Curious to see how many people practice winter survival? I spend a few nights a winter out in nasty conditions to test the limits of my gear and to ensure if the worst happens, my skills with what’s at hand are up to the task.
I’ve managed -30 nights with gear rated to 0, travel in deep snow with limited resources and with a full ruck(travel is slow and hard). I’ve tried spending the night with just a GHB or the trucks emergency kit.
It’s all led me to change the way I set up kit and what I’d consider the minimum in terms of both survivability and comfort.
I’ve also found the worst situation for me tends to be when it’s around the freezing point and raining. I’ll take deep cold or summer bugs over freezing rain any day.
Excellent practice. Used to be out almost every weekend when young but have only retested overnight winter camping a few times since. Learning to camp in blizzards, freezing rain and cold is an eye opener. Wet gloves, jacket, boot and sock issues, fires with wood covered in ice is fun! The dampness... humidity in a tent. Importance of layering is something I found to be huge during the winter. Backpacking on snowshoes is a real heat and sweat generator, heats great, sweating, not so much.
We used to really pack down the snow all around the campsite so we could walk around without falling through, focus on gathering LOTS of wood,, spruce branch’s for bedding and sitting areas building any shelters and then focus on setting up camp, poles near fire for drying of any clothing
Keeping fire fed which wood beside tent or lean-to, so all you have to do is put one arm outside of sleeping bag is a trick we learnt early on.
Preferred snowshoes to cross country skis for winter camping and the collection of firewood
A toboggan our other pull behind is a real nice way of carrying extra comfort stuff and helps with collection of firewood at camp. We used to collect some dry wood and fire starting tinder as we snowshoed. Even in freezing rain, we always found dry tinder, took some more looking but with experience we knew where to look. One of the things we did once we found a camp was, empty our pack contents on the spruce branch’s we cut and then went out and used the packs as firewood carriers. Loved mature pine forests for the bounty of easy to break 2-4 inch thick dry pine branches, man was that a great source of easy to collect and burn wood!
Never tried your emergency car kit as only goodies to use. I have a winter pack for use on ATV or sled and a different one for car and on foot use. Focus being on shelter and as much warmth as weight limits will permit.
Yah I dont relish a winter emergency! But as you point out, it’s important everyone experience it at least a few times and understand what’s involved. a whole different experience and one that could prove deadly, real fast. Falling through the ice or even just getting you boys and legs wet requires some quick action if disaster is to be avoided. Learning to cross half frozen creeks with ice covered rocks is fun on snowshoes.
We only had the wood and moose hide snowshoes but there are more options today. Either way, experimentation for ones environment will lead one to their best options. Mid winter and soft snow in spring are also two very different worlds. One thing I focused on was making sure I could unhook my boots from showshoe or ski harness FAST. It’s a bugger crawling out of a hole in the ice with snowshoes 🙁 ( insert here the need to always have dry tinder and matches with you)
I think that anyone starting to think about trying it for the first time should do so with full day jaunts. Pack a good pack and go out and make a camp, cook lunch and spend the afternoon at the site, see how much wood is needed, collection of it, testing your layers and all your clothing and kit. Then when comfortable, do an overnighted but with fairly easy access to a safe location if you find things not working out to well ! Better to ease into it and get comfortable then lose some toes, fingers or worse. Go with someone else To hedge your bets. But it is something, everyone should do a few times at least.
Agreed, it’s not a time to test one’s limits without safety measures in place.
I carry a small liquid fuel container for fast fire starting with limited motility due to exposure. Try starting a fire when your hands don’t work... it’s a really good exercise to try it with several layers of gloves to give you an idea.
A pulk is very nice to have as long as you keep it small and the snow isn’t pure powder. Otherwise dragging it can suck. I’ve considered a kick or dog sled, already have the dogs. Lol.
Thermal regulation is key to avoid sweating. Layers and ventilation can’t be stressed enough.
Ice and water crossings are another topic all together, not something to take on alone if avoidable.
I’ll be taking a couple guys out the first weekend in feb, introduction to surviving the cold. We’ll look at shelters and the basics on an overnighter. I’ll be snug and warm in my hammock while they freeze... rofl.
Remember reading about it and even using it once up in James bay.
When crossing questionable ice, cut a good sized tree to hold your weight and perhaps twelve feet wide and carry with you when walking on ice. Break through, it will help prevent you from going under and you can use the pole to help lift yourself out.
Also, Lash two on any sled your dragging so it doesn’t sink.
Cheap and easy insurance on the fly
Local sled club supersized that concept for the trail grooming tractor. It’s saved the machine and drive a couple times.
Surviving in all the different winter conditions is not something too many people are familiar with, but really should think about. Be it in a home, suddenly realizing a few cords of “fun” wood in the garage just won’t do it. Needing to a bond on the vehicle and walk home or to some safe location during high winds, freezing rain, snowstorm.. of course seeking shelter is the obvious thing to do during an ugly weather event, but you still need to survive the night...
I do not carry snowshoes in my truck ( note to self to put some in) so would need to use roads and sneak into bush and collect wood. Not ideal in two feet of light snow! I carry snowmobile maps in my packs to help me bypass roads, so a somewhat decent compromise, but still would need to fetch wood off the trail.
But realistically, for most of us, winter survival will mean in the home or cottage.. but even that will likely mean a large number of surprises. But outdoors on limited supplies is not something I ever relish having to do. Weeks or months with what’s on your back! Yikes. That said, in some real bad or weird situation, there will be homes.. where occupants have perished so one can just move in
Nagol, you posted about taking a group out a few weekends ago, betting with the snowstorm yesterday and today’s minus 21 in the ottawa area, everyone is reevaluating kit!
Winter is a nasty thing to have to get through and sure hope I never, ever have to suffer it’s miseries. I worked for years up in James Bay Area, outside all day, in all the seasons, but sweat Jesus, winter is ugly.
It’s why I hope I am safe and sound and if anything bad hits, the cold and snow will keep the city people in the city and away from country folk. Mean perhaps, but the cold can be like having a small army protecting you. Punks and leaches won’t be walking around in their running shoes and cute jackets to far