Lessons From Applying The North American Winter Camping Style In the Scandinavian Boreal Forest

This was a main stage presentation given at the 2019 Global Bushcraft Symposium in Alberta, Canada. Spanning 15 years of gaining experience in the boreal, I cover both direct learning points as well as some meta-learning points.
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[@nigelgregory4777]

Hi Paul. What can I say, you gave a speach humbling yourself to some people who know better, but because you respect them and appreciate your learning from them others will follow, I have heard names from you I have never heard of, they should thank you for your work bringing their names to our attention. Many thanks Nige.

[@PaulKirtley]

Thanks, as always, for your positive words Nige.

[@jasonkaholai4110]

Wonderful presentation, very informative and interesting, thank you Paul! You are very knowledgeable and have excellent attitude towards nature, bushcraft and coaching indeed, very admirable!

[@MCQBushcraft]

Really enjoyed your presentation Paul, a wealth of experience and really fascinating to watch and listen as always. Its probably slim but if your ever around Asele it would be fantastic to meet you. Myself and Megan have moved here to South Lapland in Sweden over the last year, the winter was certainly a learning curve for us in so many ways. Gradually building up equipment...… Thank you again!

[@PaulKirtley]

Hi Mike, it's good to hear from you. It's been a while. I'm glad to hear all is going well for you and Megan in your move to Sweden. It's a great country and the north is fantastic. The closest I've been to Asele, is Umeå, which I know is not particularly close! Looking at Google maps of the area around Asele looks like there is good scope for canoe trips in the area. I don't need a lot of encouraging on that front either... So maybe we should chat more about a visit... :-) Either way, keep in touch. Cheers, Paul

[@JordanNiks]

A collaboration of you two would be amazing to watch!!! I just want to encourage you to do this and to bring the cameras along!

[@Lycan_24_7]

@@JordanNiks it would be epic

[@drbrown1970]

Finally got time to watch this Paul, thank you for sharing it. Informative and inspirational.

[@PaulKirtley]

I finally got around to replying to comments :-) Glad you liked it Russell.

[@BushcraftSweden]

I learned so much from this guy years ago already through its very synthetic work he has shared on various supports.. But here again iam absolutely amazed the quality and the amount of "data" there is in an hour presentation. What a knowledge gold mine, How inspirational..

[@PaulKirtley]

Tack så mycket.

[@Kgib338]

Very good presentation.

[@bobbyson39]

Nailed that ! great presentation Paul thanks for sharing

[@PaulKirtley]

Cheers Rob!

[@scottbainetwisted_keel_adv5821]

Another excellent job Paul. I really appreciate your knowledge and experience 👍👍

[@PaulKirtley]

Thanks for your positive words Scott. I'm glad you liked this.

[@glenlyonexplorer]

Informative and well presented video Paul, I’m lucky enough to be going to the Northern Boreal Forest next January and videos like this are great for advice. Thanks!

[@PaulKirtley]

Cheers for the feedback. I'm glad you found it informative. Whereabouts in the boreal are you headed?

[@glenlyonexplorer]

@@PaulKirtley Im heading to a place called Ivalo, its with Ray Mears and his Woodlore school. Really looking forward to it.

[@PaulKirtley]

Wonderful. You'll have a great time. :-)

[@alphapatriot8405]

Thnxs 4 uploading & sharing

[@erikjanssen6267]

Enjoyed the talk. Thanks.

[@PaulKirtley]

I'm glad you did. Thanks Erik.

[@mog-gyveroneill2500]

Good to see people from the UK making informative videos, a bit thin on the ground (pun kind of intended!).

[@doughroasterbushcraftandsu3947]

Hmmm strange Survival Russia wasn’t invited to do a talk 🤣🤣🤣 I really want to experience the Northern forest in the next couple of years this has made me even more determined to tick it off my bucket list thank you for this Paul 👍🏻

[@WiltshireMan]

Very well presented Paul, It was good to hear you talk about your own learning experiences here. Going out and practicing and refining over time. I have a book here by Cameron McNeish where he says "little fishes taste sweet" Meaning (with regard to backpacking) go out on a small journey first then build upon that, then slowly the skills become embedded. I'd love to visit the Boreal forest one day and see the Northern lights but I've picked up a few hindrances as I've grown older which will present certain challenges...challenges to be overcome perhaps:) Thanks Sandy

[@PaulKirtley]

You are an inspiration to us all Sandy. I'm glad you enjoyed this presentation and the story behind it. And thanks for the Cameron McNeish quote. He's right :-)

[@nowytarg44]

As always great :-) Paul

[@PaulKirtley]

Thank you Tomasz.

[@Kinotaurus]

Nobody in the audience thought to ask the obvious question, so was there anything in Northern Sweden that did NOT carry over to Canada?

[@pauldavies9360]

The language 😆 although Swedes speak very good English

[@ronblackwell2238]

Very interested and inspirational talk, will you be posting the following mornings talk ?

[@PaulKirtley]

Hi Ron, I'm glad you liked this talk. The following day's Keynote presentation is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qma7YYSFat-qldE Enjoy!

[@mjallenuk]

You just get over being jealous of another persons life choices and BANG ... they do a whole flipping presentation on it to great applause! One day I hope to take more than a few leaves from your book Paul (not to use for fire starting etc. I swear....)

[@Rayceemon]

Thoroughly enjoyed the presentation, Paul, well done. You rightly mentioned how important being well organized is when it comes to winter camping. Efficiency counts for a lot when you're tired, hungry, it's bitterly cold and daylight is waning. I was wondering how long it usually took you 4 experienced gents to set up a new camp, at a new location? Really liked your set up for the hot stove on a log raised platform. Melting Ice/snow base is a familiar problem. Would a thin sheet of mylar over the logs help reflect, and radiate the heat upwards? All the best from Canada.

[@PaulKirtley]

Hi Ray, thank you for your comments. I'm glad you thoroughly enjoyed this presentation and that what I talked about resonated with you. In terms of setting up camp, one of the parameters is temperature. The colder it is, the quicker the platform freezes once you have transformed the snow, although below around minus 30, it's more work to transform the snow. The sweet spot seems to be around minus 20 to minus 25 Celsius. Another parameter is the quality of the firewood nearby and how easily it's processed into fuel for the stove. Jack pine, Pinus banksiana, in Canada, for example tends to be more knotty and of a smaller diameter than Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris, in Scandinavia. Our usual process is to park the toboggans, trample a platform for the tent and an area to work in front of the tent, then trample an area to park/unpack/pack the toboggans nearby. We then leave this to start freezing while we head into the woods to source firewood and the poles we need to mount the stove and support the chimney. We use off-cuts from this material for pegs. Once the firewood is located and some brought back to near the tent area, we stop to put the tent up when we sense the platform is becoming solid enough. Not solid enough? Get more firewood. Solid enough? Pause to put the tent up. We ususally make our stove assembly then fit the tent around it. We then leave someone sorting the inside of the tent (canvas flooring is put down and then at least sleeping mats, to help insulate the snow from the heat inside the tent), while more firewood is collected, processed, etc. Once the stove is on, we start processing water straight away. The critical thing to do in daylight is locate the firewood. It can be cut in the dark if necessary and it can certainly be sawn up in the dark. I prefer to get some processed and split before it gets dark though as using an axe in the dark is always more risky than daylight. But to answer your question, this is all going to take a couple of hours - to a point where the tent is up, the stove is on and enough firewood stacked and we can relax. As for your other question, there are a couple of items that Snowtrekker supply which we found help, one is a black mat that goes under the stove, called the Stove Hearth. We line the cold well with this. The other is a silvered Stove Heat Reflector that fits between the support legs of the the stove to reduce the heat radiating downwards. Both of these are under accessories on Snowtrekker's website. I've not tried Mylar. You'd have to be careful not to make contact with the stove bottom as Mylar melts at around 250 Celsius. It could be useful for lining the cold well though. Food for thought... Anyway, I hope this helps fill in some of the detail of what we do. Thanks for your interest! All the best, Paul

[@Rayceemon]

Thanks for your reply Paul. Setting up camp in a couple of hours in winter conditions is quite impressive. ( maybe a video idea? ) Everything seems to take at least twice as long in the cold, and that's if everything goes right - and how often does that happen? lol It's fun though. You're right about getting plenty of firewood.early and processing it. If you're lucky, there may be plenty of it around, but accessing it isn't always so straight forward in waist deep snow - even worse when parts of the tree are buried / frozen in place.. I'll check out the accessories you suggested. Sounds like they could be useful in avoiding slushy conditions in the tent.. As always, you are a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate you for sharing it with us. Great channel by the way. Cheers! Ray.

[@shaneneedles2118]

I just about to say something about the lousy sound and it was suddenly fixed so, good job sound guy. No thumbs down for you today.

[@PaulKirtley]

:-)

[@HB-dd3ux]

In relation to the question about limited daylight: With clear skies and moonlight you can spend as much time per day travelling as any other time of year. As for overcast days: Headlamps solve the issue of darkness.

[@darronlockett9211]

It's a bit intimidating how much experience you describe obtaining and how you feel inadequate (maybe not the right word) in teaching those skills. Everything I have learned I have learned from watching videos like yours then going out and practicing alone or teaching friends who know even less than I do as I practice. How do you know if you're ready for something like you are describing?

[@PaulKirtley]

That's a good question Darron. On a personal level I tried my best to answer this question in one of my AskPaulKirtley sessions and which I put out as a standalone video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fnLLm2yNn8SambM On a professional level, it's good to obtain validation from those who have more experience than you, either through an established framework of assessment or accreditation, or, where this does not exist, from professionals who are regarded as experts in their fields. Warm regards, Paul

[@geographyinaction7814]

I had no idea that you were in Alberta, I would have made the trip from BC!!!!!!

[@PaulKirtley]

Next time.... :-)

[@Trailtraveller]

Excellent presentation with lots of wise words, I see 2 thumbs down.....must be the 5 minutes experienced instructors I guess.... :-)

[@PaulKirtley]

Yes indeed. Or maybe they didn't like the sound quality at the beginning haha :-)