Hi all,
Hope all is well. I thought I'd share this adventure with you from last week as it did indeed contain some semblance of bushcraft!
This was a challenge that my camp buddies and I thought up a couple of months back. We like to challenge ourselves from time to time. In the past we've embarked on daysack camping challenges and the like, but with modern kit that is a relatively easy challenge nowadays.
So the idea of a winter haversack challenge was established. We agreed that we could only camp with the kit that we could pack in a haversack (with some flexibility for smock pockets too!). We agreed a date in early January and began to plan our adventure.
There was four of us on this challenge and we agreed to embark on this as individuals rather than team up to share responsibilities. We each followed a different strategy in terms of the kit that we packed and I give you a run down of the kit that I packed in my video. I approached this challenge with Dave Canterbury's 5 C's of survival front and centre in my mind and ensured that I had all of those bases covered.
However, embarking on a winter camp in which you don't have any sleep kit is a real game changer and makes you think about every facet of your camp. Fire is king in this scenario!
And we needed to hug the fire for all It was worth because it was a freezing cold weekend with snow forecast.
It was a fantastic challenge though, we all learned so much about ourselves and our approach to the camp. Next time, I'll probably do things slightly different with a larger shelter and a browse bed to contain the leaf litter. I'd also invest more time in processing the firewood down to more manageable lengths so that I didn't have to keep getting up to tend the fire (lazy!!).
Kudos to John who embarked on this challenge with me, I don't suppose there are many septuagenarians who'd be up for this ridiculous challenge, but he smashed it.
How would you approach a winter haversack challenge? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
As always, we cleared up after ourselves and ensured that no trace was left.
Hope all is well. I thought I'd share this adventure with you from last week as it did indeed contain some semblance of bushcraft!
This was a challenge that my camp buddies and I thought up a couple of months back. We like to challenge ourselves from time to time. In the past we've embarked on daysack camping challenges and the like, but with modern kit that is a relatively easy challenge nowadays.
So the idea of a winter haversack challenge was established. We agreed that we could only camp with the kit that we could pack in a haversack (with some flexibility for smock pockets too!). We agreed a date in early January and began to plan our adventure.
There was four of us on this challenge and we agreed to embark on this as individuals rather than team up to share responsibilities. We each followed a different strategy in terms of the kit that we packed and I give you a run down of the kit that I packed in my video. I approached this challenge with Dave Canterbury's 5 C's of survival front and centre in my mind and ensured that I had all of those bases covered.
However, embarking on a winter camp in which you don't have any sleep kit is a real game changer and makes you think about every facet of your camp. Fire is king in this scenario!
And we needed to hug the fire for all It was worth because it was a freezing cold weekend with snow forecast.
It was a fantastic challenge though, we all learned so much about ourselves and our approach to the camp. Next time, I'll probably do things slightly different with a larger shelter and a browse bed to contain the leaf litter. I'd also invest more time in processing the firewood down to more manageable lengths so that I didn't have to keep getting up to tend the fire (lazy!!).
Kudos to John who embarked on this challenge with me, I don't suppose there are many septuagenarians who'd be up for this ridiculous challenge, but he smashed it.
How would you approach a winter haversack challenge? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
As always, we cleared up after ourselves and ensured that no trace was left.
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