It was a real adventure 
I will post a few pics but there are others who can provide much better ones so I will focus on our trip and lessons learnt.
My brother in law and myself decided to split a cabin with Andy and use it as a 'safe house' during our stay. We arrived on the 4th and went over to Andy to say hi!
We preferred to go a bit further than basecamp and went on a reconnaisance trip to find a nice camping spot. We soon found that heading further into the forest meant tracking waist deep through the snow, even with snowshoes. We did about a mile and a half and set up camp in the middle of nowhere. We wanted to stay within the boundaries of allemansrecht so didn't make a natural shelter (although we would have liked to do so). We put our Exped mats on the snow and made a small snow wall against the wind, that was it.
The first night we found some standing dead wood but had a hell of a time getting a proper fire. The wood was dead but not as dry as I wanted it to be. Holding the split wood to my lips, I could feel it was still damp. We opted to melt water with our burners. Even that was easier said than done. My Primus didn't work properly (I found out later that the vapour plate had fallen of) and our other burner a MSR dragonfly got beat up during the flight and the burner ring had snapped off completely. With a bit of McGuyver ingenuity we got it to work, but it shows that you need a backup plan for the backup plan in these conditions.
The next day we set out to find better deadwood and start a proper firepit. We found some nice dead trees and started our snow melting factory.
We spent our days alternating between short visits to the market, collecting firewood, doing camp admin, sitting around the fire or hiking. Going 'off road' was continuing to be very strenuous.
There were lows when my brother in law got so cold (in his core) that even Riams giant down jacket couldn't warm him anymore. The lesson learnt here was one we all probably know but might need reiterating 'even the (air in/under the) thickest jacket needs to be warmed by your body, it does not provide warmth itself'. Layer up earlier, keep eating and keep your core warm. The cabin backup proved to be the right approach as my brother in law spent the night there.
I had the same lesson when my mittens got wet/cold and I switched to my backup glove set. Thick 'warm' gloves but as they were not on by body they were ambient temperature of -30C. Had to get to the fire to heat them up before I could keep my hands warm.
Two of the highs must be the snow shoe trek we went on with Teepee and our day out near the lake setting our bivy records.
What worked and didn't work:
worked:
- Big Bill 210 wool pant, these things just rock. Warm and comfy but itchy as hell
- Folding buck saw. Made cutting up the trees much easier than with the laplander saw
- More knife. No problems there, cheap and excellent
- PHD down bag (high mountain camp). I spent all but one night out. Even on the last coldest day I was warm enough. At ~1,5 kilo's it is tough to beat
- Large Zebra billy. Versatile and rugged. We had another large pot for snow melting
- Arcteryx kappa synthetic down jacket. Excellent, stuffed it in a small thermarest pillow case at night, in the morning I took it out and put it ons straight away for instant warmth.
- Icebreaker 200 base. Excellent and non smelly
- Muurikka Picknick. Thumbs up, for a frying pan, you need something sturdy like this. Worked a treat.
- Haglofs mittens. Good leather palms and warm
- Empire Canvas parka. Cracking and you can put it over everything else you are wearing, keeping you warm and protecting the other layers from sticks and sparks at the same time
- freeze dried food from globetrotter.nl ;this is not boil in the bag but freeze dried ingredients that you need to cook. Good food and lots of vegs!
- cord and clips. Good for camp organisation, string a line and clip important items to it
- bivvy markers. Little tritium valves to make items visible in the dusk/dark
- Nalgene bottles and OR bottle parka. Keeps water fluid and leaks just enough warmth to be used as a warm flask in the sleeping bag
- Princeton Tec lights. Versatile with proper red light, blue, white and IR and is able to use both cr123 and AA
- Exped down booties with shells. These are the bomb. Will work as camp booties and when you go to bed, you take off the shells and wear the booties to bed. In the morning you get up, put your warm booties in the shell again and you are off
sort of worked
- Exped down mat. It was definately warm enough, but and this is a big BUT, when temps go to -30C and below, the vents become useless. The material is so hard that the plugs get stuck, meaning you cannot inflate or deflate the mat. That was a major disappointment from a piece of potentially excellent kit
- PHD synthetic overbag. Added warmth but it proved difficult to use the hood of the bag and close it properly when your are in the inner bag. Added warmth but I couldn't use its full potential
- My mittens and gloves were part leather and next time I need to grease them up more before the trip. The palms did retain moist en therefore froze stiff.
- Pulka. Super system with large bag attached to the pulka to keep all the snow out. In this very deep and fluffy snow, it was murder to go anywhere though. I don't know if anything could have coped with that as just going without any baggage was already tough
- Seil marshall arctic packboots. Comfy and sturdy but leather uppers froze. On the proper cold days I needed to warm the boots before I could get them on
didn't work
- Toothpaste. It freezes
- Lifeventure soap. It freezes
- Stormproof matches. Short blaze but run out before you can really light anything
I will keep adding to the list as I am unpacking and storing my kit.
A couple of pics to finish
our 'camp'
the fire pit
preparing reindeer steak at -30C (semi-defrosted in liquid water)
bushwhacking
Teepee's new campsite?
Down by the lake for our coldest night
sunrise after >-35C
Thankfully it had warmed up by then
It has been a blast guys. Next time Canada?????
Cheers,
Lennart
I will post a few pics but there are others who can provide much better ones so I will focus on our trip and lessons learnt.
My brother in law and myself decided to split a cabin with Andy and use it as a 'safe house' during our stay. We arrived on the 4th and went over to Andy to say hi!
We preferred to go a bit further than basecamp and went on a reconnaisance trip to find a nice camping spot. We soon found that heading further into the forest meant tracking waist deep through the snow, even with snowshoes. We did about a mile and a half and set up camp in the middle of nowhere. We wanted to stay within the boundaries of allemansrecht so didn't make a natural shelter (although we would have liked to do so). We put our Exped mats on the snow and made a small snow wall against the wind, that was it.
The first night we found some standing dead wood but had a hell of a time getting a proper fire. The wood was dead but not as dry as I wanted it to be. Holding the split wood to my lips, I could feel it was still damp. We opted to melt water with our burners. Even that was easier said than done. My Primus didn't work properly (I found out later that the vapour plate had fallen of) and our other burner a MSR dragonfly got beat up during the flight and the burner ring had snapped off completely. With a bit of McGuyver ingenuity we got it to work, but it shows that you need a backup plan for the backup plan in these conditions.
The next day we set out to find better deadwood and start a proper firepit. We found some nice dead trees and started our snow melting factory.
We spent our days alternating between short visits to the market, collecting firewood, doing camp admin, sitting around the fire or hiking. Going 'off road' was continuing to be very strenuous.
There were lows when my brother in law got so cold (in his core) that even Riams giant down jacket couldn't warm him anymore. The lesson learnt here was one we all probably know but might need reiterating 'even the (air in/under the) thickest jacket needs to be warmed by your body, it does not provide warmth itself'. Layer up earlier, keep eating and keep your core warm. The cabin backup proved to be the right approach as my brother in law spent the night there.
I had the same lesson when my mittens got wet/cold and I switched to my backup glove set. Thick 'warm' gloves but as they were not on by body they were ambient temperature of -30C. Had to get to the fire to heat them up before I could keep my hands warm.
Two of the highs must be the snow shoe trek we went on with Teepee and our day out near the lake setting our bivy records.
What worked and didn't work:
worked:
- Big Bill 210 wool pant, these things just rock. Warm and comfy but itchy as hell
- Folding buck saw. Made cutting up the trees much easier than with the laplander saw
- More knife. No problems there, cheap and excellent
- PHD down bag (high mountain camp). I spent all but one night out. Even on the last coldest day I was warm enough. At ~1,5 kilo's it is tough to beat
- Large Zebra billy. Versatile and rugged. We had another large pot for snow melting
- Arcteryx kappa synthetic down jacket. Excellent, stuffed it in a small thermarest pillow case at night, in the morning I took it out and put it ons straight away for instant warmth.
- Icebreaker 200 base. Excellent and non smelly
- Muurikka Picknick. Thumbs up, for a frying pan, you need something sturdy like this. Worked a treat.
- Haglofs mittens. Good leather palms and warm
- Empire Canvas parka. Cracking and you can put it over everything else you are wearing, keeping you warm and protecting the other layers from sticks and sparks at the same time
- freeze dried food from globetrotter.nl ;this is not boil in the bag but freeze dried ingredients that you need to cook. Good food and lots of vegs!
- cord and clips. Good for camp organisation, string a line and clip important items to it
- bivvy markers. Little tritium valves to make items visible in the dusk/dark
- Nalgene bottles and OR bottle parka. Keeps water fluid and leaks just enough warmth to be used as a warm flask in the sleeping bag
- Princeton Tec lights. Versatile with proper red light, blue, white and IR and is able to use both cr123 and AA
- Exped down booties with shells. These are the bomb. Will work as camp booties and when you go to bed, you take off the shells and wear the booties to bed. In the morning you get up, put your warm booties in the shell again and you are off
sort of worked
- Exped down mat. It was definately warm enough, but and this is a big BUT, when temps go to -30C and below, the vents become useless. The material is so hard that the plugs get stuck, meaning you cannot inflate or deflate the mat. That was a major disappointment from a piece of potentially excellent kit
- PHD synthetic overbag. Added warmth but it proved difficult to use the hood of the bag and close it properly when your are in the inner bag. Added warmth but I couldn't use its full potential
- My mittens and gloves were part leather and next time I need to grease them up more before the trip. The palms did retain moist en therefore froze stiff.
- Pulka. Super system with large bag attached to the pulka to keep all the snow out. In this very deep and fluffy snow, it was murder to go anywhere though. I don't know if anything could have coped with that as just going without any baggage was already tough
- Seil marshall arctic packboots. Comfy and sturdy but leather uppers froze. On the proper cold days I needed to warm the boots before I could get them on
didn't work
- Toothpaste. It freezes
- Lifeventure soap. It freezes
- Stormproof matches. Short blaze but run out before you can really light anything
I will keep adding to the list as I am unpacking and storing my kit.
A couple of pics to finish
our 'camp'
the fire pit
preparing reindeer steak at -30C (semi-defrosted in liquid water)
bushwhacking
Teepee's new campsite?
Down by the lake for our coldest night
sunrise after >-35C
Thankfully it had warmed up by then
It has been a blast guys. Next time Canada?????
Cheers,
Lennart
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