On a recent fall night in Saskatoon that dipped well below 0 degrees, Jesse Boldt slept without a heater in the converted Dodge cargo van he chooses to call home.
Wearing two hoodies and tucked under six blankets next to his dog Layla, Boldt felt alive.
“I felt like I was doing the right thing for myself,” he told CTVNews.ca in an email interview. “Sounds odd but I remember smiling underneath all my blankets and just feeling good. Like I was on the right path.”
The 30-year-old kickboxing instructor sold his home of nine years in April and moved into a van, which he spent $2,000 purchasing and renovating, with his 6-year-old kuvasz-German shepherd mix. But Boldt chose not to install either air conditioner or heater, and until recently he spent most cold nights in his van. It was part personal challenge and part competition.
“I thought I'd be in a heated garage all winter, but instead I decided to see how long I could last,” he said. Boldt has practiced cold endurance before and enjoys testing himself. “Plus, a fellow van-lifer told me she survived -15 without a heater... So my dumb a** had to beat her.”
Boldt is among a cohort of nomads who’ve adopted the increasingly popular “#vanlife” (an Instagram hashtag with more than 4.2 million posts). Some live in renovated Volkswagen Westfalias, others in souped up Mercedes-Benz Sprinters. No matter the hardware, the typical van life aesthetic is as follows: legs outstretched across a narrow bed dangling out open trunk doors to a beachside oasis, waves lapping a shoreline just steps from the rear tires.
But while most chase the sun, Boldt and a small fraction of van-lifers are practicing the lifestyle in different temperatures: the bitter cold.
“I enjoy doing things that are uncomfortable,” he said. “I've tried my best to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.”
Boldt is the rare van-lifer who is public about his choice to go without heat in winter, because most spend hundreds if not thousands prepping their vans for cold conditions.
Recently married Collingwood, Ont., couple Madison McNair, 28, and Raynor Vickers, 33, who operate a mobile mechanic and outfitting business, spent about $1,200 on a diesel heater that Vickers installed himself under the passenger seat. It taps the fuel tank of their Mercedes Sprinter, but has only ever used as much as 1.5 litres of the 95 L tank to keep the van toasty. One night in -20 C was the biggest test.
“It was the first time our heater didn’t keep up,” said McNair. Though the heater didn’t technically pass the “test,” the temperature in the van only dropped from 22 C to 19 C. “The reality is 19 C is still very comfortable and very far from being a problem,” she said. On a recent night of -1 C temperatures in B.C., the heater conked out all together, but the temperature only dipped as low as 15 C inside the van before they got it working again.
“Far from being dangerous for us or our water system,” the couple wrote on Instagram. “We knew and prepared for the reality that things can and will break. Travelling with the replacement parts these heaters sometimes need is important for keeping repair times to a minimum.”
While Saskatoon’s Boldt has yet to install a heater of his own, he has been using a small space heater (with electricity offered by his gym or a friend) and calls it a “game changer.” Though it still might not be enough for the worst of winter. He’s well aware that temperatures can drop to -40 C in Saskatchewan, so he found someone who offered his heated garage for a monthly fee.
Boldt has been overwhelmed by the positive responses he received from people on Instagram and in person, and the outpouring of offers of spare bedrooms, laundry services and warm meals. For the most part though, he’s never accepted any of it.
“I figured I signed up for this life,” he said, “so I must fully embrace it.”
