Winter Training Thoughts and Pics

Rick Marchand

Rick Marchand

Donkey on the Edge
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I learned a great deal about myself last week. I had the opportunity to get in some training with my wilderness survival and primitive living skills mentor, Allan “Bow” Beauchamp.

I have been working with Bow for a few years now. His method of teaching is based around the concept “You have to LIVE IT to learn it.” The sessions are not jam-packed full of info, but rather focus on building rock-solid foundations to the point where you can live the bush in all four seasons. Only then do you begin to branch out and “play”.

First we establish a “safe site” which is usually in the form of a tarp tipi. This is the centre of our skill set because it gives us a place to fall back to when needed. This is our Fire/Shelter/Water. It is always stocked and prepped for a 72hr shutdown. It is not quite as easy as it sounds. We bring very little in with us, so your skills need to be highly polished.

This was my Tipi…..
tipiframe.jpg

tipilacing.jpg

tipi.jpg

fatwoodgathering.jpg

fuelgathering.jpg

Firemanagement.jpg


Once the tipi was established, we reviewed previous training sessions and ventured out to work new skills. This included scouting game trails, tracking, collecting edibles, fire starting, natural navigation, etc…

Here are a few more pics …
Ripping shingles from a felled oak…
makingduewithout.jpg

Fire starting on the trail…
firestartingonthetrail.jpg
 
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The last night’s events came as a surprise. We had been tracking a porcupine all day and retired back to the tipi for dinner and our evening talk. Just before we went in, Bow asked me to come with him to gather some tinder. ( I should have known right there that something was up because the tipi was fully stocked with fire material.) We walked for about 10 minutes then sat down on a log. “This looks like a good spot, he says.” “So I take it I’m spending the night here?” I said……. “Yup…. And you only have about an hour till Sundown”. Bow walked out a 30ft radius around the log and told me that I couldn’t venture out of that area. There was plenty of fuel and a good supply of evergreen boughs so I went to work. I had spent nights out with little more than a knife and firekit before but Bow was out to test my fire management skills this time. He wanted me to be on my last few pieces of wood, come 8am.
Survival is about awareness and planning. I could have built a huge fire and burned massive amounts of wood to keep me warm but what if my situation was extended? I had to develop the ability to use only what I needed. My fire pit was 1ft squared. The temperature was currently -26C and dropping. The wind was coming from the East at a fair breeze and it looked like snow. I needed to build something to contain the heat from my little fire. I banked up snow and topped it off with a fence of boughs and sticks. I gave it a gentle overhang to help keep the snow off my face. I lined the floor with boughs and made a fire reflector by stacking some logs between the trees. The Sun was quickly dropping behind the hills I worked franticly to gather as much as I could before there was no light to work in…. as the day turned into night, I lit my fire using traditional flint and steel. Before Bow left, he asked if I was confident… I said yes…. Then he asked if I would change anything. Well, when I left the tipi, I didn’t bother to grab my wool anorak so up till now, I was wearing only my base layer, wool pants and a wool shirt. I wasn’t panicked about it but I had sure wanted that anorak. Bow glanced behind my shelter… I turned around and low and behold, my anorak hung in the tree… The rest of the night played out well. I pulled a 10x10 square of tinfoil from my firekit and fashioned a cup to melt water in. The snow came, the wind howled… and I sat back comfortably sipping balsam tea and chewing spruce gum. I got about 3-4hrs sleep that night.

When Bow showed up in the morning, I had 3 pieces of wood left and the campsite was neat and tidy. Mission accomplished.

Pics…..
Making the shelter…
windbreak.jpg

Gathering materials…
fastburningfuel.jpg

gathering.jpg

Thatching the floor…
thatching.jpg

Making the fire…
blowingtoflame.jpg

fire.jpg

The next morning, 6am…
stillalive.jpg

8am…. The last of the wood burns off…
morningafter.jpg


A couple things stressed this week….

You need to have a solid plan and stick to it. It must be clear in your mind to the point that you can multitask without having to think about the next move. You should always be accomplishing something… nothing is done without a reason. Example; If you get up to take a leak, clear snow on the way out and gather tinder/edibles on the way back.

Finish everything you start. If you are making a shelter… make a complete shelter. If you are gathering fire making materials, start with tinder and move ahead from there. It sounds simple enough but I don’t know how many times I’ve dragged big wood over before tinder… or got “most” of my shelter done and left it at that. The point is that you never know when you’ll catch a stick in the eye, a blade in the leg or deadfall across your shoulders….. and there you are. All you have to work with is what you’ve done up to that point. If you need a fire, NOW and all you’ve gathered is big wood thus far, where are you? If it starts to rain or snow and you didn’t bother to finish the roof on your shelter, too bad for you. If the weather turns and you have to hunker down in your tipi for a few days, I hope you gathered enough fuel, drinking water and insulation when you had the opportunity. It is useful to multitask… just don’t spread yourself too thin to the point were everything only gets half done.

Thanks for reading
Rick
 
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Great Post

If I'm ever winter camping--I hope you are there

:)

Thanks for the tips and lessons you learned...
 
Great read Bro, that had to be a spiritual experience! Amazing isn't it just how much clearer things become when there is the sense that these things you're doing are going to keep you alive and not just entertain you and some friends on an evening in the woods. The make every trip count for as much as possible...gathering food, fuel, tinder, water, when you go to relieve yourself is a really good thing to point out. You don't have to (and shouldn't) make every trip you make hard work...just making every trip count for as many things as you can manage without over-stressing yourself is much more "fuel/resource-efficient" and a lot less taxing on the body in the end.
 
it's times like that, when I am thankful that I live in Florida.

Congrats on a fine job!
 
I admire your efforts Rick, and always appreciate your sharing your experiences with us. This one was definitely impressive because you were alone. Nicely done!
 
Awesome post Rick! That sounds amazing. You are so fortunate to have some one like him to teach you. You fared better than I would have.
 
That’s some hard core training my friend. :cool:


Thanks for bringing us along. :thumbup: :thumbup:




Big Mike
 
man.. great post Rick...:thumbup: i would love to do some winter camping like that one of these days...:)
 
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