a month in the bush

I think getting water is going to be their biggest problem outside of staying warm. Without any sort of a cantene, they are not going to be able to store water. The problem (at least one of them) of using your rain jacket to boil water in is that they are going to need to be wearing their rain jacket in order to remain warm, since their fire is going to suck since they can't get a large amount of firewood to keep it going and hot. I am also sure that dropping a hot rock in a raincoat could boil water, but I doubt it is going to boil it for 20 minutes. When Les Stroud did it on his show, he was having to constantly drop rocks in the hat and even then, it would only boil for a minute or two.

Also, besides the fact that using ice to start a fire is extremely foolish (at least as a primary means) it relies on something completely outside of your control, the sun. If there is no sun, there is no fire. Of course if it is 34 degrees outside, you also have no ice, so even with plenty of sun you would not be able to get a fire going.

I am going to stop for right now, but there are so many stupid things about this whole thing that I could type for the next 30 minutes.
 
One good thing about northern Manitoba is they have lots of birches. Making a container
out of birch bark to hold water would be the best way to go. You can fold the bark then waterproof with pine pitch.
 
SkunkWerX said:
I am learning a few things about Manitoba.
RubberJohnny probably has the closest real-life view of just how cold it can get up there, and he is many hundreds of miles south of Northern Manitoba.
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A point of interest is that Winnipeg had a white halloween last year. Of course halloween is usually the first (staying) snowfall for this area, but I mean white as in 6 inches of snow blanketing the ground. Also to compound this the days would warm up just past freezing so that sleet could fall and then freeze solid overnight. This would eventually lead to about an inch of ice covering the city and turning sidewalks into skating paths (I would bum slide down hills to get home quicker). If these guys run into that kind of cold they better hope they get some divine intervention, or that the cameraman has a sat phone!
 
As far as contacting Dr. Bourbeau, he is at the University of Quebec in CHicoutimi.
 
Well, I guess we shall see...
Sounds dangerous to me, but what do I know.
I know I have done some not-very-smart stuff in my life.

Interesting that they chose almost the same knife Thayer Walker used in a similar stunt last year. At least he was in a warmer climate.

Oh, well. I guess we can thank "Bear" for this.
I do find it entertaining to read about, though.

Just hope no SAR folks have to jeopardize their safety saving these schmucks.

Brome
 
Pict, you and I (and Codger and others) are on a similar wavelength.
Despite being avid hunters, these guys have bitten off quite a bit, way too much in my book. Their preparedness seems sketchy.
I did see where they were taking a short trip, with camping equipment, so as to try out some of their newly found knowledge.

Any one of their issues will be serious: Fire, water, food, shelter, bad weather, hypothermia risk, but combine several of them, as Pict described, and they will be stretched too thin to make everything happen, especially considering the lack of the most basic gear.

We must remember if it was a long weekend, or even a full week, then there might be odds the temps would stay moderate, but, for 30 days, I'd give a 90% chance they WILL see some nasty low temps, precipitation, and pretty rough conditions created by that weather.

I have also read that Northern Manitoba is like tundra, pretty flat, and has perma-frost.
Perma-frost? When I read that I really started shaking my head. They probably won't go that far north, but just consider they will be surviving not too terribly far from where the ground never fully thaws out! perma-frost? wow.

Another way to look at it, is, Northern Manitoba is closer to the Artic Circle than it is the US northern border.
To their east is the vast Hudson bay region, to their west is wide open plains all the way to the Rockies. The winds whip down from the artic circle, with no large land formations to stop them. Relative humidty in the teens, and perhaps lower.

My personal feeling is that it will take one of them, 24x7 to simply keep a fire going and continually collect enough firewood. That leaves the other one to build shelter, get water, hunt, etc. etc.

Is this impossible? NO
Given the background info we have, is it likely they will last the full 30 days?
 
The farthest North I see them going is the north end of lake Winnipeg maybe near Norway House. This is basically Northern Boreal forest or taiga, it's an intricate network of rivers ranging from the powerful Hayes to the tiny beaver dam riddled Echimamish. Much of what isn't water is rugged precambrian rock with lots of lichens, mosses, and coniferous forest. Although there are some flat grassy areas sorrounded by decidous trees which would probably be a better bet. If this is the general area they are in I think they have a good shot of making it, especially if they can scavenge enough dry tamarack, blackspruce, birch and the like for firewood.

However the Tundra is an entirely different beast. As Skunkwerx said the wind would be intense as would the cold. Firewood would be scarce, the terrain extemley difficult. Not to mention Polar bears are at their most dangerous in autumn.
 
Their website says they have been gone now 9 whole days. No freebie views or news though.
 
While I admire their enthusiasm, I have a feeling they're going to come running out of the woods looking to head home after 2-3 days.
 
I too admire their spirit in attempting this feat. That said, I think their endeavour is ill advised both from the equipment and experience stand point. My guess is that discomfort will either cause them to change the parameters of their adventure or drive them from the woods long before their situation becomes an emergency and an SAR team is needed. Given the proximity of the third member of the party with shelter and supplies, the risk really isn't much greater than any other backwoods trip.
 
x39 said:
I too admire their spirit in attempting this feat. That said, I think their endeavour is ill advised both from the equipment and experience stand point. My guess is that discomfort will either cause them to change the parameters of their adventure or drive them from the woods long before their situation becomes an emergency and an SAR team is needed. Given the proximity of the third member of the party with shelter and supplies, the risk really isn't much greater than any other backwoods trip.
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Exactly. They have a third person stocked with supplies and are apparently close enough to town so that the third person can drive into town each day and upload the video. Each day when they get cold or hungry, they can just turn the cameras off and do whatever they want. As soon as the third person with supplies joined the team, it completely threw all their creditability out the window. They wanted to be like their hero, Bear Gryllis, and now they can be just like him and try and pull the wool over everyones eyes and get us to think they are actually there with only a knife.
 
AustinTXShooter said:
Or an axe in order to gather the needed firewood. Even a firesteel does very little good if you don't have firewood since your Ka-Bar doesn't chop quite as well as a Granfors or a Wetterlings.
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Don't know about everyone else but last fire I made the only thing I used besides my mind and body was a lighter. You don't have to chop a cord everytime you want some warmth, as fun as axes and knives can be. I know breaking branches over your knee or stomping them to pieces might seem boring, but it works. :)
 
Vivi said:
Don't know about everyone else but last fire I made the only thing I used besides my mind and body was a lighter. You don't have to chop a cord everytime you want some warmth, as fun as axes and knives can be. I know breaking branches over your knee or stomping them to pieces might seem boring, but it works. :)
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I know you don't have to chop a cord of firewood every time you make a fire. But we are not talking about building one campfire here. If you are in Northern Canada at this time of the year, you are basically going to need to keep a fire going 24/7 for the entire month. In order to keep a fire going that long, you are going to need a hell of a lot of firewood and are going to wish you had an axe.
 
AustinTXShooter said:
So much for being in the wilderness. In fact, I am now announcing that I will be pulling the same stunt in my own backyard. I promise that I won't walk in the house and eat anything, or watch football over the weekend or take showers. 30 days for me with only a knife. I look forward to all of you paying me big bucks to broadcast my stunt. Cheers.
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hahahaha!!:D
 
An axe would help considerably, but you can generally find suitable wood without one. Just a lot more difficult to find dry, burnable wood. In that scenario I'd probably keep stocks of logs near all my fires to help dry them out.
 
Tossers.

I give em a week maybe 2 tops. Like was mentioned the labor for wood and water is the main thing and I dont think they are up for it fitness wise. Easy to cheat doing this so who cares really, its all BS.

Skam
 
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