Cold Weather Sustenance.

Aside from keeping warm and travelling, one of the other challenges is feeding yourself and remaining properly hydrated.

This can seem odd considering that we are surrounded by water. The problem is that the water is frozen, we cannot easily access it and we even have to guard against our bottled water freezing as well.

The ability to make a fire or carrying a stove and it’s fuel is not just a luxury under these conditions. Dehydration can be just as dangerous as getting cold and a warm drink addresses both these issues in a very cheery manner. Once warm, try to keep some water in a flask between your clothing layers to keep it from freezing and take regular drinks while on the move too.

One of the frequent activities on expedition is melting snow or making  “Snowball Soup” as we often called it. For this it is always best to have some liquid water to start with.

If you just pack snow into a billy can and then start heating it the first thing that happens is that the melt water at the bottom of the pan is absorbed into the dry snow leaving a void in the bottom of the pot.

An aluminium pot will often melt a hole at this point and even a steel or titanium one can warp. Oddly enough it will also taint the water with a taste that is sometimes described as “burnt snow”.

By starting with a good quantity of liquid water, this can then be increased by packing snowballs two or three at a time and dropping them into the water to melt until the pot is full of hot water.

I always fill my 24hr. flask and a couple of spare water bottles with this first to ensure that I always have some sacrificial water to start the process again next time before using the remains for the immediate applications.

In this section, I’m not going to talk much about types of food because my tastes will probably vary a lot from yours.

I will talk about my requirements though and the equipment I have chosen to fulfil those requirements. In the outdoor industry, second to clothing, cookware probably offers the greatest variety of available equipment to the buyer and can seem like a minefield to navigate. I hope my choices help you on your journey.

Unless noted otherwise, all photography, artwork and content on this site is copyrighted. © Gary Waidson 2020 All rights reserved

The Ice Raven Project promotes sustainable and low impact bushcraft and wilderness skills in Arctic and winter conditions. This includes the use of  tents, tarps  and snow shelters where possible. Fires are only used where safe and where use and collection of firewood will not damage the natural environment. We often travel to locations by public transport and then use snowshoes, sleds, toboggans and pulks to transport our equipment into the wilderness.