Fieldcraft Recommended winter travel & camping book

[Eric B.]

As a ski patroller and former winter survival instructor I'd like to recommend "Allen and Mike's Really Cool Backcountry Ski Book".

About 1/3 is on skiing and the rest is on winter clothing and camping skills. This is <span style="font-style: italic">THE</span> best book on the subject I've seen in my decades of winter camping. Fully half the information is contained in Mike Clelland's cartoon-style illustrations.

Winter camping means fewer hours of daylight, fewer options for survival with poor equipment and/or training, heavier loads of clothing, heavier over-snow footwear, more food (yes), more fuel, and heavier shelter. There is just plain less margin of error when winter camping. Yet it is a beautiful time of year to camp. So get out there and do it.

And don't forget good VBLs for your feet, extra dry liners for mittens or gloves, etc., etc.

 

[kraigWY]

Re: Recommended winter travel & camping book

I use to do, and teach a lot of Winter Camping, Survival, Glacier Work, Rock and Ice climbing with Alaska National Guard.

I drifted from pure survival to the enjoyment of winter camping.

The best work I've found, and what I used more then anything else is "Paradise Below Zero: A Complete Handbook on How to Camp in Winter" by Calvin Rutstrum

For those who enjoy camping, you are wasting half you life in settng by the fire during winter months.

I've injoyed winter camping much more thne camping in the winter.

Earlier I posted a topic seeking interest in a Winter Camping Course, I wanted this course to be geard more to the enjoyment of winter camping rather the the pure survival aspect but it would have also covered Safety in winter camping.

 

[Eric B.]

Re: Recommended winter travel & camping book

Kraig,

Rustrum's book was the first winter camping book I ever owned. It was great for its day and is a classic, stil instructive today.

But new materials and information have come along to augment Rustrum's book. The info in "Allen & Mike's Really Cool Backcountry Ski Book" (God what a long title!) has things in it that Rustrum never thought about.

Plus new technology has brought us things like the Canadian BushBuddy gassifier wood stove and, my favorite, the Trail Designs Sidewinder/Inferno roll-up titanium gassifier wood stove.
Now you can cook with absolute minimum wood, create a very hot fire and still have a "campfire" once the pot is removed.

So time marches on and some new (and old) techniques and gear help us have a comfortable winter camping experience with no bugs and no crowds.

 

[9H_Cracka]

Re: Recommended winter travel & camping book

Thanks - on its way via amazon.com.

 

[Jackpine_Savage]

Re: Recommended winter travel & camping book

Another book for the wish list.

I've winter camped up in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Quetico Park in Canada for about 30 years now. It was only 2 years ago we started taking a lightweight canvas tent and wood stove.

Another book I really like is The Winter Wilderness Companion by Garrett and Alexandra Conover. They use more traditional clothing but a modern tent and stove. The book has excellent information on living comfortably in the cold. I just looked on Amazon and it seems that it is out of print as is their subsequent book and the used prices are crazy.

The current project for me is building a new sled.
But I'm definitely going to check out those stoves.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Recommended winter travel & camping book

A little dated, the works of Bradford Angier come first to mind when this subject is raised. My Elder Brothers got me a copy of <span style="font-style: italic">On Your Own In the Wilderness</span> when I was a kid. But the parts about reliance on primative methods is still quite appropiate even to this day.

Our Scout Troop/Explorer Post gang hiked the Appalachian trail in Eastern PA and Western NJ repeatedly in the mid-'60's, and still get out together a little even now, although the more strenuous activities are no longer allowed for me. Reduced peripheral circulation seriously limits my tolerance for cold.

Back in the '70's we did some serious Winter tent camping in the Adirondacks' High Peaks Region, usually in/around February.

Greg

 

[kraigWY]

Re: Recommended winter travel & camping book

Bradford Angier, I forgot him. I use to love reading his material.

Also there are some good books on the subject listed in the ads in 'FUR FISH AND GAME, magazines.

 

[oughtsix]

Re: Recommended winter travel & camping book

I grew up on Angier's "How to survive in the woods" Dated, yes, but really sound information.