Cold Comfort

Learn to be a Winter Survivor in the Alberta Wilderness

text and photos by Katherine Jacob, Doctor's Review, December 2002 edition

SOCK IT TO ME
  My icy experience came during a week-long winter survival course I took in Alberta.  The classroom used by Karamat Wilderness Ways (P.O. Box 483, Wildwood, AB., T0E 2M0; tel: 1-877-527-2628; fax: 780-325-2627; e-mail: randy@karamat.com; www.karamat.com) is a row of chairs under a tarpaulin, deep in the northern boreal forest an hour and a half west of Edmonton.

  Before you stop reading, because you don't travel in the wilderness during the winter, just think: what if you got lost taking a walk?  What if someone in your skiing party was injured and you had to overnight in the woods?  What if you were stranded in your car during a snowstorm?
  Take the course and you'll live and breathe winter 24 hours a day.  Like me, you'll learn that boots keep the cold water on your wet feet.  But wool socks, even when wet, warm up with body heat.  If you fall through the ice, those wool socks - not high-tech synthetics - will save your feet from frostbite.

Learn to survive: make rope, tie knots and build with wild materials you've collected.

I WILL SURVIVE
  It's all about being a winter survivor.  But survival isn't figuring out what to do when an unfortunate event happens.  It's about being prepared beforehand, about knowing basic skills that can sustain you through your ordeal.
  A week in the woods may sound like a lot of fun.  Walking through the snow in your socks is like being a kid again, running through the grass barefoot.  But there's a lot of serious information to cover here and Karamat's course touches all the essentials.
  All week long students cut and collect firewood, build the fire and prepare group meals.  They practice various methods for lighting a fire, using a bundle of twigs, a bow drill or a zirconium rod.
  Starting a fire in wet weather?  Here's a trick I learned: dry lichens on your stomach between layers of clothing, or collect branches from the bottom of a heavily leaning spruce tree.

  But it was the signal fire that put it all into perspective for me.  The work combined knowledge of the bush, knots, construction, weather and fire-making skills.  We gathered the materials and built the platforms carefully until the wooden structure was almost as tall as me.  Within three minutes of lighting it all, the intricate layers of materials generated billowing columns of smoke, large enough to signal a search party or an airplane flying overhead.  We stood back from the smouldering pillar, watching it swirl into the sky.
  I realized then that the things we collected from the bush - and what we did with them - were what would save our lives in an emergency.  That was well worth taking a week out of my life to learn.

Five Rules for Survival

Since the appearance of television's Survivor, surviving has taken on all kinds of 
different meanings, some good, some bad.
  Karamat Wilderness Ways instructor Mors Kochanski suggests these are the things 
you should focus on if you want to make it through your wilderness ordeal.

• Remember that the bush is neutral.  It is neither for nor against you.  Your comfort depends on what you can do for yourself and how much you know about using the materials around you.
• Stay positive.  Becoming angry, depressed or unhappy does little to help your situation.  Try to think positive thoughts and find ways to be thankful for what you have.  When you're not sure of what to do: stop, relax and think out the situation before you act.
• Remember that the bush is neutral.  It is neither for nor against you.  Your comfort depends on what you can do for yourself and how much you know about using the materials around you.
• Stay positive.  Becoming angry, depressed or unhappy does little to help your situation.  Try to think positive thoughts and find ways to be thankful for what you have.  When you're not sure of what to do: stop, relax and think out the situation before you act.