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wilderness training |
[some photos by Sasha Lavrov and Maxim
Marmur]
this was our two-day wilderness
training, led by Alexander Samokutyaev
and with Oleg Skripochka. They were
great, and amazingly tolerant of a
novice with questionable Russian and
even more questionable wilderness
skills!
We were simulating
"a non-nominal landing at marshy
and forested terrain in
winter." The first day we had to
build a quickie shelter before
dark; the second day we took time to
build a proper wigwam from
parachute silk, one of the most
versatile materials known to
mankind. You can use it as the walls
of a wigwam or other shelter,
as stretcher material, as bags to carry
things, and as bedding. It
doesn't burn; instead, it melts.
We managed to keep reasonably warm,
even though temperatures dropped
dramatically from around freezing on
Thursday afternoon to about
minus 15 Centigrade Friday night.
Overall, the training was a success
and it "trained" me to do a
lot of things i have never done before,
including managing a campfire, living
for two days with few modern
conveniences, handling sub-zero cold
for two days outdoors, working
nicely with strangers, using a machete
to chop wood, etc. etc. I
hope never to have to use the training,
but it could come in handy
someday....and it's nice to know I
could do it! (more on my blog at Huffington Post</a.
The challenging parts were when there
were no photographers around.)
44 photos | 991 views
items are from between 23 Jan 2009 & 31 Jan 2009.