Secrets of survival from an experienced tourist. Overnight stay in the winter forest

The winter day is short, so it often happens that a hunter or fisherman plans to go hunting or fishing for more than one day. At the same time, he does not always have at his disposal a stationary place for the night - a base or a hut.

Then he has to spend the night directly in the forest or on the shore of a reservoir. And if in summer such an overnight stay is nothing extreme, then in winter it is a serious test for survival skills. So how to organize an overnight stay in the winter forest?

First of all, when planning an overnight stay in the forest, you need to take care not to forget the ax and saw (hacksaw). Why a hacksaw if you have an axe? The fact is that the hunter and fisherman are usually limited in the weight of the equipment that they have to carry on themselves.

Therefore, their ax is usually small, like a tourist one. It is convenient to chop branches for a fire like this, you can splinter a torch, hammer a peg, etc., but it is difficult for them to cut down a more or less serious tree ... A good hacksaw is light, does not take up space in a backpack, and quickly cuts a tree with a diameter of up to 30 cm.

It is also necessary to have a skein of strong twine and a piece of plastic film measuring 2x2 meters. A headlamp with LEDs will help you a lot, it is economical, the batteries are enough for more than one trip, and the light it gives is quite strong.

Survival lessons. We spend the night in the winter forest. If possible, of course, you need to start arranging the accommodation for the night before dark, so as not to look for firewood and materials for your temporary shelter in the snowy forest. And you need to start, of course, with the choice of location.

The best place to spend the night in winter, without a doubt, is the forest (pine forest). In the forest there are always dead trees, deadwood, thin young pines, from which it is easy to make a shelter.

Bonfire. This is the main thing, this is something without which your overnight stay in a frosty winter forest can turn into the most sad consequences. And the organization of heating must be taken as seriously as possible. The type of fire that is best suited for heating a person sleeping near it is “nodya” or “taiga”.

Both fires are logs laid on top of each other, burning along the entire length. Sometimes there are two logs, they are held on top of each other by four pegs driven in along the edges on both sides. More often - three. The construction of these fires requires patience, first of all, in the choice of dry logs (that's why we need dead wood), and in their preparation.

Gutters are roughly cut out in the logs, the lower logs are laid so that their grooves are next to each other and face the place where the third log will be located. To prevent the logs from rolling out, wedges are knocked under them from improvised material.

A little further away from the "nodia" a second fire is laid out - the usual "hut" or "well". The purpose of this fire is to cook food and get a large amount of coal to kindle the "nody". But it is not kindled until it is light.

There is no need to mention that the places where we will make a fire should be cleared of snow as thoroughly as possible. If this is not possible, make platforms from scraps of poles with a diameter of 8-10 centimeters (this is where we need a hacksaw!). Otherwise, having burned, the fires will simply drown in the snow, and you will be left without heat. It is also necessary to store enough firewood to last through the long winter night.

Survival lessons. We spend the night in the winter forest Now - shelter. Usually it is a canopy, an inclined wall. "Nodya" should be located parallel to this wall at a distance of approximately 1.5 meters from the projection of the upper edge of the wall onto the ground. Closer - no need, so as not to get burned in a dream.

Since the construction of a canopy is quite laborious, it makes sense to look for something like a fallen tree, the trunk of which is located at some distance from the ground. We lay straight, thin poles on this trunk so that a canopy is formed, facing the “node” side. We rake snow under a canopy, preferably to the ground. We make a semblance of a couch, for which we lay thinner poles (5-6 centimeters in diameter) on two or three crossbars of poles with a diameter of 8-10 centimeters to make a couch.

The ends of thin poles must be cut into the crossbars so that they do not move apart. We cover the couch with spruce branches - the thicker its layer, the more comfortable it is to sleep. If there is enough spruce branches, then we cover our canopy with it from the outside. If not, we use our plastic film, securely tying it to the poles of the canopy and pressing down with a couple of poles from above. Now we cover the canopy with snow.

If we are not lucky and we did not find a suitable fallen trunk, we make two tripods from not very thick poles (5-6 centimeters) 120-150 centimeters high. To do this, loosely tie the poles at a distance of 20-30 centimeters from the upper ends with strong twine. We part the lower ends. The tripod is ready. On the "slingshots" formed by the upper ends of the tripods, we lay a horizontal pole (6-8 centimeters). Next, we build a canopy, as described above.

It is not necessary to kindle the "node" immediately, about an hour before the time when you are going to sleep, otherwise its heat will not be enough until the morning.

Well, now, the shelter is ready, and it's dark in the forest. Time to build our auxiliary fire, prepare food and tea. Do not spare firewood, the more coals - the faster and better the "knots" will flare up. Ready-made burning coals are transferred to the troughs of the lower logs of the “nody”, they are scattered along the entire length of the trough and covered with a third log as quickly as possible, laying it on the coals with the trough down.

"Nodya" flares up gradually, not immediately, but, having flared up, it burns for a long time and gives a lot of heat. Well, now you can eat and drink tea. Maybe not a seagull, for the success of the enterprise - this is sacred, but in moderation. Nature does not forgive frivolity. More than one person died, lost his arms, legs, health, falling asleep drunk in the cold ...

Before you go to bed, gather your things so that they are at hand, lean a few logs against the edges of the "knot" from the side opposite the canopy - let them dry out, prepare some kindling just in case.

The night will fly by unnoticed if you did everything right.

Alexander Petrov

The basis of a normal overnight stay is the right place, shelter from the wind and warmth from the fire.

That's just the fire must be right. And the right fire is node.

Nodia- a long and strong burning fire made of logs.

A node can be built from two logs, three, or more logs.

There are no problems with the tree in the middle lane. It is best to fell a couple of dry pine trees 40 - 50 cm thick, and disassemble them into logs 1.5 - 2 meters long with a saw. If everything is very sad and there is no ax / saw, you will have to make a fire from rotten fallen damp trees.

They also burn normally when dry. Of course, the heat is much less than from dry pine.

Especially for the "urban" - dry pine is determined by the absence of needles :) and by the characteristic sonorous sound if you knock on it with an ax.

Especially for the brain-dead "Greenpeace" people, their tripartite godmatrix - by felling and burning dry and rotten trees, we bring immeasurable benefits to the forest.

So let's get started:

1. Shelter:

If there is an awning or oilcloth, we will save a lot of effort.

We clear the snow to the ground at the place where we will sleep, and the snow at the campfire. We build walls from snow. (by morning, from the heat, they will be covered with an ice crust and become monolithic). We put spruce branches on the ground (i.e. spruce branches) the thicker the layer, the softer and warmer it is to sleep.

We make a roof - we stretch an awning.

This is what our temporary home looks like.

If there is no awning or oilcloth, long poles are placed on the walls and covered with a thick layer of spruce branches. When it snows, you will get an excellent warm roof.

2. Bonfire:

The fire is kindled at a distance of 1.5 - 2 meters from the shelter. You can't get any closer - the equipment will burn with sparks. Further it is impossible - it is inefficient. Not enough heat will get into the shelter, you will freeze.

Stages of lighting a fire:

1. We prepared a lot of firewood :) and a few logs.

2. They laid the first log, lit a fire. (The process of lighting a fire in difficult conditions such as rain, dampness, etc. is worthy of a separate article with photos). We support it, warm up, cook food, drink alcohol (only in microdoses, it will debilitate after a hard day)

3. The fire flared up, put the next log on top and add branches to the hand with a thickness.

After half an hour, we have 3 logs burning almost without fire, but with heat and coals (this is not brushwood for you)! You can lay wet logs.

As it burns, the top logs move up. The attendant oversees this process.

Also, the duty officer makes sure that the logs do not begin to burn along the entire length, increasing the efficiency of our mega-fire (there is no need to heat the atmosphere)!

If you are alone, there is no duty officer, then it is better to prefer a vertical node of 2 logs, burning along the entire length. And position yourself next to the fire. one log is placed on top of another and fastened with 4 stakes driven into the ground. Or another option, but very laborious - a hollow is cut out in the lower log and the upper log is placed. I haven't tested since. it is very labor intensive. with a vertical node, sleep for 3-4 hours in the heat and warmth (if the log is 40-50 cm thick), then you have to wake up and make a fire again.

Experience in building a snow shelter and spending the night in it.

With all the advantages of spending the night with a node, this method has a minus - it is highly desirable to have a shift attendant. Moreover, of course, such a method does not provide sufficient secrecy, should the need arise.

It was decided to spend the night in a classic "snow trench" shelter.

The experiment was carried out at the beginning of March 2010.

The air temperature is about -5 during the day, up to -12 at night.

The snow in the forest is deep and loose.

1. Digging a hole

To begin with, with the help of a small infantry shovel, an approximately square hole was dug out in such a way that the entire partisan detachment would fit in it - three people.

(the pit is already in the morning in the photo, but the meaning is clear):

More spruce branches were thrown at the bottom, for additional thermal insulation.

2. Making the roof

In the most classic version, skis or poles are placed on top, branches, spruce branches and a layer of snow are placed on top. In our case, due to the lack of skis, as well as the desire to cut live trees, we limited ourselves to an awning. The awning was simply stretched over a hole between the nearest trees, just above the snow level. The holes on the sides were plugged with chunks of snow cut from the crust and sealed with the same snow as far as possible.

By the way, the awning was not enough, I had to add the available foam with a metallized heat-reflecting layer to it. Of course, this layer down.

Thus, only the entrance hole remained, as well as a small ventilation hole, which was partially covered with dry branches, snow and a sleeping bag cover.

Of course, it was impossible to throw snow on the awning - due to the lack of a rigid frame, it would have been forced to the ground.

It turned out to be a pretty good-looking shelter.

That's all! We put foam, sleeping bags inside, climb in and sleep :)

The last climber plugs the entrance with a backpack, leaving a small gap for air.

3. We spend the night

We turn into a sleeping bag. Before going to bed, I prudently stuffed a one and a half liter plastic bottle of hot water into my sleeping bag. The first half of the night was even hot for me :)

In total - the personnel survived and even managed to get enough sleep :)

4. Conclusions

• The described technology is much less comfortable than the option with a node, but allows you to spend the night normally. But more secrecy. The laboriousness of building such a shelter is much less than the preparation of firewood for the whole night.
• At night it was about 12 degrees below zero, but the temperature even in such a shelter (with a thin roof of one tent) was still around zero. The first photo shows how the walls melted.
• A good sleeping bag is very important - in the morning the legs began to freeze slightly
• Humidity rises sharply in the morning - drizzle hangs in the lair, which condenses on the ceiling and turns into frost.
• Recklessly left near the entrance (inside), wet and not really dried shoes in the morning froze to such an extent that in the morning it took considerable effort to defrost. The leg simply did not fit into these ice fossils :)
• Conclusion: dry shoes thoroughly, if not possible, put them somewhere in the headboard, where the temperature is higher.
• If the snow were sticky, and not dry and crumbly, it would be possible to roll up a lot of snowballs a la a snowman, and build a noble lair where one could sit, and not just lie.

Goodnight! Your old Manstopper.

If a summer night spent in nature is not something unusual, especially if you have equipment and experience, then spending the night in the forest in winter, and even in severe frost, can become something extreme. With insufficient experience, this is quite dangerous. But if you have the necessary knowledge and skills, spending the night in the winter forest is not much more difficult than in the summer. Consider the main points of the winter overnight stay.

Training

In winter, the sun sets early, so you should prepare for the night in advance. First of all, it is worth deciding on a parking place. It is desirable that the site be protected from strong winds and safe in every sense. Next, it is worth clearing or trampling down a place for a fire and a canopy or tent. After that, we proceed to the preparation of firewood and the construction of shelters.

canopy

If there is a tent, preferably a winter one, then we skip this point. We just install it on a cleared place, insulate it if necessary, lay a tourist rug on the bottom and our lodging for the night is almost ready. If there is no tent, then it is worth building a canopy from poles set at an angle of 45 degrees, covered with some kind of material, as shown in the figure. The meaning of this design is not only to protect against wind and snow, but also to reflect heat from the fire. Therefore, it is worth trying to use a reflective material, such as a shiny rescue blanket. When constructing a canopy, we remember the rule: “the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection” and we make sure that the maximum radiation from the fire is reflected on you.

Nodia and canopy

Under a canopy of poles and spruce branches, you can build a couch and our place to sleep is ready. If everything is done correctly, then with a good fire under such a canopy, you can sleep peacefully all night without freezing even at temperatures below minus 20 degrees.

You can read more about the construction of a canopy and other shelters, including the Needle, in the article "".

Bonfire

Any overnight stay in the winter forest necessarily implies the presence of a fire. The taiga node of two or three logs is best suited for this purpose. Such a fire is able to burn all night without the need to add firewood. At the same time, a powerful directional flow of heat with a well-constructed canopy will not let you freeze even in severe frosts. During an overnight stay, for safety, it is worth putting a medium-sized log between the fire and the stove bench, which will protect in case the fire falls apart. You can see more about node in the following video:

dangers

Possible troubles when spending the night in the forest (in summer) were listed in:

• wild animals;
• unfriendly people;
• hallucinations.

In the cold season, in addition to the above, the most important danger is the cold itself. Severe hypothermia can easily lead to death. It must be remembered that with a noticeable decrease in body temperature, drowsiness may occur. It is impossible to sleep in such a state in the cold in any case, because. Once you fall asleep, you probably won't wake up.

Also in this situation, you should categorically refrain from drinking alcohol. Despite the apparent effect of warming, the body actually loses heat intensely due to the dilated blood vessels. In addition, in a state of intoxication, the risk of freezing to death increases many times. But if you need to warm up a frozen person who is already in a warm room, then a little alcohol inside will only benefit along with hot tea.

Conclusion

You should not take the information above as a guide or a set of rules for spending the night in the winter forest. These are just general guidelines that you should pay attention to first. Many other factors must be taken into account: the physical and moral condition of the body, terrain features, snow cover thickness, weather conditions, etc. With a competent approach and sufficient experience, spending the night in the forest during the cold season will bring exceptionally positive emotions.

Spending the night in the February forest under the scorching rays of the starry sky is priceless, for everything else there is .... a five-star hotel :-)
The audience of LiveJournal often sees posts about all sorts of multi-star hotels, about the luxury inside them, about the price tags per day for these hotels, comparable to the annual salary of a primary school teacher in the Kirov region. This post will be a little about a different type of housing. About this, about which the Bremen Town Musicians sing "our walls are giant pines, our roof is blue sky, our happiness is to live such a fate ..."
Also, this post is a kind of preview to a series of stories about a just completed hiking trip along Samarskaya Luka, when we were allowed to take only a tourist rug and a spoon with a knife from the equipment. There were no tents, sleeping bags and other crap, and this despite the fact that the thermometer dropped below zero.

A lot of people have aroused great interest. But what is shown there are flowers. I remember that once in February, Pashtet, known from the last series, gathered a group of like-minded people, which included your obedient servant, and led them, that is, us, on a small two-day hike. It seems to be nothing unusual, but it was impossible to take any tents, stoves, sleeping bags and other things. Only the clothes you are wearing, a tourist rug / foam and a blanket ... (further it will be clear what it is for)
A general view of our minus five-star hotel that night is in the photo below.

So, if suddenly you have some kind of emergency and you have to spend the night in the forest without having a tent and a sleeping bag with you, then this post is for you. This picture schematically shows the organization of an overnight stay without a tent.

We will analyze in detail how and what is done to sleep comfortably at night.
I note that of the 6 people who went on a hike then, no one got sick and no one froze at night. The organization of such a rooming house is a very lengthy occupation. First you need to prepare 3 logs with a diameter of up to 40 cm and a length of 2.5-3 meters (it all depends on the number of people).
We did it like this:

Next, the logs are stacked in the following order. Two logs at the base of the pyramid and one log at the ready, but we don’t put it on top of those two logs, because. First you need to kindle two logs of the base.

After the two logs at the base have flared up along the entire length, we lay the top log. It turns out a burning pyramid. At a distance of 2-3 meters from the logs (knots), we hang a foil blanket. Remember from school that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. The infrared radiation from the fire will be reflected from the foil and will fall on your mortal body, thereby creating an additional source of heat.

In front of the burning logs, you need to put another protective log. Firstly, it will be insurance in case the pyramid collapses, and secondly, the legs will not be so hot. For the first half of the night, our protective log was very large and our feet were a little cold. Then Pashtet cut down the tree a little thinner and happiness came. Usually, the protective log should be made with a diameter two times smaller than the base log. Also, in order to prevent heat from escaping, you can make a mound of snow around the perimeter and stretch the side "walls". They covered themselves with a blanket not so much for warmth, but so that sparks would not burn through clothes.
We were on duty for 1.5 hours. Slept very well. True, one fighter, namely Kostya, had slightly burned pants. Trifles, it's a matter of life :-)

That hike was very interesting in terms of experience. As I said, the thermometer dropped below -20, but slept very comfortably.
This method works not only when you are a group overnight. The same Pashtet single-handedly practiced this way of spending the night, and having done everything right, you can sleep in your shorts when there are many minus degrees outside.

Therefore, our night before yesterday in the forest, where the air temperature was only about zero, is nothing.

Now we can start talking about the trip itself. There will be 2.5 days of exciting walks in the Samarskaya Luka National Park ahead: spending the night by the fire, meeting with wild boars and badgers, chalk mountains, old natural gypsum quarries, autumn forest, abandoned villages and much more.

P.s. this post will be useful to those who have not coped with the payment of the mortgage :-)

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It's summer now, warm enough, which means it's time for hiking. Many drag tents, but it is quite possible to do without them. But this is extra weight, and a hike, first of all, should bring pleasure, and what pleasure can there be from an 80-liter backpack filled to the top?

I will make a reservation right away - you can spend the night without a tent, even if you go camping for a week. The most important thing is to choose the right place, otherwise everything will simply be wet with dew.

The bottom line is that no matter what type of shelter they build, it will still be most comfortable to spend the night in a sleeping bag and on a karemat.

No, but what? We spend the night without a tent, right? Right. There are three key factors here:

1. Ambient temperature. It is this factor that is initially important for the selection of a sleeping bag and a carriage for an overnight stay.

2. The thickness of the mat. If the temperature is as it is now, then it is quite easy to spend the night on a light Izhevsk karemet or a folding karem of the German army, because. they are quite thin. But my advice to you - if you do not want to go to bed after such a trip from pneumonia - take a thicker and more expensive karemat. It's not worth saving on yourself. There are also self-inflating or simply inflatable karemats (these are in the supply of the British Army). The thing seems to be good because of the small size, but the classic karemat is more familiar and better.

3. The sleeping bag itself. It is well known that there are sleeping bags for summer and winter. It is logical that summer ones are better than winter ones. The form factor of the sleeping bag is also important. There are three of them:

1. Blanket and duvet with headrest. A rectangular-shaped sleeping bag, the second option has something like a hood. The most versatile sleeping bag. Dignity - you can fasten two sleeping bags into one huge one - for family felting. The downside is that it is heavy and not compact.

2. "Cocoon". The shape of a person in such a sleeping bag is very reminiscent of a butterfly cocoon. Pluses, it is quite warm in it (due to the fact that a lot of insulation can be stuffed in it because of this shape). Cons: Quite uncomfortable.

3. "Elephant leg". Such a sleeping bag is quite compact, because it covers your carcass only to the waist. Pros - compactness and lightness. Cons - you can only sleep in warm clothes or just in a very warm time.

But the insulation of the sleeping bag is also important. I myself have been bothering about this topic for a long time, but knowledgeable people suggested that Primaloft or Climashield insulation would be ideal. Lightweight because they are synthetic. But at the same time warm enough. Sufficiently durable and resistant to compression.

This table shows the thermal insulation properties of various fillers.

I think the choice is obvious.

It is also worth noting the outer covering of the sleeping bag, but you should not bother about it. On sale you can find gore-tex covers or rip-stop covers suitable for any sleeping bag. For fans of the army, in camouflage.

A compression bag will also be useful to save space in your backpack.

You can buy liners in a sleeping bag for complete immersion and recreate home comfort, which are essentially a sheet.

In the photo - an army sheet-liner for a sleeping bag. Photo from the Internet. The girl in the insert refuses to be photographed in this way.

Now a brief summary. If a sleeping bag is required only for summer, then take a sleeping bag in the “blanket” form factor. You more than need it. For a sleeping bag (if it was not included), buy a gore-tex cover, a compression bag and an inner sheet liner. Anything will be more convenient.