Regarding mountain lions, if you see one in their habitats you’re lucky — they’re even more reclusive than bears. Non-small adults are basically safe from them. Kids, pets (should be leashed, a dog is a mountain lion’s idea of a solid meal), and smaller adults might have some reason to worry, but just Act Big (raise hands, open up jacket, etc.) and they’re going to retreat.

Another requirement: WEAR A WARM HAT WHILE YOU SLEEP. Exposed head == another easy place for the air to suck heat out of. A mummy bag helps if you don’t have a hat, but it’s still not really sufficient on its own.

Also consider two sleeping bags rather than one as a way to deal with cooler temperatures if you don’t handle cold as well as you’d like. This depends on the temp of the main bag, of course; I’ve only tried this combining, say, a 20°F mummy and a 50°F summer fleece bag. It’s probably much less necessary if you’re starting with a 0°F bag. (This all depends on the outside temperature range, of course.)

Another practical tip: when you’re ready to head to sleep, switch into a set of clothes solely for sleeping. Whatever you wore during the day will have some sweat on it, and wet == cold in wintertime. (Even worse: wet + cold + cotton. Cotton is completely non-insulating when wet. Cotton kills. Get good synthetic clothes, long underwear and other stuff for day use, and use that instead.) Switch back to day clothes when you wake up.

No worry about bears in Germany. There was one that wandered in a couple years ago… it terrorized sheep pastures until German farmers were authorized to shoot it :-/

Cheers, Dave

2. http://www.alpenverein.de/

3. The Alpenverein and its equivalents in Italia, Switzerland and Austria operate huts which offer simple accomodation. It can be rather touristy there in summer, but many of these huts have a so-called winter room even when they are closed: a sheltered place to sleep, sometimes even with a wood stove. Also, there are so called Biwakschachteln in the Alps, see http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biwakschachtel .

Unless you insist on the tent, both Biwak huts and winter rooms may be acceptable alternatives which you don’t have to lug around.

4. If you want real adventure, try the Tatra mountains in Slovakia / Czech Republik / Hungary. Or anything else in eastern Europe. The Alps are great, but there are many, many hikers there, as well as a certain amount of infrastructure for them. If you want to be on your own and alone for longer than a few hours, you might find them a little crowded.

My one piece of advice would be to pack as light as possible. If you search for “light backpacking” you’ll get a lot of advice. Just take one set of really warm clothes in layers and a really good sleeping bag. (And I’d wait until summer, if I were you.)

As far as wild animals go, the one I always get confused about is brown bears versus black bears. With one you act big, with the other you act dead. One eats dead things and one doesn’t. Although when I actually ran into one, I didn’t get a choice as my dog decided she needed to defend me and started barking at it. It ran away so it must have been the kind that ate dead things.