Alone show gear mistakes.

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dahlia

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. You dont want to have to have a warming fire, folks. that's a huge waste of your time and caloriies. The Innuit did not have a warming fire in their igloos, at -40F, for months on end. This show ends the day after xmas. The worst you have to deal with is a month below 0F and 2 weeks below 20F So a double wallled, sealed tarp lean to, with a clear plastic wall, is all you need, and you probably wont need an outside fire at all. you definitely dont want a fire inside of your shelter! it's a major fire hazard and you're likely to later contract emphysema or lung cancer from breathing all of that smoke! To hell with that noise`

Just have head-sized hot rocks in pits under your raised wooden best, surrounded and covered with wood ashes. The ashes keep the rocks hot for hours. the covering ashes let you regulate the heat a bit, and prevent your debris-stuffing from catching fire. When you know to not bother with a warming, fire, you dont need the axe or the saw. A saw edge on the Cold steel shovel will suffice. This saves you one pick. You also wont need to waste a pick on the sleeping bag.

If you cant refine workable clay from shoreline mud, you dont belong on this show. Ditto if you cant make a fire with a bit of copper "snare-wire", duct tape, the head lamp battery, and then bed your coals in the ashes. two more saved picks.

If you know to take the rope hammock, you can make 5x as much cordage and netting out of it as you can take as the paracord and the gillnet. So that saves you yet another pick. As Kochanski said, "the more you know, the less you need".

Sam took a clear tarp for season 1 and there's no rules saying your tarp can't be reflectorized/metallized. So take the 12x12 tarp as half reflectorieze and half clear material, so you can set up a Kochanski supershelter, one layer, in an hour. You wont need the second layer, made out of a chunk of the 20x20 tarp. Stuff debris between the two layers of tarp, and tape the edges. Seal the shelter with the tape, so that your body heat and the heat of the stones is trapped inside of the shelter. When you are in danger of falling asleep, a couple of 1/4" holes can be opened in opposing sides of the shelter. This provides adequate ventilation. The 10x10 tarp can be folded in half, stuffed with debris, taped on 3 sides and you get inside of it. This is how you dont need the sleeping bag. you'll have 6 layers of warm clothing, ferchrissakes, as well as debris between each layer and you'll be up on a raised bed, with a thick layer of dry debris on the bed. You wont need the hot rocks until t's 0F or colder, and you wont need the Siberian fire lay outside, projuecting its heat thru the clear, vertical side of the lean to until it's -20F or colder.
 
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you dont take stuff you can do without or make on site. You need the pemmican, the duct tape, the rope hammock the 12x12 tarp, the 3 lb block of salt, not the axe, cookpot, sleeping bag, gillnet or ferrood. You can fire-roll a chunk of your shemagh, using rust from the ferrule of the shovel as an accellerant. Once you have ashed tinder and charred materials, any hard, sharp rock and any carbon steel tool will suffice to make fire. In half a day, you can make a big pump drill, which makes it easy to always get friction fire. So the ferrorod is a wasted pick.

When you know to set up the Crunch multitool and the shovel to be be taken apart and re-assembled with your bare hands, and dont need a warming fire, the combo is quite adequate. A pair of file blades keep sharp the saw edge and the shovel. The awll/drill makes the mounting holes for the various different lengths and configurations of handles for the shovel. Without a handle, the CS shovel is a good "big knife', trowel, and pry bar. It can become a rake, hoe, weed;whacker, adze, paddle, spear, full length shovel, hatch, axe. as needed. It is a great replacement for the axe and saw, once you only need fire for cooking, boiling drinking water and drying out clothing.
 
when you know to use the one way, projected heat of the Siberian fire lay, you can be just as warm from 6 ft away as a regular fire is at 3 ft of distance. This keeps your tarp a lot safer from burning and floating embers.. Learn to use the althernative Swedish torch for cooking, boiling water and for igniting the Siberian. i use just 4 logs for making the swede. you dont have to have large OD logs for the Siberian, either. Just stack up a "wall" of smaller OD logs between 4 stakes, and pile dirt in front of the wall, so it doesnt burn.

 
you're welcome. VERY few people know about these two fire lays and they are majorly helpful, I have found. Especially when the wood is wet. If you split a fifth log to make the center shavings, the Swede will dry out from the center and then it will dry out and ignite the Siberian, which then dries itsself out and burns from the end. The siberian tends to form its own shelter from rain and snow, burning underneath the ends of the logs. The charred material there makes it easy to re-ignite the Siberian. Another very helpful fire lay is the 4 hole Dakota fire pit, my own humble invention. I dig the vent hole at a much lower angle, from much further away from the exhaust hole than most do, in the windward direction. The pit must be 2 or more feet deep, too. Then I dig a couple more holes, at about a 30 degree angle from the vertical, on opposing sides of the vent hole. I drop the ends of a couple of logs into the holes, using an "x" of stakes to support the protruding ends of the logs. I use a Swede to ignit the ends of the logs. Once the swede is nearly burned-out, drop in the logs. Then they will gravity-feed into the fire. You have to adjust the angle and the diameter of the holes with loose earth, to keep the flames from climbing up the logs.
 
dahlia said:
you're welcome. VERY few people know about these two fire lays and they are majorly helpful, I have found. Especially when the wood is wet. If you split a fifth log to make the center shavings, the Swede will dry out from the center and then it will dry out and ignite the Siberian, which then dries itsself out and burns from the end. The siberian tends to form its own shelter from rain and snow, burning underneath the ends of the logs. The charred material there makes it easy to re-ignite the Siberian. Another very helpful fire lay is the 4 hole Dakota fire pit, my own humble invention. I dig the vent hole at a much lower angle, from much further away from the exhaust hole than most do, in the windward direction. The pit must be 2 or more feet deep, too. Then I dig a couple more holes, at about a 30 degree angle from the vertical, on opposing sides of the vent hole. I drop the ends of a couple of logs into the holes, using an "x" of stakes to support the protruding ends of the logs. I use a Swede to ignit the ends of the logs. Once the swede is nearly burned-out, drop in the logs. Then they will gravity-feed into the fire. You have to adjust the angle and the diameter of the holes with loose earth, to keep the flames from climbing up the logs.
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I think a picture or a diagram might help convey how your Dakota fire pit works
 
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Wow, another armchair expert. Ok, so I've read through your wall-o-text posts, and I have questions and general feedback.

1. If you don't have an outside fire, how are you producing the warming rocks, or the ashes for your shelter? Hmmmmmm....

2. Tarps in some sort of super fancy double layer arrangement will not protect you once the temperature drops below zero, and it especially will not negate the need for a sleeping bag. This stance of yours is 100% the stance of someone who has never actually camped out in cold weather. Of course, anyone who states that you don't need a sleeping bag because you have six layers of clothing was a dead giveaway of this. Having camped multiple times in areas that see snow, I can tell you that anyone who says "Aw, you don't need a sleeping bag! You've got clothes on!" is simply incorrect. Odd that you'd attempt to take people on a survival show, where it was shown that many of their methods were successful would argue this. It's good to have several layers of clothes, but bad to have ONLY those several layers of clothes when camping in wet, snowy, or rainy seasons where at any time you could get wet, then you're stuck in wet clothes because you don't have any other means of getting warm. Well, there's a nice warming fire, but you said people don't need those because it's a "waste", soooo.....

3. Anyone who has actually used a Cold Steel shovel knows it wouldn't be an adequate replacement for any actual wood processing tools in a longterm camping situation. I've bent mine on multiple occasions using it for light chopping and hatchet work. For a weekend car camp, or maybe in your backyard? Fun little tool/toy. For a longterm survival situation where if I win, I'm getting a half a million dollars? Heh, no, I'm taking the proper tools for wood processing.

4. Having a fire in a shelter has been shown by multiple people to be a viable concept. If done poorly, yes, it's definitely a hazard, and has sent people home on that show. However, dozens of other contestants have successfully managed this.

5. Your siberian/Swede firepit tactic sounds pretty neat...for backyard camping. Try getting that going in a heavy rainfall, or snowfall, and your feet are wet because you stepped through thin ice over a stream you couldn't see because the entire area is covered in two feet of snow and the usual obvious "There's a stream here" signs were obscured.

You seem to speak confidently against things that brought many people on that show great success, and so I have to wonder at your own experience, and skillset. I myself have camped in pretty much all types of weather (except high desert), and absolutely would not utilize...well, anything you've stated here. I'd bring the proper tools for the job, and not try to be cute with some clear tarps, duck tape, and no sleeping bag or wood processing tools. I'd also keep a fire going. "You don't need a warming fire!" You know fires DO have many uses, correct? o_O
 
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The two gear mistakes I can remember from the show were in season 2 perhaps.

One fellow put his fire striker down, lost in the dirt. He was able to recover from that mistake.

A lady using an axe to split kindling top down with her hand in the path of the blade, did not end well for her hand.

Dahlia, you have some novel ideas. Please let us know when you are accepted to go on the show.
 
Some interesting ideas, but if items you can take are limited, I would rather have a sleeping bag than a 10x10 tarp that needed to be fiiled with debris.
 
we'd all rather have a fully-equipped RV, so what? the 10x10 tarp is not one of your gear picks. It and the 20x20 are given to you. Not taking the sleeping bag, cookpot, axe, paracord, and ferrorod are what let me take the 3 lbs of salt, the 2 person hammock, the pemmican, the duct tape and the slingbow. All worth FAR more than any sleeping bag. You simply cannot waste picks on stuff for which you can make or take with you an acceptable substitute. They all suffer dehydration from lack of salt, and salt is great bait when you're far from the sea. I fully intend to have caught 100, perhaps 200 lbs of fish before it's reliably freezing weather, so I"ve got to be able to salt-brine dip the fish before trying to smoke/dry them. Salt helps you choke down bland food, too.

You obviously have no experience with how warm a double-layered, debris-stuffed, tape-sealed tarp shelter is. They get to take 7 layers of clothing for their torso, and 5 layers for their legs. Did you know that? Have you ever experienced how much warmer layers of clothing are when you put debris between the layers? The extra insulation from the trapped air does amazing things for you. There's an extra layer of poncho and leggings that can be added to the mix, too, from the left over reflective tarp after you make the 4x3x 6.5 ft lean to out of the 12x12.

When you know to keep your shelter small, reflective and sealed, like an igloo, your body heat will warm it. the raised wooden bed, and the leg and foot hole in front of the door give cold air a place to be displaced-into. the foot thick layer of debris atop the bed insulates you from that cold air.
 
dahlia said:
we'd all rather have a fully-equipped RV, so what? the 10x10 tarp is not one of your gear picks. It and the 20x20 are given to you. Not taking the sleeping bag, cookpot, axe, paracord, and ferrorod are what let me take the 3 lbs of salt, the 2 person hammock, the pemmican, the duct tape and the slingbow. All worth FAR more than any sleeping bag. You simply cannot waste picks on stuff for which you can make or take with you an acceptable substitute. They all suffer dehydration from lack of salt, and salt is great bait when you're far from the sea. I fully intend to have caught 100, perhaps 200 lbs of fish before it's reliably freezing weather, so I"ve got to be able to salt-brine dip the fish before trying to smoke/dry them. Salt helps you choke down bland food, too.

You obviously have no experience with how warm a double-layered, debris-stuffed, tape-sealed tarp shelter is. They get to take 7 layers of clothing for their torso, and 5 layers for their legs. Did you know that? Have you ever experienced how much warmer layers of clothing are when you put debris between the layers? The extra insulation from the trapped air does amazing things for you. There's an extra layer of poncho and leggings that can be added to the mix, too, from the left over reflective tarp after you make the 4x3x 6.5 ft lean to out of the 12x12.

When you know to keep your shelter small, reflective and sealed, like an igloo, your body heat will warm it. the raised wooden bed, and the leg and foot hole in front of the door give cold air a place to be displaced-into. the foot thick layer of debris atop the bed insulates you from that cold air.
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More nonsense. Anyway, please let us know when the season you're on is coming up. I look forward to you showing us all how it's done. :)
 
Seriously, is anyone else here amazed at the lunacy? You believe that you don't need to take:

- Sleeping bag: I've already covered why this is wrong
- Cookpot: Man, better hope you find some sort of container for water that you can, you know, boil water in.
- Axe: Good luck felling wood of any useful size without an axe. Oh wait, you plan to use a Cold Steel combat shovel. LOL Ok, then.
- Paracord: Good luck constructing a lean to without cordage. Maybe you can rip up an extra shirt or something. :rolleyes: The contestants on this show, few of them have been placed in areas that had vine cover, or grasses that might have been suitable for cordage replacements, so that's out. And anyway, since you're all about saving heat calories, you probably wouldn't want to waste calories foraging for suitable plant life that could be used in place of cordage. I can tell you, duck tape ain't it, chief. Man, almost like I've done this a time or two.
- Ferro rod: Given that contestants on this show have been dropped in places where the groundcover has not afforded them flint, chert, or anything like that, a ferro rod is absolutely critical in cold weather survival/camping as a bare minimum way to start a fire. Bow drill and a shoelace isn't going to get it done, and any claims that it will are delusional. Cold, wet wood? Might as well put your boots back on buddy, since you aren't having a fire tonight and are losing heat. In fact, there was a contestant just a season or two ago who lost his ferro rod, and tapped out when he couldn't get the bowdrill method to produce, for the exact reasons I state here.

The fact that you think a hammock, salt, and jerky are more useful than...well, any of those items tells me all I need to know about your skill level in wildcamping and wilderness survival.
 
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dahlia said:
we'd all rather have a fully-equipped RV, so what? the 10x10 tarp is not one of your gear picks. It and the 20x20 are given to you. Not taking the sleeping bag, cookpot, axe, paracord, and ferrorod are what let me take the 3 lbs of salt, the 2 person hammock, the pemmican, the duct tape and the slingbow. All worth FAR more than any sleeping bag. You simply cannot waste picks on stuff for which you can make or take with you an acceptable substitute. They all suffer dehydration from lack of salt, and salt is great bait when you're far from the sea. I fully intend to have caught 100, perhaps 200 lbs of fish before it's reliably freezing weather, so I"ve got to be able to salt-brine dip the fish before trying to smoke/dry them. Salt helps you choke down bland food, too.

You obviously have no experience with how warm a double-layered, debris-stuffed, tape-sealed tarp shelter is. They get to take 7 layers of clothing for their torso, and 5 layers for their legs. Did you know that? Have you ever experienced how much warmer layers of clothing are when you put debris between the layers? The extra insulation from the trapped air does amazing things for you. There's an extra layer of poncho and leggings that can be added to the mix, too, from the left over reflective tarp after you make the 4x3x 6.5 ft lean to out of the 12x12.

When you know to keep your shelter small, reflective and sealed, like an igloo, your body heat will warm it. the raised wooden bed, and the leg and foot hole in front of the door give cold air a place to be displaced-into. the foot thick layer of debris atop the bed insulates you from that cold air.
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5eda3e3464631cbfbcb741ea468a9b85.jpg
 
if you're sweating, unwrap it. You can sweat inside of a normal sleeping bag, too. You're lack of knowledge is glaring. You'll know when I get on a season, cause i'll be the first guy who didn't lose any weight.
 
Quiet said:
Seriously, is anyone else here amazed at the lunacy? You believe that you don't need to take:

- Sleeping bag: I've already covered why this is wrong
- Cookpot: Man, better hope you find some sort of container for water that you can, you know, boil water in.
- Axe: Good luck felling wood of any useful size without an axe. Oh wait, you plan to use a Cold Steel combat shovel. LOL Ok, then.
- Paracord: Good luck constructing a lean to without cordage. Maybe you can rip up an extra shirt or something. :rolleyes: The contestants on this show, few of them have been placed in areas that had vine cover, or grasses that might have been suitable for cordage replacements, so that's out. And anyway, since you're all about saving heat calories, you probably wouldn't want to waste calories foraging for suitable plant life that could be used in place of cordage. I can tell you, duck tape ain't it, chief. Man, almost like I've done this a time or two.
- Ferro rod: Given that contestants on this show have been dropped in places where the groundcover has not afforded them flint, chert, or anything like that, a ferro rod is absolutely critical in cold weather survival/camping as a bare minimum way to start a fire. Bow drill and a shoelace isn't going to get it done, and any claims that it will are delusional. Cold, wet wood? Might as well put your boots back on buddy, since you aren't having a fire tonight and are losing heat. In fact, there was a contestant just a season or two ago who lost his ferro rod, and tapped out when he couldn't get the bowdrill method to produce, for the exact reasons I state here.

The fact that you think a hammock, salt, and jerky are more useful than...well, any of those items tells me all I need to know about your skill level in wildcamping and wilderness survival.
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you can't even READ, dude. I said take the rope hammock. you can easily have 1500 ft of rope in a few hours by unraveling the hammocak. Anyone can dig a pit, line it with a chunk of tarp, line the tarp with sand or gravel and stone boil in that pit. With the duct tape, you can make a bowl and cup in minutes, for use with cold items. you dont need the sleeping bag if your shelter's waf. If you need a fire inside of it, it's not waf. This saves an hour a day of not having to find, cut, haul and process firewood. I SAID have 8" of saw edge on the shovel, twit. You're not allowed to cut live trees bigger than 8" OD, did you even know that much? :) When you dont need a warming fire, you dont need much firewood. It's all very simple, leading back to your ignorance about what a sealed, insulated, reflective shelter, raised bed, and debris between the 6 layers of clothing can do for you. Read the temperature chart I've posted. It only gets down to 15F by November, 5F by December. You dont get real cold until december and you'll be GONE by December 27. You dont even know when they launch., which is Sept 18. It's not all that cold, dude.

The fact that you dont even know how to start a fire with a flare, and bury your coals in the ashes, is not my problem. You also dont know how to make ashed tinder and charred materials with that first fire, so you can easily use any hard, sharp rock and the carbon steel knife blade to start a fire. You dont know how easy it is, with rust from your shovel, to fire roll a 2x8" strip of your shemagh. You dont know how to make and use a big pump drill, either (obviously) Your shortcomings are not mine, bro. I DO know how to do all of those things. That's why I dont need to waste a pick on the ferrorod, the cookpot, the sleeping bag, the axe, saw, gillnet, or paracord. That's the point. I'm 10x more knowledable about this than you are. You know it, too, that's why your so butt hurt.
 
dahlia said:
you can't even READ, dude. I said take the rope hammock. you can easily have 1500 ft of rope in a few hours by unraveling the hammocak. Anyone can dig a pit, line it with a chunk of tarp, line the tarp with sand or gravel and stone boil in that pit. With the duct tape, you can make a bowl and cup in minutes, for use with cold items. you dont need the sleeping bag if your shelter's waf. If you need a fire inside of it, it's not waf. This saves an hour a day of not having to find, cut, haul and process firewood. I SAID have 8" of saw edge on the shovel, twit. You're not allowed to cut live trees bigger than 8" OD, did you even know that much? :) When you dont need a warming fire, you dont need much firewood. It's all very simple, leading back to your ignorance about what a sealed, insulated, reflective shelter, raised bed, and debris between the 6 layers of clothing can do for you. Read the temperature chart I've posted. It only gets down to 15F by November, 5F by December. You dont get real cold until december and you'll be GONE by December 27. You dont even know when they launch., which is Sept 18. It's not all that cold, dude.
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Nope, I can read just fine. I just destroyed your weak attempt at flexing on us, so your anger is understandable, if a bit amusing. I can't stand armchair "experts" who've never actually done anything. Please stop embarrassing yourself, it's becoming tedious. Make a "bowl" with duct tape? That I can boil water in? Really? LMAO Ok then. Literally everything you just said in this paragraph are the words of someone who has no idea what they're talking about. You keep talking about specific dates or temperatures, when really, those don't have anything to do with...well, anything.
 
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