|
|
There are six Winter Campers crammed into a lean-to for a multi-day winter camping trip. While Bob is a likeable guy, no one wants to sleep next to Bob, because he snores so loudly. They decide it isn’t fair to make one of them sleep next to him the whole time, so they vote to take turns.
The first guy sleeps with Bob and comes to breakfast the next morning with his hair a mess and his eyes all bloodshot. They say, “Man, what happened to you?” He says, “Bob snored loudly the whole night! I just sat up and watched him all night.”
The next night it is a different guy’s turn. In the morning, same thing – hair all standing up, eyes all bloodshot. They say, “Man, what happened to you? You look awful!” He says, “Man, that Bob shakes the roof with his snoring. I watched him all night.”
The third night is Fred’s turn. Fred is an experienced, older man. The next morning he comes to breakfast bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. “Good morning!” he says. They can’t believe it. They say, “Man, what happened?” Fred says, “Well, we got ready for bed. I went and tucked Bob into his sleeping bag, patted him on the butt, and kissed him good night. Bob sat up and watched me all night.”
Follow our occasional Tweets @WinterCampers and visit us on Facebook.
“There is an end to everything, to good things as well.” – Geoffrey Chaucer, 1374 a.k.a “All good things must come to an end”.
You might enjoy a spring camping trip; longer days, milder temperatures, with spotty snow cover, mostly this is a wrap for the winter camping season.
Follow our occasional Tweets @WinterCampers and visit us on Facebook.
On September 19, 1991, in the mountains between Austria and Italy, hikers stumbled upon the corpse of a 5,300 year-old man eroding out of a glacier. Dubbed “Ötzi” this perfectly preserved iceman is the oldest human ever found. The Iceman stood about 5’5″ tall, and weighed about 134 lbs. He was in his mid-40s, and his strong leg muscles and overall fitness suggest that he may have spent his life herding sheep and goats in the mountains. His health was fair for the period–he had arthritis in his joints and he had whipworm – an internal parasite.
Ötzi carried tools, weapons, and containers including an animal skin quiver with arrow-shafts made of viburnum and hazel wood, sinews and spare points. A copper ax head with a yew haft and leather binding, a small flint knife and a pouch with a flint scraper and awl were all included in the artifacts found with him. He carried a yew bow. Otzi’s clothing included a belt, loincloth, and goat-skin leggings with suspenders, not unlike lederhosen. He wore a bear-skin cap, outer cape and coat made of woven grass. His shoes were waterproof and wide, seemingly designed for walking across the snow; they were constructed using bearskin for the soles, deer hide for the top panels, and a netting made of tree bark. Soft grass went around the foot and in the shoe and functioned like modern socks.
We wanted to compare what he was carrying with our list of Ten Essentials.
| Map |
|
| Compass |
|
| Flashlight Or Headlamp |
|
| Extra Food |
Ötzi carried some extra berries. |
| Extra Clothes |
Ötzi wore a cloak made of woven grass and a coat, a belt, a pair of leggings, a loincloth and shoes, all made of leather of different skins |
| Sunglasses & Sun Screen |
|
| First Aid Kit |
Ötzi carried two species of mushrooms with leather strings through them. One of these, the birch fungus, is known to have antibacterial properties and was likely used for medicinal purposes. |
| Pocket Knife Or Multi Purpose Tool |
Ötzi carried a little flint-tipped dagger with a handle made of ash. The dagger had twin cutting edges. Ötzi would have carried it attached to his waist. It was found inside a finely braided scabbard. The dagger would have been used as a multipurpose tool, but often to skin animals, clean hides and cut meat. |
| Fire Starter And Matches |
Ötzi had a type of tinder fungus included as part of a complex fire starting kit. The kit featured pieces of over a dozen different plants in addition to flint and pyrite for creating sparks. |
| Water And A Way To Purify It |
Two birch bark baskets that could have carried water |
Not bad for a 5,300 year old primitive camper.
Follow our occasional Tweets @WinterCampers and visit us on Facebook.
Before you pitch your tarp or tent for the night or before you build your quinzee, you want to let the snow firm up or sinter. Sintering of snow is when snow crystals lose their points due to molecular motion, wind, and direct pressure.
Initially, snow falls as individual flakes or snow crystals, but pointy crystals and sharp angles are not as thermodynamically stable as more rounded crystals.
In nature, crystals lose their points due to molecular motion, wind, and direct pressure. Physically breaking the snow crystals, for instance stomping on them or disturbing them with a shovel, will produce the same effect. The crystal arms are broken and then rounded grains fuse by freezing into larger crystals in a process called sintering. Snow crystals resulting from destructive metamorphism compact easily and can become very hard and dense.
Rounding and sintering stabilize the new snow and, along with gravity, cause it to settle. Thus, there is a net loss of height- which causes settlement.
Follow our occasional Tweets @WinterCampers and visit us on Facebook.
From Earthsky.org – The March equinox signals the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. It marks that special moment when the sun crosses the celestial equator going from south to north. In 2013, this equinox will arrive on March 20 at 7:02 a.m. EST. The equinox is an event that happens in Earth’s orbit around the sun. Simultaneously, it happens on the imaginary dome of our sky. The imaginary celestial equator is a great circle dividing the sky into Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The celestial equator wraps the sky directly above Earth’s equator. At the equinox, the sun crosses the celestial equator, to enter the sky’s northern hemisphere.
Our ancestors didn’t understand the equinoxes and solstices as events that occur in the course of Earth’s yearly orbit around the sun. But they surely marked today as being midway between the sun’s lowest path across the sky in winter and highest path across the sky in summer. Today, we know each equinox and solstice is an astronomical event, caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis and ceaseless motion in orbit.
Because Earth doesn’t orbit upright, but is instead tilted on its axis by 23-and-a-half degrees, Earth’s Northern and Southern hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun’s light and warmth most directly. We have an equinox twice a year – spring and fall – when the tilt of the Earth’s axis and Earth’s orbit around the sun combine in such a way that the axis is inclined neither away from nor toward the sun.
At the equinox, Earth’s two hemispheres are receiving the sun’s rays equally. Night and day are approximately equal in length. The word equinox comes from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night).
You can read more here.
Follow our occasional Tweets @WinterCampers and visit us on Facebook.
|
|