What is it Really Like? My Recent “Survival” Story, page 1

Setting up camp:
I chose a location with a dense growth of Spruce. I was above a small creek so along the bank there was some Aspen and a lot of Alder. The Spruce was so thick that I only had about 40 feet of visibility. Perfect, I would be warm and sheltered from any wind. I chose a spot where four trees formed a perfect rectangle that I could stretch out between, lengthwise to the prevailing breeze. In front of that I cleared the snow and constructed a fire. I didn’t light it because I wanted to get the shelter up first without the fire in the way. I was not cold and I had lots of dry Spruce branches covered in lichen available for fire starter so I knew I wouldn’t be spending a long time getting the fire going.

My Camp

When I went to collect large firewood I had a bit of a surprise. My hatchet was gone. I normally carry it in its sheath at the bottom of my packs shoulder strap. Unfortunately the sheath’s Velcro cover faced forward and at some point, with me squeezing between the many saplings throughout the day the cover got pried open and the hatchet fell out. Of course the only time I have lost something like that is in a survival situation. I’ve since purchased a new one and have modified the sheath so that the hatchet can’t fall out if the cover is open. Lesson learned. Not having the hatchet limited my possibilities for firewood but fortunately there was plenty of dead standing trees about 3-4 inches in diameter that I was able to push over and drag back to camp. As you can see in the pictures of my camp I put the ends of the trees in the fire (making sure the prevailing breeze was always along them toward the fire) and let them burn.

I used the multifilament to string up the tarp. I always carry multifilament in the winter because all of the wonderful sources that provide cordage in the warm season are not available. The tarp was large enough that it provided a floor, roof and three sides. I left the front open to exploit the fire and used a snowshoe for piling snow around the outside bottom to seal it up and hold the walls down. Normally I wouldn’t use a tarp because it is very flammable. It is also thermally transparent meaning that it will protect you from the wind but radiant heat passes right through it. In fact I placed my gloves on top of the tarp to dry them but the heat of the fire passed strait through the tarp and was absorbed by the dark gloves which proceeded to melt right through the poly. The choice to use a tarp instead of build a shelter out of Spruce and snow was due to the fact that without the hatchet it would have taken more time than it was worth for one night. The tarp shelter took about ten minutes to construct.

I lined the bottom of the shelter with Spruce bows to separate me from the cold in the ground and to provide some cushioning. I didn’t need much because of the thick winter cloths I was wearing. I also had the dry bag used for storing my dry cloths which made a great pillow. After my shelter was set up and my fire was blazing I got on the satellite phone and called my friends that were house sitting my cats to let them know what was going on. This chat was also intended as a morale booster, after all I was feeling rather isolated, something I really don’t enjoy.

I saved the camp location in the GPS, and went for a short walk to assess the forest between my camp and where I figured my survival pack/landing site was. It was extremely thick. I was doing just fine with what I had so decided it was best left until morning.

Most people experienced with the outdoors will say that you should gather the amount of wood you think you need to get through the night and then gather five times more. As I went about gathering fire wood I would draw large arrows in the snow along the paths I was making in the direction back to the camp. This was very wise. As you collect wood you create a vast web of paths and as you get tired, in the dense bush you can easily end up walking in circles trying to find your way back.

When I had collected most of the wood I would need, at about 23:30 I sat down for something to eat. I had been drinking water and harvesting more by melting snow in the stainless steel water bottle. I usually only carry 4 power bars with me for food. There is not much time to eat while your tracking and I usually go through one during the course of the day. For some reason I had a large sandwich with me that day as well as several power bars. There were more power bars in the survival pack that I could reach in the morning. I certainly wasn’t going to starve. In fact I was really enjoying sitting by the fire eating my delicious sandwich. There is a well-known wolf pack that hangs out about 3km from where I was camped and I was really hoping to hear them howling. That would have made for a great dinner moment but unfortunately I didn’t hear from them the whole night. There are plenty of Linx, hair, Martin, Fisher, and maybe the odd cougar there too. I kept my eyes and ears open but unfortunately it seems I was eating alone.

You don’t get much sleep when you only have three inch trees to burn. You seemingly just nod off and then wake up cold, having to shove the trees further into the fire, turn your boot liners, socks and gloves to dry them more evenly and try to go back to sleep. Sometimes you get up to get more wood, melt more snow, mark your territory, or whatever. Sometimes smoke blows into the shelter and keeps you from getting to sleep. I maybe got one and a half to two hours of sleep in total. At about 01:00 I could hear the wind come up and whistle through the tree tops. I was very happy with my camp location. Despite high winds at the tree tops I didn’t feel a breeze on the ground.

My boots at the end of the day. Soaked, the inside crusted with ice and steam rising from within.

In the morning I got ready to head for the landing site but didn’t pack up camp. You don’t want to expend the energy of putting your shelter back up and building a new fire when you find out they aren’t coming for you yet. I didn’t know what the weather was like 100km away where the helicopter was so I wasn’t counting on my ride.

Around 10:30 I heard the helicopter before they contacted me on the radio. I grabbed all of the spruce bows from within my shelter and tossed them on the fire to create a smoke plume. As the helicopter approached we chatted on the radio and I suggested that they drop the other team members at their lines while I packed up and headed for the landing sight. Forty minutes later I was at the pickup point and the helicopter was blasting snow in my face as it landed, complete with a hot breakfast, tea and coffee care package.

edit on 3-4-2012 by dainoyfb because: (no reason given)