewhere, just some polyester thing. I like this because you could run this, again, over your neck, over your nose, over your face. Keeps the wind off of you a little bit. Running it under a helmet is gonna be real easy because it's super skinny, okay? So that's cool to be able to do. I see that I have it inside out here. So that's nice to be able to do. But, you know, some kind of balaclava, like a lightweight, and then like a midweight, I think is a good call, okay? And these should, again, should just be in your pack so you can swap out when you're moving, stopping, resting, whatever. Maybe you run both, maybe you run one, whatever. Along with that, which should always be in your pack, no matter the season, honestly, is some kind of beanie cap, okay? This is my, this is just a green beanie cap that rides in my pack all year long. And it really should, it really should. This is a four seasons piece of kit, in my opinion. But a good beanie, that's definitely gonna be in your pack, probably on your head when it's winter time. The last thing is some kind of mitten. So it went out the other day, I stepped off with just my gloves on, just my summer gloves on. My hands got cold, I was doing this the whole time, right? Trying to keep my hands warm. And I did make it through for a couple hours, no problem. My hands were cold, so I guess that was a problem. But I made it through, I didn't lose any fingers, they're all still here. But I did think, okay, from now on, my mittens are always riding in my pack until the snow melts. So I, these are just the Army Surplus trigger mittens, okay, you do your own flavor. But the thing I like about these is, I can run just the liner, right? With just the leather liner, this has got a waterproofing layer, so my hands aren't gonna get wet. I really like that, it's got the leather grip, okay? I can run the liner, I can run just the inner wool liner, which this is pretty warm, again. Same thing here, this will get wet, right? This is not water resistant, but this can fit inside my trigger area easily. You know, I don't have to run the whole thing. So I like the versatility of these for being able to run one or the other or both together, right, depending on how cold it is. I do have a US Army Surplus Arctic Wool Kit, right, which does not have the finger cut out. Those are for like, again, deep cold for a long time, like sub-zero cold. But for just normal everyday winter stuff, I think you're gonna be pretty good if you can run both of these. Or if you wanted to run like a regular set of combat gloves, right? And then you wanted to run that inside the liner, the winter liner here, you could do that. You got to mix and match things. So these are gonna stay in my pack, no matter what for the rest of the season. I did get some stripped out paracord, and then I paracorded them together, and you can throw that over your neck so you can dummy cord it to the mitten, and then throw this whole thing over your neck to dummy cord it to yourself like a child. That way, if you need to dump a glove, right, you don't lose it, because again, you don't wanna lose your gloves in the winter, that's kind of a big deal. If you're feeling in your fingers, or you start losing fingers, you are combat ineffective. So protecting your hands is a big, big deal. And then last thing is, I'm a big fan of hand warmers. So I just have a couple sets of hand warmers that run in my pack. I didn't use them last summer when out. I may or may not use them in the future, but I'm always gonna keep a couple set of hand warmers in my pack, just because again, if I wanna stuff them in the water bottle pouch, if I wanna stuff them in my pockets, if I wanna put them inside my gloves because things are getting really cold, right? A 10 hour hand warmer is gonna help you out a lot. So there are definitely some benefits to that. So that's it. Those are just a few small items that I think you should have in your backpack or on your person till the snow melts. Hope that's helpful. Hope that gives you some ideas this winter. Get out there. Don't be afraid of the cold. You can operate and thrive in the cold and do so effectively. Things are a little different. Things are a little slower. You need more layers, whatever, but you can effectively fight and train to fight in the cold. Do brave deeds. End endure.