“Snow Cruise” Pt 1 with Allie the Mtn Dog and Nutnfancy04:33

Today’s recipe for adventure: one female black lab, four to five feet of snow with more falling, a good shoeshoe hike in and out, knife and axe testing while setting up a survival shelter, and snowy firemaking in a remote area high in the Rocky Mountains! Taking place again in the “Nutnfancy Knife Clinic” (hey we haven’t been here in awhile), the solitude we achieve in this winter wonderland is breath taking. But the work sure wasn’t! Making a survival camp a reality in these conditions takes a lot work (hard to appreciate really until you do it!). Allie and I simulate a stuck-out survival situation in these harsh conditions and set up a survival campsite (using the portable Coghlans® brand orange plastic tube tent). This scenario was realistic and provided good gear testing opportunities. As I’ve done before, I show a lot of the work necessary to find and process standing deadwood into useable dry firewood with sharp edges that ignite more readily. We fall several dead trees in the process with the Cold Steel Trail Boss axe, Norse Tomahawk (very good performance for weight), and Sawvivor backpack saw and split a few other blades too (like the Dow Coated 3400A Ontario RAT-7 knife shown!). Some may say thinner wood could be used to build a fire but usually it is rain and moisture soaked therefore is an ureliable fire STARTING source. Once your fire is hot and self-sustaining then these unprepared wood sources can be used. Be careful with these bladed tools as they can very dangerous, especially your axe. And when you are all alone up there it could get ugly real fast if you cut yourself severely; an arterial cut could be deadly. No surprises came really in the Trail Boss axe testing: crosscutting required huge effort and was exhausting (and is jarring to the arms and tendons…not good in a survival situation especially). The saw remains a more efficient backcountry cross cutting tool. For limb stripping and spliiting the axe was excellent with wood given (but for that matter so was the RAT-7). Sappy, dense hardwoods might be a better test. Allie was chilling in the tent once erected as the snow really started to dump on us. The heavy precipitation made switching over to my waterproof camera necessary and the audio suffered because of that switch (sorry about the muffled soundtrack in Part 2 on). With this focused work if several hours, a warm, relatively comfortable campsite was achieved and it was time for some hot chocolate. I discuss overnight and insulation considerations in the tube tent (like construction of some snow dam end caps to block wind). It was hard work but fun adventure with my faithful girlfriend Allie…thanks for coming along! //////////////////////// Music: Kevin MacLeod from www.incompetech.com