... somewhere in Sermersooq, Greenland, 62°13'41.1"N 45°16'23.9"W
- Polar Region -
Welcome to the eternal ice!
Listen to the arctic winds...
As a nickname for the polar region, “eternal ice” is exceedingly accurate, since the landscape consists of mostly that: Ice and snow. The region includes not only the arctic and the northern Polar sea, but also the Antarctica continent. Being situated furthest from the equator, those regions are by far the coldest parts of the earth. While polar lights over snow-covered hills might be quite nice to look at, the arctic is hostile to most forms of life: With an average winter temperature of -30°F and merely 37 to 54°F in summers, its climatic conditions are truly inhuman.
However, this doesn’t keep many preppers from training in the polar regions. With the right preparation and knowledge, surviving amidst nothing but ice and snow is possible. Here are the six most important cornerstones you need to know about to survive in the arctic.
What sounds simple is actually of great importance: Drinking enough water is crucial for surviving cold temperatures. By drinking enough water, you make sure that your blood volume is high enough to keep warm blood pumping through your extremities at all times.
Consume food high in fat or calories. Burning these calories produces body heat and thus helps to keep you from freezing.
Wind robs heat from your body, especially from exposed skin. At -20°F with a 30mph wind, exposed skin will freeze in less than 5 minutes.
To illustrate how quickly the human body loses heat when exposed to cold temperatures, BBC Earth filmed their reporter with a thermal imaging camera in the Scottish highlands.
When your core temperature lowers, your body restricts blood flow to your extremities in order to maintain vital organs. To prevent frostbite, make sure that your hands and feet don’t get too cold. Jumping Jacks, sit-ups, or simply swinging your arms around can help to keep them supplied with blood.
The human body loses heat to water 240 times more quickly than to air. Therefore, keep yourself from getting wet at all costs – whether it is from water, snow, or sweat.
While the most important part of determining whether it’s safe to step onto the ice surface is, of course, to watch closely for cracks, breaks or any kinds of porous spots in the ice that could indicate instability, the color of the ice is also a way to assess the situation. Follow the rules of this simple rhyme:
“Thick and blue, tried and true; thin and crispy, way too risky.” Other than that, tracks or feces of animals, for example seals, can mean that there are cracks in the ice that are covered by snow.
However, note that you can never rely on your eyesight alone. In case you do fall through the ice, swim out and roll in the snow to get as much of the water off as possible.
Keeping these ground rules in mind, you will be (mostly) fine. But in the long run – at some point over time – the human body cannot but succumb to the harsh climatic conditions of these cold regions. Therefore, an essential part of survival training in the arctic is shelter building.
This is especially tricky since, in the arctic regions, there are very limited supplies and thus only limited possibilities to build a shelter that protects you from the cold and keeps you safe.
In the following, you will learn about three different ways of how to build a shelter in the eternal ice – step by step.
The snow cave is the quickest emergency shelter to escape bad weather. It can be built with minimal tools and exertion.
The ideal location to build a snow cave is determined by the depth and consistency of the snow. The best conditions for snow are the same as those for building a snowman: The snow should compress and pack as easy as possible. You will mostly find such snow in big drifts, where it has been piled up by the wind.
Once you’ve found a good spot to build a snow cave, the first thing to do is to dig a small tunnel into the snow drift. It should, of course, be big enough for you to fit through, but still narrow as to not let the wind get inside.
Finally, the next and last step is to create an area for sitting and sleeping. Therefore, dig upwards and hollow out a platform that sits higher than the tunnel you have built thus far. Shape the inside of the structure like an upright bell: This will prevent the roof from sagging due to your body heat. Furthermore, through its elevated position, the cavity will trap warm air and let cold air move out. This strategy resembles the way that beavers build their lodges.
Again, the first thing to do before actually starting to build your shelter is to find the ideal spot. As for the tree pit – naturally – you need to be in an area with trees, more specifically, conifers. In areas of deep snow, pockets of space are often created where there are conifers with low-hanging boughs.
As soon as you have found a suitable tree, start digging down until you get to the ground level beneath the packed snow. Here, you have to proceed very carefully because it’s easy to get stuck once snow starts to cascade down and fill the hole. Cover the bottom and the walls of the pit with conifer boughs to insulate and stabilize the structure.
Lastly, create a roof for your pit by covering it with boughs as well. This helps to retain warm air and prevents snow from falling in.
The quinzhee – better known as the igloo – is the shelter that takes the longest and is most difficult to build, but also the one that can last longest and, arguably, the most comfortable one.
Unlike the snow cave and the tree pit, the quinzhee can be built almost anywhere in flat terrain, which is why finding a good spot isn’t your top priority. However, you need to take a moment to contemplate: Building a quinzhee isn’t easy; it takes time and is very exhausting. Try to assess whether or not it’s really worth the effort. If bad weather is imminent and you need a shelter quickly, a quinzhee might not be the best choice. If you decide to build one, take off at least some of your clothes – a quinzhee means hard work, and as we know, the more you sweat, the more it will cause you to freeze later on.
In flat terrain, you need to create the mound of snow that you’ll tunnel into. Depending on your body height, the mound should have the scale of a small car, for instance a VW Bug (around 4.5ft tall and 6-10ft wide). Once you’re done, let the mound set for one or two hours, so the snow can consolidate.
Start by tunneling along the ground, straightly into the middle of the structure. Throw the snow that you remove from the inside onto the outside of the quinzhee and distribute it evenly. This will provide additional stability.
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