Hi,
My wife and I went out for a cold weather snowshoe/cross country skiing adventure for the last couple of days in Riding Mountain, Mantoba. The temp was minus 36 degrees C with wind chill; minus 25 without. For me, such trips have to have some aspect of testing out skills/equipment, which usually include making a fire with materials found on the hike, using a fire steel.
Here's my Busse Boney Active Duty about to chip off some pine resin to use later in making a fire:
Some nice scenery:
Some rose hips... one of the few flora that can be found in winter and has some nutrient value:
I'm not sure what tracks these are... it was too big for coyote, and I'd be surprised if black bear was out around this time of year. I think it might have been cougar/mountain lion. The mitten was a size large, for perspective.
I was able to get a fire going using a fire steel, birch bark, and some kindling taken from a piece of standing dead black polar (some light batoning and prying was well tolerated by the knife, notwithstanding the frigid temperature), with some feathering. I used a small platform for the brief fire:
Back at the jeep:
A couple of learning points for me:
- my piezoelectric lighter did not do well unless I kept it in a pant pocket... if kept in a backpack pocket, it was too cold to light.
- in my survival kit I have lots of matches, sealed in a small plastic container with water-tight tape. I realize that if I needed to access them in today's temperatures, I would have a difficult time opening the container. I think we should all imagine trying to use our survival gear when our fingers are so cold that they don't work well (if you'll be in cold climates)
- water is a challenge. I think I'll need to switch to a bladder system, with an insulating cover for the hose. I used a water bottle, which I carried upside-down to minimize freezing at the mouth of the bottle... it still froze shut. If you're out in such temps with a bottle, I would suggest opening it every 10 minutes or so. I do believe it helped to carry it upside down, though it wasn't fool-proof (as this fool will attest to)
- I tried using some dead grass that I found, as well as the dried, brittle branches under spruce trees as tinder/kindling (learned from Mors Kochanski's summer course). Neither would ignite even if a match were held to it... perhaps too much humidity in the air. I found the best kindling was feathered wood from the dry centre of standing deadwood.
Regards,
Mike
My wife and I went out for a cold weather snowshoe/cross country skiing adventure for the last couple of days in Riding Mountain, Mantoba. The temp was minus 36 degrees C with wind chill; minus 25 without. For me, such trips have to have some aspect of testing out skills/equipment, which usually include making a fire with materials found on the hike, using a fire steel.
Here's my Busse Boney Active Duty about to chip off some pine resin to use later in making a fire:
Some nice scenery:
Some rose hips... one of the few flora that can be found in winter and has some nutrient value:
I'm not sure what tracks these are... it was too big for coyote, and I'd be surprised if black bear was out around this time of year. I think it might have been cougar/mountain lion. The mitten was a size large, for perspective.
I was able to get a fire going using a fire steel, birch bark, and some kindling taken from a piece of standing dead black polar (some light batoning and prying was well tolerated by the knife, notwithstanding the frigid temperature), with some feathering. I used a small platform for the brief fire:
Back at the jeep:
A couple of learning points for me:
- my piezoelectric lighter did not do well unless I kept it in a pant pocket... if kept in a backpack pocket, it was too cold to light.
- in my survival kit I have lots of matches, sealed in a small plastic container with water-tight tape. I realize that if I needed to access them in today's temperatures, I would have a difficult time opening the container. I think we should all imagine trying to use our survival gear when our fingers are so cold that they don't work well (if you'll be in cold climates)
- water is a challenge. I think I'll need to switch to a bladder system, with an insulating cover for the hose. I used a water bottle, which I carried upside-down to minimize freezing at the mouth of the bottle... it still froze shut. If you're out in such temps with a bottle, I would suggest opening it every 10 minutes or so. I do believe it helped to carry it upside down, though it wasn't fool-proof (as this fool will attest to)
- I tried using some dead grass that I found, as well as the dried, brittle branches under spruce trees as tinder/kindling (learned from Mors Kochanski's summer course). Neither would ignite even if a match were held to it... perhaps too much humidity in the air. I found the best kindling was feathered wood from the dry centre of standing deadwood.
Regards,
Mike
