10 Winter Survival Tips Everyone Must Know

in today's video we will talk about the challenges of bug out survival in a winter climate the advantages over summer and the gear that you will need to survive it let's get to it living in one of the coldest regions of Canada for the last 30 years has made me quite familiar with the challenges that would be involved in a winter survival situation whether it's a wilderness survival predicament or a full-blown grid down emergency I've done several videos on the topic of winter survival then I will link in the description that are gonna complement this one well check those out after this video now although summer is typically the preferred season to be put in a survival situation there are some advantages to a winter climate that are often forgotten in these sort of discussions but before we discuss those advantages let's go over some critical points about winter survival and the gear that you will need to thrive in sub-zero climates the biggest challenge in a winter survival situation is obviously staying warm exposure is typically what people will die from first therefore your main preoccupation will be keeping your body warm the second biggest challenge is going to be keeping your calories up the colder your body is the more calories you are going to need to consume thermogenesis is the process by which your body converts the calories you eat into heat the colder you are the more calories you need to do this just one hour of shivering equates to 400 calories if you do the math that's well over 8,000 calories a day conservatively speaking maintaining that level of caloric intake in the best of times is difficult unless you live close to a 7-eleven but where food is scarce it will be next to impossible it requires roughly the same amount of calories to go out and collect firewood for an hour but that hours worth of firewood collection will likely last you six to eight hours therefore the best investment of your calories is in firewood collection the wood you harvest will keep you warm and you will be less reliant on thermogenesis and therefore require less food to survive the main gear that you need for extended winter survival are the following quality clothing preferably animal fibers for an exterior layer things like goose down leather or wool and for a base layer use synthetics like polypropylene these will be more comfortable and easier to clean although there are some merino wool base layers that do have antimicrobial properties invest in quality winter boots and gloves make sure your boots are about a size bigger so that if and when you do decide to double up on your socks you're not actually constricting the blood vessels in your feet this vasoconstriction will actually cause your feet to get colder faster such that you might have the best winter boots money can buy and three pairs of wool socks but your feet will be frozen because they're too constricted make sure there's a little bit of room for your foot to move around in your boot you want a smaller pair of gloves for work that requires your fingers to execute fine movements and you'll want a heavy-duty pair of mitts when performing less fine movements like pulling a sled for long distances or extended travel in general in terms of shelter you'll absolutely need a wood stove compatible hot tent and wool and mylar blankets you can make a wood stove tent out of a tarp like my friend Lonnie at the far north bushcraft and survival YouTube channel demonstrates or you can purchase these tents with materials ranging from ultralight SIL nylon to a good old fashioned ruggedized canvas material which is heavy to transport generally the ultralight options are for a more nomadic lifestyle whereas the canvas prospecting style tents were intended to be used for semi-permanent installations a simple four season tent with no wood stove is not going to cut it for extended outings these are fine for Mountaineers who are constantly on the move but in between the tasks that are required for your survival you'll want to return to a warm place that doesn't require you to jump into a sleeping bag to get warm of course every hot tent needs a good packable wood stove wood stoves range in weight and price the cheapest wood stoves you can find are also going to be the heaviest whereas a premium ultralight titanium wood stove from a company like winter well will cost you a pretty penny at $500 but the importance of the stove for winter camping cannot be understated it literally is the heart of your shelter it is the most important thing for ensuring your survival and comfort if you don't have these advanced shelter options at your disposal you may have to build a lean-to shelter with a long fire out of natural materials or you can build a variety of super shelters out of simple mylar blankets and plastic sheets two great channels to explore these options or survival lily and Joe Rob and a bushcraft a good saw and axe are absolutely imperative to winter survival they are so important that you should also have redundant tools just in case those ones break down carrying a good sized axe a hatchet and a couple hand saws and exercising caution when using them will ensure that you're able to harness a constant source of fuel see links in the description for reliable tools within this class proper ice fishing tools like a manual auger and the appropriate fishing tackle is a relatively easy way for you to ensure a constant source of food hunting equipment like a rifle or a crossbow or if you're skilled enough an actual bowl will also be beneficial traditional recurve bows are gonna be more durable over the long term but a compound bow is gonna be far more powerful and accurate although because there are more moving parts particularly in a cold environment these are prone to breaking a recurve crossbow would be my preferred choice due to its simplicity and because of its relative accuracy and stealth having good fire-starting equipment a good pot to boil snow to make water in and or a large skillet should provide you what you need as far as cookware goes cleaning your dishes or your laundry in winter is going to be very problematic this is why most people when doing recreational winter camping prefer paper plates having a good pair of snowshoes in a large sled is an absolute necessity for hauling large amounts of gear over long ranges the ideal dogs for these types of environments or anything between a German Shepherd and a mallet I made sure that I chose the right kind of dog for this climate for example a Doberman Pinscher is not going to be well-suited to this environment whereas a German Shepherd with a thick coat will be able to withstand temperatures of minus 30 and below for extended periods of time smaller dogs are also going to have a harder I'm moving across a snowed-in landscape the longer legs of bigger dogs are going to enable them to move through deep snow periodically feeding your dog raw meat may better prepare it for the reality of wilderness survival now let's talk about some of the advantages of bugging out in winter over summer the first thing is that hunting is generally better you have better visibility winter is generally quire there's not as many birds chirping there's not as much rustling of the leaves and trees this lends itself to a greater ability to hear over long distances however this is a double-edged sword because the superior hearing of animals will also hear you coming much easier it's much easier to track an animal in wintertime especially after a fresh snowfall animal trails may become more apparent for snaring and trapping the cold weather will naturally refrigerate the wild game that you do hunt this will extend the window in which you're able to process your game without it spoiling transporting animals with a sled is going to be much easier than using a game cart which may require a trail and you can also fish without a boat you can effectively access any part of a lake with ice fishing another benefit in winter is that the Bears don't tend to move around a lot bears will enter a relatively sedentary pseudo state of hibernation due to the lack of shrubs and berries for them to forage therefore one of the greatest predatorial threats in America is typically not an issue in wintertime however wolves will still be very active in competing with you for wild game as mentioned before travel in winter with large amounts of gear can actually be easier than in summer depending on the amount of snow on the ground it's much easier pulling a hundred pound sled than it is holding that weight on your back there are devices like the mono Walker that allow you to do this in summer but a sled is a much cheaper and arguably more versatile platform that you can use for other things around your campsite in addition there's gonna be little to no green on the trees and this lack of underbrush especially through a dense forest is gonna make travel much easier furthermore the ability to cross frozen lakes should not be understated the trip which may normally take days without a boat can be significantly reduced by crossing over ice one of the biggest selling points on winter survival for me is the lack of bugs for some people this is not a major factor but in Canada it's a huge fact personally I'll take winter over Canadian bugs any day of the week however in recent years due to declining insect populations around the world the bugs have become notably less numerous so perhaps in the future my perspective on this will change one of the great benefits of winter time is silence you can hear threats coming from very far away but as previously indicated this is a double-edged sword threats can also hear you coming from far away you also need to have good noise discipline if you're hunting or trying to evade detection by other bipedal threats another advantage of winter in the north is that there is no rain and no mud persistent rain is one of the most demoralizing forces in nature you will be very cold everything will be soaking wet you won't be able to make fires and a lot of your gear is gonna get destroyed whereas in the winter time this is not an issue one of the number-one benefits of winter survival is food preservation everywhere you look it's a refrigerator this means that you're not gonna have to cure or smoke your meat in order for it to last a long period of time the only downside to this is that it's gonna require you to process your game faster as it may be more difficult to do so once frozen another benefit to winter is that water is everywhere every liter of snow that you see can be boiled down to 100 millilitres of water this is why it's important that you have a good pot to boil watering while eating snow may prevent dehydration in the short term it requires energy to melt that snow in your mouth meaning that you're going to need more calories and even more water which can in fact lead to long-term dehydration due to the lack of underbrush collecting good firewood is potentially easier in the winter time however one of the biggest mistakes people make when harvesting wood in the winter time is mistaking a live tree for a dead tree if you try to burn the wood from a live tree that has moisture in it it will prove to be a futile pursuit before you invest the time and energy to collect firewood be 100% sure that the tree you're cutting is actually dead dead evergreen trees are going to be quite obvious but dead deciduous trees are not going to be so obvious even if a tree is just barely alive it's still gonna have moisture in it if you can look all the way up to the tree and you don't see any fine branches which are indications of new and if the bark is spotty and falling off then there's a good chance that that tree is dead and ready to harvest one of the last advantages of surviving in a winter climate is the lower to non-existent threat of forest fires this is essentially one less hazard that you're gonna have to worry about one other thing worth mentioning is temperament and colder climates it's an empirical fact that hot temperatures can make people more aggressive perhaps in a winter climate than in a post disaster world people may be more inclined towards peaceful negotiation of their disputes the disadvantages of a bugga winter survival situation are as numerous it's nearly impossible to cover your tracks and unless you employ energy-intensive counter tracking techniques being pursued in this type of terrain and climate may be a losing game you're going to have poor nano dexterity and doing finer movements and finer work is going to be far more challenging in a cold climate hence the importance of a good pair of gloves and if possible a hand warming device like a Zippo hand warmer with winter comes very short days and very long nights this is going to cut significantly into your working and hunting time batteries will drain faster and be harder to charge you're not going to be able to do the laundry or the dishes you're also not going to be able to simply jump in a lake or a river to cleanse yourself the best way to clean yourself in the wintertime is to create a sauna I'll be doing a video on this in the near future this will provide a deep inside to outside cleanse that rivals a shower or a bath in its effectiveness you'll also have compromised immunity the good news is is that in vitamin C is abundant in the coniferous forests the fresh needle growth of pine and spruce trees is abundant in vitamin C making this into a tea and drinking it regularly can drastically boost your immunity lastly because with their survival will require a constant heat source this means that you're constantly going to be burning a fire this poses the risk of giving away your location this is perfect if you're trying to signal for help but if the crap hit the fan in a major way you may want to go undetected burning it in the controlled environment of a wood stove means that the light of that fire won't be visibly detectable at night and a clean controlled burn in a wood stove will substantially reduce the amount of smoke given off by a during the day I'm gonna post links to numerous other videos that I've done on the topic of winter survival including ten steps to surviving a winter power outage building the ultimate winter bug out beg a challenge that I did surviving overnight in minus 30 to weather with no tent a video demonstrating what I think is one of the world's warmest and most comfortable winter jackets a video demonstrating winter preps and survival gear and numerous other winter survival videos go check those out thanks for watching don't forget to Like comment subscribe if you enjoy the video all links for the gear talked about in this video will be posted in the description below thanks for watching the best way to support this channel is by gearing up through Canadian preparedness com we got high quality gear and I mean high quality gear only there are free shipping options and my subscribers get an exclusive discount of 10% off use coupon codes survival prepper in all caps one word at the checkout thanks for your support

Channel: Canadian Prepper

Views: 300,593

Rating: 4.9223423 out of 5

Keywords: doomsday preppers, bug out bag, WROL, doomsday, prepper, preppers, preparedness, collapse, survival, SHTF, grid down, economic collapse, end of the world TEOTWAKI, survive zombie apocalypse, zombie ap

Id: Z8ZYUxDKe1w

Length: 14min 12sec (852 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 01 2019