Survivorman

There's a show on TV called Survivorman.  Its about a guy who goes to out into the wilderness with little or no provisions and 50 pounds of camera equipment to film his adventures.
  

  

On Friday night I  had my own little Survivorman experience (minus all the camera equipment - just 1 digital camera that froze up).   There was a Stake Young Men's winter camp that has been scheduled for some time.   It was in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in Kananaskis country at a group campground.   Initially the plan was to leave early in the afternoon and get set up before dark but Jenelle's school basketball team was in the league final.  I didn't want to miss that so we headed up after the game (we being me and 4 young men from our ward who also had to leave later).  It was dark when we left.   We were able to set up camp quickly when we arrived thanks to our trusty headlamps.

The weather last week was cold (-20 C) but the forecast for Friday was to warm up to above freezing.  Perfect for a winter camp.  But who can believe the weatherman?

To make a long story short, we estimate the temperature overnight went to between -25C and -30C (a few of us checked the thermometers in our vehicles in the morning and they are all around -23C at about 8am).   I've been on winter camps before but nothing close to this cold.   I didn't have a high tech sleeping bag that's good to those temperatures so I was a bit concerned about being cold.  I went with 2 sleeping bags.  Thanks to Judy for throwing in an extra blanket in with the sleeping bags.  Some of the young men were pretty cold and didn't get much sleep.  (If anyone was really cold, there was an enclsed camp kitchen with a fire going all night but no one needed it).  I was surprisingly toasty warm in my 2 sleeping bags.   The problem with me is that at my age its hard to get through the night without having to get up to relieve myself.    Around 2:35 am nature called.  I tried to ignore the call - but before long nature was shouting at me and I had to make the commitment and got out of the sleeping bag and bundled up to go outside.   It was sooo cold but it felt sooo good to get back into my warm sleeping bag.

We all made it through the night and everyone was in good spirits even with the cold.  Now we have a story to tell.  I'm sure the temperature will go even lower as time goes on.   I'm sure we'll someday talk about the night we were out in a blizzard at -65C.

Here's some pictures that I took the next morning after I thawed out my camera.   I had to leave it in the heated camp kitchen for a while.

Survivorman - Kananaskis 2009 version

   

The fearless leaders by their first class accommodations.

     

They're all smiling after a wonderful sleep.

    

There was a fire pit but in the morning most of the youth and leaders were hanging out in the camp kitchen to get warm.   

    

All the other wards cooked in the camp kitchen as well.  Only one ward cooked breakfast outside.  Guess who the crazy ones were.....

     

  

     

With the condensation from our breathing and the cold weather it actually snowed inside our tent.   This is my sleeping bag in the morning.   There was more but I brushed most of it off before I thought about taking a picture. 

      

   There was some beautiful things about being out in nature.   The stars were incredible.  Living in the city we miss that because of all the lights.  

The mountains and trees are fantastic.

If you look closely you might be able to see a mountain between the trees.

        

One of the neatest sights was the perfect snowflakes.  It was so cold that some snowflakes kept their shape if they landed on a metal surface.   In the following pictures everything that looks like a snowflake is a real snowflake.

  

Snowflakes on a Coleman Stove

    

Snowflakes on the lid of a pot.

Judy, Please accept my apology

Judy's birthday was on February 2nd.  There was post on my blog for her birthday, but I also posted another entry that day entitled "A Great Find".   There are those of you who thought that the post would be about Judy.  But it was about duct tape.    Sorry Judy.   I had one of those male moments.   You do not rate behind duct tape in my life.  Bad timing on my part.
   

I wish I could go back in time.  If I could the post would have read something like this.

    

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2009

A Great Find!

Hey, I'm back.   I've had several people comment that I need to update my blog.  Its been about a month.  

Have you ever met someone that you never knew existed but once you find her you wonder how you lived without her . . . and you just have to have her around all the time.
   

Well, I found her a few years ago and today she's celebrating her birthday.

Isn't she cute?

  

   

That's what I should have done and saved the duct tape for another day.   I was thinking of a post for today - some topics included a family basketball update or "Why do they call them shorts? (referring to basketball shorts)".
        

But it's Valentine's day.  

  

Before anything else
      

   

       

My valentine and me.

  

A Real Hero

 We live a world where I think we need more real heros or at least some good news stories.

Last Thursday I attended our Stake's Scout Banquet.  The highlight for me was the guest speaker.   He's one of those good news stories.

 

 

His name is Andrew Brash.  (Ironically he's not brash at all - I found him to be a very down to earth, nice guy).   He's a Calgarian who attempted to reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 2006.

Andrew Brash and his team on Everest

   
However only 200 meters from the summit his team came across a member of another team who was left for dead the day before.   The day before Lincoln Hall from Australia had reached the summit with his team but on his descent he began to suffer from altitude sickness with causes hallucinations and confusion.   Two sherpas stayed with him and attempted a rescue by eventually Hall had no detectable pulse or breathing.   The leader of their group instructed the sherpas to come down as their oxygen was running out and a storm was moving in.    The leader called Hall's wife and told her that her husband had died on the mountain.

Early the next morning Brash and his team came across Hall sitting up - he had removed his suit to the waist and and removed his hat and gloves and goggles.    Since the sherpas assumed he was dead the day before they took his pack that had his sleeping back, oxygen, food and other essentials.    When Brash and his team approached Hall he surprised them by saying "I imagine you're surprised to see me here".  

The were amazed to see this man alive after spending the night at 8600 meters on Everest without oxygen and proper equipment and much of what he did have was removed.   Hall appeared lucid but was still confused and hallucinating - He thought he was on a boat.   That's probably why he had removed his clothes.

 Hall was on the ledge.  His arm is over the edge.  Its about 8000 ft down.  You can see how close they were for the summit (the point above Hall's head).

  
The team radioed back that they had come across Hall.  A rescue team was sent.  

 Hall on the mountain waiting for the rescue team. 

   

Brash said that they did the only thing they could have - helped Hall.   The week before another climber died on Everest.  He was suffering much like Hall was but the difference was 40 other climbers passed him by so they could reach the summit.   For Brash and his team that wasn't even an option.   They abandoned the summit to stay with Hall who was badly frostbitten.   They managed to get his clothes on and after some time with oxygen Hall began to think clearly.   By the time the rescue team arrived it was too late in the day for Brash and his team to continue on to the summit.    It was only 200 meters away but at over 8600 meters in altitude that is still a major trek.  The good news is that Hall recovered (less finger tips).  Hall and Brash have become great friends.

 Lincoln Hall (L) with Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier and Andrew Brash (R) in 2008.   

Hall was white hatted.

     

In 2008 Brash was able to return to Everest and this time he did reach the summit.
    

His talk at the Scout banquet was about going for your goals and dreams.   But to me there was a deeper message.  It was that there are some things more important than your dreams.   As Brash said about their decision "The mountain would still be there but a person's life would not".
   

To me Brash and his team are real heros.

Related news stories and links:

www.andrewbrash.com


200 metres from Everest summit, Canadian halts climb to rescue man

Cdn. climber recounts Aussie's Mt. Everest rescue

Calgary man makes it to top of Everest on 3rd try

Everest 2006: Sitting to our left, about two feet from a 10,000 foot drop, was Lincoln Hall

Lincoln Hall (climber)

A Great Find!

Hey, I'm back.   I've had several people comment that I need to update my blog.  Its been about a month.   Here goes. . . This is kind of a Random post but that goes along with the name of my blog.

Have you ever gone out shopping and come across something that you never knew existed but once you find it you wonder how you lived without it . . . and you just have to have it.
   

Well, look what I found.

     

8 1/2 x 11 sheets of duct tape.

I love duct tape.   You can fix almost anything with Duct Tape.
Check out my blog entry on Oct 1, 2008.

In that entry I talked about how I fixed my car using duct tape.
    

Here's what my duct tape repair looked like.

   

But with these beauties, I can take a sheet and cut it to shape.

     

And this is the result.

   

Now all I need to find is the 5 ft x 3 ft sheets.  Then I can do the entire back of the car.

How did I live without this before?  
Plus you get instructions in 3 languages.  

A truly international product.

And if you look closely you will see that its also available in a 4 x 4 size.  

Have to keep a lookout for that.
   

I love duct tape.
   

"If it doesn't stick and it should - use duct tape.  If it sticks and it shouldn't - use WD40".