Life Below Zero

[Shadow 7D]

Look at what the Army uses
honestly, it's pretty much the same tech,except for the sleeping bag (same as the rest, no special arctic bag, but if you are lucky you might get issued the arctic sleep ware)

There's a small stove in the squad tent, it's up the the squad if they want to run it all the time, honestly the tent isn't much more than what Caribou uses, except it sleeps more people, and they TRIED quite a few 'new and improved' except plasticized fabric BREAKS at low temps when oiled canvas or duck is just fine. And thinking of all the crawling around, makes me kinda jealous of Caribous setup. The sides of an arctic tent are NEVER staked, because the tent will burn down in seconds if it gets on fire so you train to roll out, bag and all.The biggest trick on the arctic tent is...Keep the roof low (all your heat rises and you sleep cold) and either make sure you have REALLY good drainage, or prepare your bed WAY before you get close to getting it toasty inside, did that ONCE, was there when it was done against better advice....
see you melt the snowpack and are left with mud, very cold wet get in everything mud, and it'll never dry out

Second thing on guns, esp. the M16/4 if it's hot, keep it hot, if it's cold, keep it cold, if it's gone from hot to cold, you need to shotgun it and clean the bolt and check for ice.

While I can't say 'this is why it won't work' I can tell you cleaning the bolt fixes it...
OH and I did something Caribou called me crazy for... shooting quals at -65... but then we weren't given much of a choice, and I have the lingering after effect of frost nip on my face to prove it.
And like Caribou said, shooting will all your layers on, and (in our case) a vest, makes it 'fun'

speaking of frost bite, hot tip, well 2 actually
Never touch freezing metal without a layer, much like the kid licking the flag poll... it instantly freezes your skin on contact... I could tell by a certain divot people acquired on that field exercise if they were left handed or right handed by which side of the nose it was on. (non military, one way of maintaining a consistent sight picture is by indexing your head position by placing the tip of your nose to the charging handle.)

Second, petroleum products, unlike water don't freeze (ok, so the paraffin - wax will solidify in some grades of diesel) this means spilling fuel on yourself is an emergency.

What did I learn, lots and while I had my doubts, the stuff taught by the army about extreme cold, works, when you are out and about for 12 hours a day that cold... and it's the little the little things that can mess you up, like me forgetting my beanie walking two blocks to motor pool cause it had warmed up to -34, and now I can tell when the temp is below 15*.... it makes my ears hurt. On a curious note, care to guess who the Army learned about cold weather survival from... yeah, the Alaska natives, one of the most effective arctic forces fielded was the Alaska Territorial Volunteers, made up of mostly natives and trappers.

Honestly, having experienced it, I respect the hell out of Caribou, and can tell you that there's a thousand little things that don't make it through, like what it feels like to take a piss with a bit of wind in extreme cold. Or having your coffee go cold in less than 5 minutes and crust over. You want to feel sorry for someone, feel sorry for the crew...

They say that you take 3 times as long to do something in deep cold. OH and batteries, they don't last.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I heard they use/d(?) nuclear batteries on landing strip lights in the very cold.

 

[rodregier]

Military ops in the extreme cold - the environment is at least as potent a force as any opposing enemy, and has to fought at least as hard :-(

FWIW, Manganese Dioxide (CR type) LiMnO2 batteries are rated down to -40C (-40F) operating temperature. Regular alkaline batteries are much less hardy.

 

[MP-44]

Great show. I was flipping through channels and caught Caribou & family fishing with the nets and have been hooked ever since. I also like the segments covering the trapper/hunter.

I hope there are many more seasons to come.

I do wish they would drop the lady at the "station". I think she could burn toast and make it seem like it was life or death. She gets old quick.

 

[rodregier]

BTW, Canada also has a volunteer force way up north also comprised of local natives, who also train Regular Forces on Arctic operations in the field.

http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/land-terre/cr-rc/index-eng.asp

 

[harrygunner]

I used to live in a town that appeared in many TV shows and movies. I'd get a kick out of seeing characters leave a building and by time they're on the road, they're actually miles away. Watched them film a couple of times. Bits of action edited together later.

So nice to see the treasure of Native Alaskan knowledge being passed on. And the awareness that everything is a renewable resource we depend on for our survival is so important. I'm reminded of that every time I'm in South Dakota in the middle of emptiness that used to hold millions of buffalo. Decimated in a little over a decade.

I've never appreciated subtle nuances of rifles being so critical for survival. Thanks for that as well.

This show has me considering an extended visit to Alaska so I can get some feel for its culture.

 

[scaatylobo]

ROFLMFAO @ Sue

Ok ,so last nights episode was THE bottom line as to her total lack of sense and skill,its amazing she can stay alive with her 'skills'.

First she went out to 'pull a sneak' on a snow covered flat ,WEARING BLACK !.

Then she goes out in some white,and no shot worth taking.

NEXT she goes out in black AGAIN,and gets within FIFTY YARDS and misses due to having gear that is not sighted in - REALLY ?.

The rest of the show and the people [ minus Eriks silliness at crashing ] are truly interesting and very resourceful .

Back to Sue,she actually has apples and real food supplys that others would kill for,and they call her part of this show = NOT IN MY OPINION.

She could star in a version called "mild Alaska,almost wild".

 

[Cosmoline]

"Mild Alaska" is the name of my own reality TV show. Viewers get to watch me pedal around getting loads at Costco. Thrill to next week's show as I cruise the local Saturday markets and buy fresh spinach from the Lutherans. There's a moose, but he just stands there looking at me while chewing on things.

 

[John3921]

lobo - that was comical. OTOH - with the miracle of film and editing it's hard to believe any of that happened in the exact sequence shown. Sneaking up on a flock of anything with a camera man or three in tow seems unlikely. I'd think if she really wanted to whack a ptarmigan she'd have herself a small blind set up somewhere and pick the little buggers off.

Agnes is shown missing a lot of shots too - I suspect the reality might be a little different than what you see on the idjot box.

 

[rcmodel]

Sue showed a total lack of respect for the Ptarmigan she killed too.

First, calling them several names that were totally inappropriate.

Then 'breasting' it and leaving the wing and leg meat for the varmints to eat.

rc

 

[caribou]

Hunting and dragging along a camera crew is VERY difficult.

I didn't get to see last nights show, but a youtube caribou hunt instead (OK, more like I settled for it)

We found that as long as we acted like a bunch of grazing Caribou, the group as a whole could get fairly close, but the camera itself had the Caribou up and alert by 200 yards. Funny too, Agnes did miss, but then again, we all miss sometimes, but with scenes blended from catching three Caribou into catching the first one that day, its because they needed film from various angles and such. One camera isn't much. The tip off is that Agnes has her white ski mask, then her black one. Indeed, over the course of the day she missed a couple times, but not three times at one animal ~~LOL!!~~
One scene I caught a glimps of was a Caribou dropped in its tracks when hit, but when I walked up and went to cut the throat, as we do on all of them to bleed out what we can, it was quite alive, and when it stood up, I did what you can call "kosher" and used what was litterally in my hand. Usually we just shoot them in the head again, if in such a condition. So there I am, knife in hand and blood on my leg telling Agnes "Well , we aint gonna catch them" ~~LOL!!~~ as a group that was approaching caught our wind, yet its edited in as me and her still chaseing them......~~LOL!!~~

Those edits are the 5% I see that's used to fill in seconds. The rest is pretty much what was happening, just condensed. Thats where most of the story gets lost, condensing, and yet trying to make it presentable.........so the editors do have quite a job.

A BS story would have us do little to nothing in the 12 or so minutes we get each episode. Soon, you'll see alotta other things we do to make a living, such as firewood, boat building, sled making, fishing, arts and crafts and such.

 

[bassdogs]

Bou - This is a little off topic, but as an addict to the many Alaska related reality shows, I have often wondered how health care happens there. As shown in the Coast Guard Ak, people with grave injuries or illnesses out in the bush or remote villages are evacuated by heli or what ever means is necessary to get the patient somewhere for "a higher level of care". Do people have health insurance? I understand that you don't run to a doc everytime you cut yourself or get a nasty bump on your noggin, but there must be cases when that 'higher level of care" is needed. This is not intended to be a personal [just you] question, but rather the norm for people living in the bush or one of the remote villages.

 

[Shadow 7D]

There's a pretty developed system...
BUT to go to the doctor, for some, might involved chartering a bush pilot and a flight of 200+ miles.

I have a highschool classmate (from Paradise CA.) who is a flight nurse for Guardian Flight http://www.guardianflight.com/ actually bumped into him at Costco

Yeah, they can get you to the hospital, and they have stuff that can get to most developed airstrips... but, well you probably don't want to know what that flight will cost you. The NG and reserves hospital/medical units mobilize for 2 weeks, and provide free clinics to remote villages. And most of the major native corporations have hospitals or clinics in their regional hubs.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

Caribou, what kind of Internet connection do you have up there?

 

[caribou]

I have an internet connection via our local telephone co-op. Most have gone to satalite dishes, and I plan one soon, 4 gig them there......were always trying to improve things here, in ol'2013

As for health care......wellllllllllllllllllll Alaska wasn't conquord like the lower 48 and its Native tribes weren't subjugated and imprisoned on Reservations and such, but it took till 1924 for them to legally own land or vote, ect. By Statehood they lawsuited up and in 1971 the state, Natives, Feds and private individuls were settled for ownership of lands and compensations, as the local tribes proved to be the original occupiers, and that in 1867 the US bought the rights to govern, Tax and protect the lands here, not "Own" them as some implied.
The Native Corperations were formed to manage these lands and this corp did well; they developed RedDog Mine and the corp pays 94% of the boroughs taxes that fund our schools, trails, and such.
They also dumped the unweildy Indian Health Service, for the most part and formed their own non profit health corp "Maniilaq association" and trained locals as Aids and nurses. The clinic in each village will keep you alive until a life flight, no helocopters, gets you to Anchorage. Kotzebue has a large clinic, with alotta social services therem, as well as a couple real doctors, but no surgery or such. Someday, maybe. The dental services are much iimproved in the last 20 years as well, with no more just pulling teeth.

I have no health insurance, and once broke my right forarm, snapped it straight and slung it, 4 months later, I was just fine. "But" I also had alotta training, and have helped many people from as an EMT and a with basic first aid, as well as attended a couple deaths. No fun.

Live healthy, eat healthy, exercise and be carefull, its the accidents that will get ya........

 

[lloveless]

Caribou, thanks to you and your family for sharing your way of life. I am a travel nurse and spent 13 weeks March-July 2010 in Kotzebue. Never got to Kobuk, but did fly into and out of Kivilina. I really appreciate the Inupiat culture.
ll

 

[Certaindeaf]

Sue showed a total lack of respect for the Ptarmigan she killed too.

First, calling them several names that were totally inappropriate.

Then 'breasting' it and leaving the wing and leg meat for the varmints to eat.

rc

I didn't get to see that episode yet. I saw one episode where that younger guy shot two and did that also, keeping the other parts for trap bait.
I would have plucked that thing in a few seconds.. the skin is the best part.

 

[DM~]

At first she said she wanted to make soup, she thew away the BEST part for soup!

Too dang lazy to clean it "properly", she could have had both, fried breast AND soup!!

I've cleaned and ate hundreds of those things!

DM

 

[Carl N. Brown]

In regard to plentiful small game, I can think of reasons to leave unwanted scraps in the wild (including sharing with other predators far away from the dwelling so maybe they are less like to come foraging closer to home) and taking the best parts home.

Subsistence hunters (like my relatives in the mountains) are not always as dainty as I was taught about sports hunting growing up in the city. My father was mountain born and raised but settled in the city when he came home from WWII.

 

[Cosmoline]

First, calling them several names that were totally inappropriate.

I haven't seen this show, but it's not unusual to call them stupid chickens. Because they just stand there looking at you.

Then 'breasting' it and leaving the wing and leg meat for the varmints to eat.

Ptarmingan leg meat? Never even tried to deal with that. It's all sinew on the ones I've shot. The big red breasts are where it's at. Maybe the ones elsewhere have bigger legs or something.

http://www.alaskapublic.org/2012/11/02/hunting-alaskas-wild-chickens/

 

[rcmodel]

Much worse then that.

I do believe they beeped out a couple of words, and the ones they let by?

I can't use the milder words Sue used for them on THR without getting an infraction.

As for stupid chicken?
Well, most of them were a heck of a lot smarter then Sue was I guess.

rc

 

[Cosmoline]

Well that is odd. I've never cursed ptarmigan or grouse. I think this person may just be a little bit crazy.

 

[rcmodel]

Just a rough gruff sad old lady that has lived alone in the artic for too long.

But it seems to me that is probably why she went there alone when she was young in the first place??

rc

 

[rcmodel]

Ptarmingan leg meat? Never even tried to deal with that.

Me neither.
I've never even seen one, let alone ate one.

But they can't be all that much different then Prairie Chicken, Pheasant, and Grouse.

She wanted something to eat, and it could have been cleaned properly, 'breasted' for frying, and the rest boiled down into meat & broth, and consumed.
I bet it would have been pretty good stuff too!

Feed the bones to the pet foxes!

rc

 

[xxjumbojimboxx]

Sue showed a total lack of respect for the Ptarmigan she killed too.

First, calling them several names that were totally inappropriate.

Then 'breasting' it and leaving the wing and leg meat for the varmints to eat.

rc

I don't think she was being disrespectful to the animal....uh.. on purpose.... I sort of think that she called them little somethinorothers in the same regard that a mechanic would say something like that to a stuck screw... You know.. like pain in the butt type scenario. I really think a hunter respecting an animal is more about appreciation for what that animal has provided, and the life its given to do so. I don't really think calling it names that it doesn't even understand, before you've killed it, is disrespectful.