Because I have zero experience in wilderness survival, Bent first starts with the most basic skills before going to no man's land. He first observed my weightless ski hiking posture, compared with the Japanese coach's fancy cross-country skiing skills, the Norwegian actually did not have so many tricks, he corrected me a little, let me not raise my legs too high in the march, always let the low-pressure skis drag on the ground, some like rubbing the feeling of walking on the ground, such a snow hiking method is labor-saving, good balance, small impact on the snow, so the sag is also low, Bent walked on the snow the two snow ruts are as straight as the railroad tracks, but I always start to walk like the usual foot up and forward, The snow ruts were intermittent, and after Bent instructed me not to lift my feet when I deliberately controlled myself, I slowly began to adapt.
After practicing walking on a boat-type sleigh, after walking for a while, I found that my body was always deflected to one side, and the weight of my body was very painful to my ankles, and I always felt like I was on my feet. Bent first checked the anti-slip strap attached to the bottom of the ski and found that there was no deviation, and after observing for a while, he felt that there might be two reasons: one was that my shoelaces were not tight enough, resulting in the foot having space to move in the boots; another reason may be that the wool socks were a little off-shaping, I took it off and he helped me adjust it, and then tightened the shoelaces, and it was smoother to hike on the skis again. Next, when I wore ski boots every day, I tied them as tightly as possible, and then after a few days of training in the wild, one toe lost consciousness because it was too tight to circulate blood.
If the balance is better, even if people like me who can't ski, with a little half a day of practice, you can basically master the skills of hiking through wild skis, it is more unsuitable that the boat-type sled towed during the slope turn always overturns, as for some complex terrain to be able to stop or jump on skis, etc. It takes more practice, and when you go on a polar expedition, you have to face the ice sheet with countless cracks in the ice sea, and if you take a wrong step, you may fall into the Arctic Ocean.
Hiking 2 degrees north latitude may have to walk on the ice for more than 20 consecutive days, it is impossible to bring so much fresh water, fortunately, the ice and snow there are very pure, and the required fresh water needs to be melted with ice and snow, so it is important to learn to use outdoor oil stoves. Bent uses the MSR XGK EX furnace, the most widely used model in expeditionary expeditions, with high fuel compatibility and excellent performance in harsh environments such as high altitudes or extremely low temperatures. Later, I bought one in Longyearbyen, and when I unwrapped it, I found that there was no Chinese in the instructions in so many languages.
Benz filled 2 MSR Fuel Bottle fuel tanks with gasoline, and the ignition stove was practiced twice outdoors and in the tent, using aluminum wind shields in an outdoor environment. The outdoor oil stove should be placed on the wooden board to strive for stability, the folding valve should be gently unscrewed when it is opened, the gasoline pump into the bottom of the furnace, and then close the valve, use matches to ignite the gasoline, and then reopen the switch after the orange flame tends to be stable and concentrated, which will become blue and evenly spit fire.
Bente mentioned that the use of gasoline stoves in the tent to boil water should be paid special attention to, and now there are some new outdoor pots and pans on the surface will design some thermal patterns to make the heating faster, but it is possible to make the carbon dioxide concentration in the tent too high when boiling ice and snow meltwater, so the old-fashioned ordinary aluminum pot is the most practical and safe choice during the expedition.
After that, Bent began to guide me to set up a tent, a long hike in the polar region, the tent is our only refuge, enjoy the hot meal in the morning and evening, sleep every night, avoid the snow storm or unfortunately fall into the ice sea after climbing up to bake and dry clothes, all in the tent, because the polar environment is harsh, there are many important points to keep in mind when camping: the choice of camping is relatively flat, the tent entrance faces the direction of the wind blowing, which can reduce the wind surface of the tent. The sled is then crossed outside the expected tent entrance.
The first thing to do when unloading the tent is to immediately tie the orange string above the entrance of the tent to the sled using a quick hanging to prevent the tent from being blown away by the strong wind. Then roll up the temporarily unwanted foam mat and tie it to the sled.
The pole is always worn in the same direction, and the fastening belt is tightened after the end of the tent pole is stuck into the plastic sleeve.
Always use the first nail for the fixing belt at the front of the tent entrance, pull the placket of the outer edge of the bottom of the tent outward to pave it, and dig snow to bury it, so that the foundation of the entire tent is solid.
The three orange strings on each side of the tent are tied on the same nail, and pay attention to the thin ropes on the left and right sides not to be too tight.
Sometimes the tent entrance flyer is too tight, and when it encounters strong wind, the entrance zipper of the windward side of the tent will be gradually torn open, so when encountering strong winds, be sure to pull the zipper to the end and stick the wild sticker.
Each orange string should be reduced to the shortest length after use to prevent the ropes from being entangled when packing the tent, and gloves need to be worn for a long time in the harsh polar areas of the environment, in which case it is difficult to untie the knot. Every time you remove your tent, always remember to pull out a few nails to prevent forgetting under the snow.
When dismantling the packed tent during the expedition, the tent pole did not need to be completely withdrawn every day, but half of it was withdrawn and folded, the tent floor cloth was wrapped in the bottom of the tent and rolled into a column, and then the tent bag mouth was faced with the wind, so that the wind would blow the tent bag open and straighten out, and the packed tent and floor cloth would be worn into the tent bag to tighten the mouth, and then placed on the top of the sleigh to tie it firmly.
After the training, we went to the town supermarket to buy food carried by the field training, the guides parked the car, when I got out of the car, I didn't seem to see him lock the car, I remember the first day I went to the town alone on the evening of the first day of arrival in Longyearbyen and saw some cars started but no one was in the car, back to the car I asked him if he forgot to lock the car, he said that this time because there was a gun in the car, so he locked it with a remote control key, but if there was no gun in the car here in Longyle, there was no problem in locking the car for ten days and half a month.
We bought the raw materials such as oatmeal, brown sugar, Viking milk powder, raisins, oil and salt needed for breakfast in the supermarket, which cover the important nutrients that the human body needs every day; the best choice for edible oil is coconut oil, which contains nutrients such as omega, followed by rape flower oil, do not use peanut oil, olive oil, etc. This time in Longyearbyen, coconut oil was not bought, so rape flower oil was used. Bent also bought some instant coffee.
The next morning Bente taught me to mix all the breakfast ingredients thoroughly, use a thin plastic bag to pack the daily portions, reverse the plastic bag and tie the knot to make it a double-layer package, and the plastic bag can also be used as a garbage bag after breakfast.
Training in Longyearbyle is about 150 grams a day for breakfast, if next year's polar expedition, the environment will be colder, the daily exercise intensity and calorie consumption will be higher, so the breakfast portion is about 180-200 grams. During the day, every few hours of travel will take a break, at this time you can drink some hot water in the thermos cup, the food can only be frozen chocolate or biscuits, and at night, quick-frozen dehydrated lightweight outdoor food is prepared.
Shooting is also one of the skills that must be mastered, its purpose is to defend against polar bears, and it is also one of the risk factors that may be faced in expeditions to the North Pole. Polar bears are one of the world's largest land carnivores, living near ice floes around the Arctic Ocean, islands and the coastline of the continent adjacent to the Arctic Ocean, and are active in almost all parts of the Arctic, with adult males weighing about 350-700 kilograms, the largest polar bear specimens weighing more than a ton, and females weighing about half the males. Adult polar bears are swimmers, and U.S. Geological Survey researchers tracked 52 female polar bears in the South Beaufort Sea, Alaska, from 2004 to 2009 (because the males had too thick necks to wear tracking GPS positioning collars), one of which recorded a maximum swim distance of 354 kilometers.
Polar bears are curious, and they will detect any strange objects that appear on the Arctic ice sheet at close range, 450 kilometers (about 86 degrees north latitude) from the North Pole, and several polar bears are exploring the sudden appearance of the USS Honolulu, a Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine.
The cute-looking polar bear is actually very cruel, it is the top of the food chain in the Arctic, seals, walruses, etc. are its food, sometimes it hunts seals only eat fat parts and discards, when hungry, polar bears even prey on the same kind. Polar bears are also the only bears to actively attack humans, and dozens of people are attacked by them each year, mostly at night. In 2011, a group of British students were attacked by polar bears while camping in the wilderness in Svalbard, killing 1 person and seriously injuring 4 others. A Czech family was attacked by a polar bear while camping in Longyearbyen last year, and it tried to drag Jakub Moravec away from the tent, and the family fired multiple shots at him, after which the rescue team arrived by helicopter to kill the attacker's polar bear, injuring Jakub's arm, chest and face.
I once saw a polar bear warning poster posted by the Svalbard government in front of a supermarket and asked my friend Sang Xuan, who settled in Norway, which roughly meant that "when a polar bear attacks, it will not warn." "Encountering a polar bear approaching can be curiosity or attack. Stay calm, first throw away your hat, gloves or scarf to attract the bear to sniff, create an opportunity for yourself to escape, and if you have enough time, shoot around the bear and issue a warning. If the polar bear does launch an attack, it should be fired at the chest or shoulder width, even if the first shot is not fatal, it can slow down the polar bear's movement and create more shooting opportunities, if the polar bear is killed, it should be reported to the Svalbard government as soon as possible. It is also written below that you must carry a gun as long as you go out of town, so longyearbyen streets are full of pedestrians carrying guns, and many motorcycle sleighs are also tied to rifle boxes.
Rune Krogh, born in 1986 and the youngest guide at Borg, was sent to ensure their safety because photographers had trained with me. Rooney's hometown is Svartisen in northern Norway, where snow driving is a common occurrence for them, and the shooting range is located in the southern halfway up the hill of the airport, which is covered with thick snow, and it is impossible to tell where the road is if it is not the poles inserted on both sides to mark the edge of the road. The nail tire plowed two fresh ruts on the mountain road, and it seemed that we were the first car to go up the mountain that day. When I went up the hill, I also saw reindeer and grouse on the hillside.
The first thing Bent did when he arrived at the shooting range was raise a red flag on the flagpole next to the entrance so that the others knew that someone inside the shooting range was practicing shooting.
The interior of the house was unusually cold, and several large barrels on the side of the wall were filled with shell casings of various calibers.
Guns are dangerous weapons, and in order to avoid accidental injury, Bent first taught me a few points of holding a gun:
1. Never point your gun at someone else.
2. Never let your gun out of your sight.
3. Never load a bullet unless you are sure you want to shoot.
4. When receiving the gun from someone else, check whether there is a bullet in the gun at the first time.
5. Before shooting, be sure to fan out to make sure that no one exists around the shooting boundary.
Because warming has led to a dramatic reduction in polar bear habitat, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified it as a "Vulnerable species." Scientists believe that there are currently about 20,000-25,000 wild polar bears in the world, or about 22,000-31,000.
So the non-lethal signal gun is always the first choice for defending against polar bears, the signal bomb is the German Cometcommet company production of flash bombs and explosive flash bombs, the two are distinguished by the color of the projectile package, the flash bomb relies on the red strong light to disturb the polar bear to make it escape, the flash bomb drives the polar bear through the fierce sound and maroon flash, the difference between the use of flash bullets is to shoot at the polar bear, and the flash bomb is to shoot at the ground in front of the polar bear. Scaring them away is the best outcome, and if the flare gun doesn't drive away the polar bears, or some hungry polar bears repeatedly approach, they have to prepare to use deadly guns. The flare gun is the German Heckler & Koch RakPist78 A60 Flare, which looks very simple in structure, not even a crosshair and a shooting gate, because the signal flare is a parabola, so it is necessary to aim above the target, and after a few test shots, the approximate relationship between height and distance is roughly found.
Bent then let me test-fire the American Smith & Wesson revolver, which holds 6 bullets and can fire .357 Magnum or .38 SPECIAL+P special charge. For me, the recoil of this gun is larger, and the impact point is relatively high, but for beginners, the shooting effect is not bad, and the 5th shot is right in the bullseye.
Bent himself carried the Austrian Glock Glock pistol, which was light, durable, and could withstand harsh and destructive experiments in freezing, which was perhaps the most suitable pistol for polar expeditions. Lunch was settled in the shooting range hut, and Bent brought some Real Turmat quick-frozen dehydrated outdoor food from the Norwegian company Drytech, which could be stirred in hot water and eaten. The shooting site is located in a mountain col in the middle of the mountain, the sun is blocked by the mountain, because the shooting does not require strenuous activity, the body in the shadow quickly falls into the cold, the snot often flows out uncontrollably, the tips of the fingers are also frozen and numb, until after eating a hot lunch, it gradually warms up, so hot water and high-calorie food are indispensable every day during the polar hike.
After the shooting practice, we drove to the beach again. Because there is no land around the North Pole, all hikes are walking on the ice sheet floating on the surface of the Arctic Ocean, affected by the temperature, the squeeze of ocean currents and other factors, the ice surface will have many cracks, encounter narrower cracks can be carefully crossed, some of the wider will look for other routes to bypass, but if the conditions are not met, you can only put on the waterproof jacket Ice Sea Water Crossing. Borg and Norway's Helly Hansen special waterproof jacket, directly on the outside of all clothes and pants, even ski boots do not have to take off, and then crouch down to squeeze the air inside the waterproof clothing, and then pull the zipper as high as possible to the neck.
When entering the water, it is not directly walking or jumping, but to kneel on the ground and climb backwards, so that the body will not be out of balance after entering the water. The water-edged part of the ice without land support may not be strong, so that even if the ice is crushed and dropped into the water, the body remains upright under the feet, and the sea water does not flow down the neck into the waterproof clothing.
Into the sea instant water pressure will be tightly wrapped around the whole body, and the normal swimming posture is not the same, swimming to the body as parallel as possible, reduce the resistance of the water, but the waterproof clothing has an opening in the neck, in order to prevent the water, so it is necessary to always tread water to keep the body in a relatively upright state. As with hiking, speed is not important, what is important is balance.
The cold air slowly seeps through each layer of clothing through the waterproof clothing and reaches the body, and the body will slowly and gradually feel cold, but in fact, it is not as unbearable as expected. The external ambient temperature is about minus 15 degrees, plus the sea breeze blows, the actual body temperature is about minus 25 degrees, the somatosensory temperature in the water is about minus 5-8 degrees, so some hiking explorers in the polar environment accidentally fall into the sea will feel that the water seems to be warmer, and even have an illusion to soak in the water for a while, but this is extremely dangerous, the sea will quickly take away the heat of the body, do not immediately climb up to set up a tent to bake clothes and pants, will soon lose consciousness.
When you go ashore, you must also kneel and climb up, return to the shore first of all to straighten the body and roll on the ice, so that the ice and snow suck the sea water on the clothes dry, after slapping and rubbing off the ice stubble on the surface of the clothes that is sucked dry, you can take off the waterproof clothing, and then roll it up from the foot to the head into the waterproof bag, all these actions are completed in the case of wearing three layers of gloves, so the subtle actions that are usually easy to do are particularly clumsy at this time.
After these skills training experiences, I returned to the inn, and the next day I was about to start the 4-day, 3-night no-man's land wilderness training, so I checked the items to be brought to the training according to the list:
Ski equipment
Photographic equipment
food
tent
Aluminum pot
stove
fuel
Small wooden planks
bowl
clothes peg
Clothesline
Vacuum heat cup
Water bottle (can be used as a hot water bottle)
Foam floor mat
match
Garbage bags
sleeping bag
Sleeping mats
Scoop a water spoon
Waterproof bag
Short-stemmed shovel
Military trip-up signal bombs
Fish spool
Swix staff
Satellite phone
GPS handheld
battery
contour
map
headlight
………
After a briefing on the field training route in the morning, go to the warehouse and start packing your gear. To give the photographer weight loss, the food and some of the photographic gear of the two photographers for 4 days of field training were placed in my boat-type sleigh. Bent handed me a box of flashing, bursting and flare guns, and told me to always keep the guns in the same position in the ship's sled so that they could be quickly accessed in an emergency. With the equipment packed, Bent's boat sled weighed about 40 kilograms, mine about 50 kilograms, Rooney's most important was about 53 kilograms, and the photographer's blue light boat sled weighed about 15 kilograms, and the long-awaited field training was finally about to begin.