3 Days Stranded in Alaska Without a Tent - Camping in Deep Snow Survival Shelters

Luke here at the outdoor Boys YouTube channel and I've been stranded here in the Alaskan Bush for the last three days and I am a long way from civilization I'm not quite sure how things are going to work out but it's up to me to get myself home and uh one thing's for sure it's gonna be an interesting video [Music] [Applause] [Music] how to reach for the city lights this thing where I belong hey look at me more than what I've become and I've been wanting looking for something I'm digging deep these nights what I thought was gone [Music] all along [Music] I think it's time for me to go on Bridges all I know I got lost along the way [Music] all right There Goes My Ride don't [Music] well guys that right there was the hurricane train it's a Whistle Stop train run by the Alaska Railroad and it's just dropped me off in the middle of nowhere here in the interior of Alaska and that's what they do you simply tell them which mile marker you want to get off at and they stop and let you off and if you need to get picked up if you just wander out on the tracks and you flag them down like flagging down a taxi this train only runs twice a week but I'm not planning on flagging it down I've got something else in mind but first I need to get my snowshoes on let's see how she pulls it's the dead of winter here in Alaska and I am truly in the middle of nowhere this railroad is my only connection to civilization but here in a few minutes I'm Gonna Leave This Railroad and I'm gonna start hiking that way I've got no Trail and at least one set of mountains to go over but I'm going to try to hike my way back to civilization and for the next couple nights I'm going to be making my own shelter all right this is where it gets tricky I've got to find myself a path through these woods I've got to climb about 600 feet in elevation once I do that it should open up like the snow is going to be really soft and deep in there [Applause] right now there's about four and a half feet of snow on the ground and my snowshoes are just barely keeping me afloat on the top of it there's a layer of crusty snow on the top if I put too much force down or if I try to go up a hill I bust through that cross and now I'm in snow up to my knees and thighs that's why I can't be wearing a backpack that extra weight will cause me to break through the top crust of snow and then I go down deep even with the snowshoes this is a lot of work see all right check this out some cranberries you see Barry's still on the bush in the middle of winter that tells you there's not a lot of animals around I'm not following any Trails so I have to navigate by landmarks so I'm keeping this goalie off to my right and I'm going to follow it to the top of a 600 foot bench all right guys this is my first major obstacle I got to get up this 600 foot bench but when I'm pulling my sled uphill it puts a lot of extra weight on my snowshoes and I bust through that snow and I sink way down deep then I'm just wallowing in the snow trying to go uphill but this is a big make or break moment for this trip if I can't get up this bench I've got to come up with a plan B we're going to try to hit this at an angle foreign just wants to pull me right off the hill [Applause] there's so much time and energy just to get this little distance oh just sinking your foot sinks down and then you've got to lift your foot all the way up here just to get to the next step I made it to the top of this little Knoll but that's by no means the top of the hill because once I get to the top of this bench I'm going to have to do it at least one more time I made some decent progress but I got to get off that all right I'm gonna try Switching gears foreign it's about to get real dark here a little bit I need to go and break some trail and figure out where I'm going because it's going to get really hard to navigate I'm in the wrong place this Ridge dead ends in a Razor's Edge my map wasn't detailed enough there's no way I can get through those altars and it just I'd have to go down this Valley and up some extremely steep slopes through some very thick brush I'm just it's just not an option problem is even if I did beat through all this brush I'm not done I still have about a mile to go till I get to the plateau then on the other side of the mountains I've got to go through terrain very similar to this again if I break some equipment or pull a muscle I am very far from help this just is feeling like a bad idea the only way I'm getting out of here is in my own two feet and I can't go that way well I'm quickly figuring out that I can get down this hill gracefully and quickly I just can't do both at the same time it took me two hours to do all that climbing for five minutes to get down not having to break Trail is so much easier step down and occasionally find these Hollow spots in the snow and now my snowshoes trapped oh everything's more work in the deep snow oh the sun's set and I'm running on Twilight I need to go ahead and make ham and uh this looks as good as a place as any well let's find out what's underneath this snow this is why I'm having so much trouble getting up those Hills this snow is so light and granular just doesn't hold any weight [Music] oh boy oh without my snowshoes I go straight to the bottom so check out this big Mass right here under the snow I'm assuming that that's a root ball from a tree that's falling over that's going to make an excellent heat reflector and a great place to build my fire so if I put my fire up there against the root ball I'm going to put my bed right here I need to build a wall around it to keep the wind out foreign [Music] foreign 's getting a little hard yeah that's going to be ice pretty soon I better get a fire going all right it is getting cold I need to start finding some firewood foreign [Music] foreign my gloves are soaked I dry these things out now that's doing the trick yeah there we go hopefully that'll keep my water bottles from freezing yeah my blood's not pumping quite as hard as it was and the air is getting colder foreign [Music] feels good to sit down I think my next order of business is get some dinner ready well I'm melting some snow for my dinner but that's going to take a little while so uh I'm gonna have some little snacks cheese crackers and salami here got a feral pig salami from Texas nice cheese wild boar salami and a Ritz cracker wow got this nice blueberry wensleydale this is good stuff also got some dried figs here all right I got some instant Korean rice cooking up and I'm looking forward to that I'm really hungry and tired and it just tastes so much better than dehydrated camping meals oh yeah here we go I love this boiling bag rice it's just great for campouts like this little instant Japanese Curry here just heat and serve lived off this stuff though when I was in Japan all right curry rice and a piece of pilot bread to eat with it not too shabby all right I got a little bit of dessert planned I've got some dehydrated creme brulee not sure how that's gonna work but you know we'll see okay all right I'm supposed to add cold water luckily I know where I can find some stir briskly I'm gonna sprinkle the caramelized sugar on the top give that a go it kind of tastes just like butterscotch pudding but you know a little bit of creme brulee flavor in there oh that wasn't too bad that was more sugar than I usually eat in the whole day but not too bad now they got dinner in me I need to do something about my bed the ground here is really lumpy there's about a five six inch dip right there and then there's like a 10 12 inch dip right there foreign uh we'll find out how good of a job I did tonight hopefully this will hold there because if not it's going to be a really miserable night all right moment of truth well it's been about 30 minutes and my ugly patch job seems to be holding air enough air that I think we can give it a go well it's nice and level [Applause] foreign down pants we're gonna try well it's pretty late and I'm very tired so I'm gonna turn off the camera I'm gonna see you guys in the morning oh good morning it's about 6 30 a.m and uh I think I'm gonna get up I need to get an early start I've been thinking about it and I think I figured out how I'm gonna get out of here without having to go back up that hill I think I got a plan B but uh it's it's pretty cold right now it feels just a little bit above zero I get that fire going snowed a bit last night there's quite a bit of snow on my tarp if my boot froze to the ground oh we got about an inch or two of snow last night it is really really cold I have got to get this fire started [Applause] oh that's the stuff right there oh that's nice I'm in a little bit of a hurry today so we are gonna bust out our stove because we got to boil a bunch of water get some breakfast made oh my stove's Frozen ah no matter how clean the snow looks there's always floaties in it you get a lot of junk in your water when you melt snow some of it floats some of it sinks pour off the first little bit to get the floaters out and then you throw away the last little bit so you don't get the stuff that's on the bottom in your water that'll take care about 95 percent of the junk I'm in a bit of a hurry this morning so we're going super simple instant oatmeal some instant oatmeal with little bits of Alder Twigs in it well it's 8 30 in the morning and I'm just starting to see some color in this guy I think it's time for me to get out of here just kind of use the leftover water to clean out my cup and then you drink it melting snow takes forever you don't waste water I gotta tell you when that fire was in there it was toasty warm that was a good shelter foreign for me to make some tracks I just realized I don't have my glasses oh boy yeah I forgot my glasses oh boy we've been over here they are not there yeah they're not there I could not find them in the shelter and yeah looks like I'm doing this trip without my glasses Mr Magoo goes camping well I had a lot of time last night to think about it and I think I've come up with a plan B how I'm gonna get home it's gonna be a longer hike but it's going to be flatter so I'm gonna have to make some serious tracks if I'm gonna make it where I want to be tomorrow all right guys I was looking at my map last night and I think I figured out my plan B I'm going to follow these railroad tracks and they're going to take me the wrong direction for a lot of miles but eventually it's going to open up to a marshy Frozen River Bottom that I can take around this mountain and get to where I want to go it's much further but it's flatter and I won't have to struggle against the brush as much which is a big deal because this is flat open ground I'm going to switch over to my skis all right these Trucking skis float on the snow a lot better than the snowshoes do so you don't have to pick your leg up you just kind of slide across the snow and it burns a lot less energy but unfortunately they don't do well maneuvering around the woods or going up hills well I got a bit of a rough day ahead of me and I'm way behind schedule but look at this this is gorgeous looks like a Hallmark Christmas special out here I'm trying to keep an eye out for moose without my glasses if I see a moose I am definitely too close laughs so right over there that's the bench I was trying to get on top of yesterday I gotta find a way around that I'm not Crossing this bridge because it's safe I'm doing it because it's better than Crossing that Creek my seal skins keep coming off Seal Skins are basically synthetic hair that allows you to slide forward but grips when you push backwards so it allows you to scoot across the snow and pull your poke easily but this bright one is loose fitting and it keeps coming off every mile or so hopefully this problem doesn't get worse but if it does I'll bust out my snowshoes but that's the sketchy part of going out in this deep snow if your snow shoes or your skis break you're stuck [Applause] it out fresh moose tracks one of my big concerns is I'll come across the Moose on the tracks and that moose won't get out of the way for me seems like every year in Alaska someone gets attacked by a moose while cross-country skiing hey check it out there's somebody's shovel and their sled right there someone's got a homestead or a cabin off in the woods over there and this is where they come to access the railroad to get into town to buy supplies when they come back from town with all their groceries they'll put it in the sled and take it off into the woods there's not a lot of snow on that sled they probably caught the train that I hopped off of yesterday when I was on snowshoes I was averaging about one mile per hour on this flat terrain with my cross-country skis I'm doing about 2.4 miles per hour making much better time oh we picked up about an extra inch of snow since I started and it's making the sled harder to pull you know snow conditions have a huge impact on your ability to travel in the winter time if we were to get a dump of a foot or two of this light powdery stuff we wouldn't be able to do diddly squat until the snow settled and compacted a little bit check out there's two moose up there on the hill look how deep they're sinking their bellies are rubbing in the snow all right I think I'm gonna take a little lunch break you know these cookies aren't as good Frozen you need to eat quick I'm starting to get cold all right enough lollygagging let's get going really happy with my sled I've been looking to buy a polk for a number of years finally found one that was made here in Alaska by a company called Northern sled Works turns out they're the same company that makes the Arctic oven hot tent that I use I'm really pleased with it it's much lighter and pulls a lot better than my ice fishing sleds oh this snow just keeps coming down it's getting deeper and deeper I can't even see my skis anymore all right there's the bench we've been trying to get around oh that's pretty oh I've been going for about five hours and uh we're a little more than halfway done with what I wanted to accomplish today it's gonna be a long day today feet are starting to really kill me I'm worried I'm gonna start getting blisters real soon here I'm making good time but this is taking it out of me my feet are getting chewed up I'm a little worried about whether I'm gonna make my destination tonight oh that serious pretty tired really tired we're starting to climb over the foothill of a little mountain here and you can see the valley to our left and on the other side that's the mountain we were trying to get around still got a long way to go before I get to any highways or roads but it's a big milestone but the sun's gonna sit on me any minute now thank you all right guys I've been skiing for about two hours past Sunset and I am exhausted it's time to make camp but I made really good time and uh I'm On Target so I'm feeling good about what we did today oh oh that poke tried to pull me off my feet hey let's find a spot now that's looking pretty good right in there foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] just waiting for my water to boil so I can make some tea and make a some dinner and I am just freezing it has gotten really cold out with the setting of The Sun now that I'm not moving it's it's nippy I am so cold and so thirsty took a couple hours but I melted about three liters of water I got it boiling hot just gonna put that in my sleeping bag all right guys I'm freezing my butt off I think it's time to go to bed thanks so I'm gonna turn this off I'll see you guys in the morning hey good morning it got really cold last night it stopped snowing and cleared up and the temperature dropped really aggressively I think it was around zero once I get out of the sleeping bag it's it's going to be bitterly cold so I want to start moving as soon as I can let's let's do this my socks were a little wet last night so I took them off and put them in my bag oh they're all nice and dry smell horrible though okay these puffy pants I bought are the best thing ever they are so warm my legs and feet get so cold at night my hot water bottles hopefully that'll defrost them a little bit ah the sweat from my hands made my gloves a little damp now they're a little bit Frozen thank you foreign the snow here was so soft yesterday but after that cold snap last night it's really firmed up it's going to make life a lot better just having that snow a little bit more Frozen makes all the difference in the world well last night in the darkness I finally made it around the toe of the mountain and I set up camp right after leaving the railroad tracks so now today we've got an easy jaw cross flat ground but I still got a brake Trail and my legs or feet are very sore you can't see any landmarks in these forests so I'm navigating completely by GPS right now gotta make sure your batteries are charged you get lost really easy just going through Straight Force like this inches like this will get you soaked so going then you don't get snow down the back of your shirt just stepped in a tree well some of the little trees get buried in the snow and it creates an air pocket and if you step on one of them you go all the way down trips you up see all those Alders right there you walk in that you'll hit a lot of tree Wells foreign I can hear the highway we're close oh I think I see it there we go oh we made it [Music] the first people I've seen since they got off the train well guys they did it not the way I was planning but I did it I think I broke about 18 miles of Trail that is really intense now I just need to wait for my ride to come I'm gonna get my jacket out too I'm already freezing oh it is no joke cold today all right I think my ride's here they're a little early is that okay oh it's wonderful oh it's so nice to be warm well guys it made it back safe it's out and hopefully you guys enjoyed this 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Channel: Outdoor Boys

Views: 13,548,159

Keywords: camping, survival, winter camping, survival camping, deep snow camping, camping in snow, cold weather camping, camping in cold, survival shelter, bushcraft shelter, bushcraft camping, wilderness survival, arctic survival, camping in alaska, winter camping in ALaska, Alaska adventure, hurricane train, Alaska railroad, whistle stop train, cross country skiing, trekking, snowshoeing, snow shelter, quinzee, survival tips, extreme survival, extreme camping

Id: 3Ym3LW8ZVeY

Length: 32min 29sec (1949 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 11 2023