New ray mears bushcraft book

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monkey boy

Full Member
Jan 13, 2009
1,532
52
41
london
Did anyone pre ordered the out on the land book buy ray mears and lars falt. Mine arrived today and it's a larger book than I thought I was going to receive. I'm so excited about engrossing into it :)
 

Imagedude

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 24, 2011
2,004
46
Gwynedd
Be interesting to see what's changed in the world of bushcraft since he wrote his previous book.
 

malley

Full Member
Nov 17, 2008
429
1
Northumberland
Received today. Beautiful book.
Perhaps it is less clear in terms of instructions than previous Mears books? Perhaps not - might just be me.
I will say, I'm enjoying the text so far and the images are fantastic. Superb quality.
 
Contents list
The boreal world
Outfit and clothing
Cold injury
Basic forest skills
Navigation
Fire
Summer travel
Winter travel
Food in the wild
Survival
Long range bushcraft.

Ive skimmed the entire book and now rereading it "properly"
Its got some good photgraphs and pictoral how to's. It even has some recipes in it (they look good too)
It has some new (to me perhaps not others) stuff in it.
Strangely i attended the fundamental with woodlore this June and stuff that is in this book wasnt taught. Which is odd as it looks effective and would of fitted nicely into the fundamental course. Maybe it will be in future as its now published?
I also see some nice bits of kit in the pics i am expecting to see in woodlore's shop just in time for the winter solstice gift giving holiday of your preference.

Id buy it again and id consider giving it as a gift.
My one niggle per se is as mentioned before it isnt a size you could easily pack in your bag to read in the woods or use as a reference to try something out.

Oh and i now really really really want to canoe in the boreal forest
 

forestwalker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Id buy it again and id consider giving it as a gift.
My one niggle per se is as mentioned before it isnt a size you could easily pack in your bag to read in the woods or use as a reference to try something out.

Amazon claims my copy will get here by the end of next week (getting it pre-signed from WL would have added £15 to the price

Oh and i now really really really want to canoe in the boreal forest

Do. http://www.leijonhufvud.org/images/index.php?/category/18
 

forestwalker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Thanks forestwalker thays really added to the sense of want :)

Happy to oblige.

First i need to learn to canoe

Just the small lakes is easy canoeing

Then i need to get a pass from the wife

"Dear beloved wife, do you want to come on a winter survival course in Sweden?"
"Ok, but how about I go canoeing for a few days? You can come too if you want to!"

Then i need the money
Oh well long term goal perhaps

Can't help you there.
 

Wayland

Hárbarðr
Just skimmed through the copy that has arrived on my door mat.

Looks like the best thing he's written in a long time.
Or perhaps that's just my Boreal Bias coming through...
th_smiley_emoticons_schneewerfen_wald.gif
 

ocean1975

Full Member
Jan 10, 2009
676
82
rochester, kent
My copy arrived today, it is a big book.I've only just browsed through it,seems to be full of good information and I can see myself going to it for reference in the future.
 

falcon

Full Member
Aug 27, 2004
1,211
33
Shropshire
Not all new material by the looks of it but enough that I have not seen in his books before.

Yet to see anything completely new but I have a very big library to compete with.

Not a portable reference but a very good resource for home reading.
I agree with this...and Mr Mears usually manages to stimulate my thinking about what we do in the Great Outdoors and he's succeeded again..
 

Dave

Hill Dweller
Sep 17, 2003
6,019
9
Brigantia
Cannot have this discussion without posting the epic photo of the cover. The snowtrekker EXP Crew tent with the northern lights overhead.

Does it look to anyone else like he's actually on the edge of the lake there, with his stove going? He cant be over the water though.

He must have been there when there was no snow and knows where the lake ends. The path they have made must go off to the lake eh?

I bet its 3-4 degrees warmer up the hill.

Which month do you reckon that was taken in then, and what time? How far north? Norway or Sweden or elsewhere? I might send woodlore an email and ask them.

Looks cold, hope we get similiar. Does it say in the book?

Kinda looks a little contrived.. Or they've just arrived.

I'll probably buy it at some point. Wait for the book depository edition. :)

Out-on-the-Land.jpg


You can see Lars's touch's in the amazon excerpt from the book, like the firelay eh?
 
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forestwalker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Cannot have this discussion without posting the epic photo of the cover. The snowtrekker EXP Crew tent with the northern lights overhead.

Does it look to anyone else like he's actually on the edge of the lake there, with his stove going? He cant be over the water though.

It could be a lake, it could be a sphagnum mire: the only way to tell would be (a) map work or (b) digging down. In either case you could pitch a tent on top, judt make sure that the stove is well spaced compared to the ice/ground. Also, that tent is not dug in, but pitched on top of the snow: then what is 1 m down is pretty academic (unless you keep the stove going for long enough to set the peat smoldering under the snow).

He must have been there when there was no snow and knows where the lake ends. The path they have made must go off to the lake eh?

I bet its 3-4 degrees warmer up the hill.

Yes, a bit warmer higher up. But also possibly a shortage of good tent spots (flat, open, etc), or at least photogenic tent spots (it is my policy to neither confirm nor deny that I have ever....). Also, if they are out with a group and that is the instructors camp then having it easy to find is a good idea.

Which month do you reckon that was taken in then, and what time? How far north? Norway or Sweden or elsewhere? I might send woodlore an email and ask them.

As to location there is really no way to tell for sure (short of asking or hoping there is a note in the book (there often is). Date? Far enough into the season to have decent amounts of snow, but before it starts melting (say Jan-Feb). If I would make a wild guess it is by Lappeasuando where Woodlore -- IIRC -- hold their winter course. Since we can't see very much of the surroundings it could be Norway as well, but my guess is either northern boreal Canada or the northern third of Sweden.

A friend in the Swedish Survival Guild once told me that when he was up north taking part in a course they met Ray. They were digging out a quinche, and RM cam up on a snowmobile, got filmed digging some, and then returned later to get filmed inside the finished quinche. Ok, busy filming schedule and all, but still slightly off (assuming the story is true). Of course, another outfit (Dutch, IIRC) had pictures somewhere of them holding a winter course with spec ops people (thus pixeled faces). All the people in the pictures was Swedish Survival Guild people... :-D

Looks cold, hope we get similiar. Does it say in the book?

Kinda looks a little contrived.. Or they've just arrived.

Perhaps during the first night: I bet there is a trail off to the left in the picture, and they have done all their movement in that direction. Not a long term camp, no, but otherwise it looks ok as a real camp. If you got easy to access wood for poles/firewood off to the left there is no reason to climb the slope and mess about in the denser woods behind the tent.

Hmm, perhaps next winter I will tell family that they get to spend the Christmas holiday without me and go up north of Kiruna for a week (I seem to be stuck teaching a winter course every winter break, poor pitiful me).
 

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