| Winter backpacking can mean your footprints are | | | | dried grass from a frozen swamp in thirty |
| the only ones out there. That adds to the beauty | | | | minutes to make a pile several feet thick. I slept |
| of the experience, but also to the danger. Alone | | | | warmly in the middle of it (half the insulating grass |
| and in a cold enviroment, it's important to know | | | | above, half below) with just a jacket, despite |
| what to do in an emergency. Learning a few basic | | | | below freezing temperatures. |
| cold weather survival skills can save your life. | | | | Staying Dry |
| Fire Making | | | | You can be wet and warm when it far below |
| Imagine slipping into a stream and soaking | | | | freezing, as long as you are active. The moment |
| everything with you, when you are more than a | | | | you stop moving, however, you start to lose |
| day from the nearest road and it's below freezing | | | | your body heat. Once you get chilled through, it is |
| out. What would you do? Start a fire, of course, | | | | difficult to get warm again. Hypothermia (a |
| but can you? | | | | lowered body temperature) kills many people |
| Always carry waterproof matches, and practice | | | | every year. |
| starting a fire in the cold BEFORE you go winter | | | | If you get wet, try to get dry before you go to |
| backpacking. Learn which tinders work even when | | | | sleep. Put dry clothes on if you have them, and |
| wet. Birch bark, for example, will burn when wet, | | | | use a fire to dry any wet clothes. Earlier in the |
| and so will sap from pines and spruces. You may | | | | day, you may be able to hang damp clothes on |
| have only minutes before your fingers get too | | | | your pack to dry in the sun. Often when it is |
| cold to function, so speed is of the essence. | | | | coldest, the air is dryer. |
| Winter Backpacking - Survival Shelters | | | | Try not to sweat. Adjust your layers, removing |
| You'll probably have a tent with you, but you still | | | | and adding shirts, sweaters and jackets as |
| may want to learn shelter building using snow | | | | necessary to keep from getting too hot or too |
| blocks. Sometimes you can stomp out blocks | | | | cold. Sweat, and clothes damp with sweat, will |
| without tools, using your feet, and then liff them | | | | cause you to lose body heat fast once you stop |
| from beneath. Just play around in your backyard | | | | moving. Stay dry to stay warm. |
| until you get the hang of it. In an emergency, or if | | | | There are many other cold weather survival skills |
| the weather turns extremely cold, you may want | | | | that you may want to learn. (You can generate |
| to put your tent behind a wall of snow blocks, to | | | | heat by eating fatty foods, for example.) You |
| stop the wind. | | | | don't need to know hundreds of skills and |
| If it isn't raining, a quick survival shelter for | | | | techniques, but why not learn a few basics, like |
| warmth is a pile of dry leaves, grass, braken | | | | the ones above, before your next winter |
| ferns or other plants. I once collected enough | | | | backpacking trip? |