Our second day of snow survival training started early Wednesday morning.  We had to have the entire camp taken down and put away and all the bags ready by the shed for pickup by 9am, and the process takes about 2 hours.

Struggling to Wake Up

I had elected to sleep in all of my clothes since I get cold easily.  That involved a base layer of long underwear, two layers of fleece tops & bottoms, snow pants, the big red parka, a wool hat and mittens.  Thusly dressed, I slept in a sleeping bag which was inside a fleece sleeve, all of which was inside a mountain tent.  Despite all this protection, I was still cold and woke up with frost all over my sleeping bag.

Marco, DJ, and Francois each slept in a different shelter contstructed from snow.

DJ built a “coffin” out of a snow trench covered with snow blocks and was comfortable.  Francois slept in the quinzie hut we all built by throwing an 18″ layer of snow onto a pile of luggage, then removing the luggage via a tunnel.  Marco and another camper built a shelter from a trench covered by sleds and snow.

Francois at His Quinzie Hut

Once we all woke up and had something to eat and drink, we took down camp and waited for the instructors to pick us up.  After more instruction on safety as well as radio use, we broke into two groups and had to handle two scenarios.

Using the HF Radio

In the first scenario, a fellow camper has been lost in a blinding snowstorm and we must use a rope to find him, using buckets on our heads to simulate zero visibility.  In the second scenario, our plane has crashed and we must deal with injuries, establishing shelter, and radioing for help.

Practicing Zero Visibility Rescue

Overall a very fun and interesting experience!  But it was a welcome sight when the Deltas came to pick us up…

A Delta arriving to pick us up