Return From Zero.
After my (mis)adventure with the sudden arrival of winter and dehydration up on Gothics I began a series of short equipment 'shakedown' efforts. This is following a week of deep freezing temperatures ( -16 degrees Farenheit(-26 degrees Celsius),snow and wind. Beyond good clothing three things keep you alive:
The Tent: This is Mountain Hardware's Trango 4. These are used by many of the guide services on Mounts Everest and Denali. After 2 hours putting one of these together you can see why. Anchors and cross linkages abound.
The Sleeping Bag(s): So far the -30 degree rated bag from Western Mountaineering is working fine! I use two pads underneath the bag- a closed cell foam pad and a down insulated inflatable one on top. It feels like you are floating on a life raft at night which is something of a nuisance but mostly it is fine.
The Liquid Fuel Stove: This one has to fire up quickly each and every time you start up because this is where your water supply (and you need several liters a day) is going to come from. Clean water can be produced from melted snow or gotten from a stream- but it all must be boiled to eliminate pathogens. Iodine and Chlorine work well but take a long time when the water is cold. And a UV sterilizer pen works too but the water can't have a lot of particles in it. On mountain expeditions these small liquid fuel stoves are the preferred method. I can dig this out of the snow at 10 below zero, light it up and have 1.5 Liters of boiling water from snow in a bit less than 20 minutes.
Or I can make some lentil dahl with a bit of Vietnamese Cinnamon on top :) The cinnamon is mostly to make the tent smell better from the smoke I put through earlier in the day after burning a pot...
(please click on the photo for a larger image)
To my Steemit explorer friends,
I have probably taken over a million photographs of the natural world since childhood; this is a daily series of some of those I most treasure.
Where They are From
- Many are from an organic orchard that I created on the hill above my home. When you are raising trees from saplings you are out in all weather at all hours and see remarkable things.
- Some are from my art studio and my efforts there- especially those on behalf of the Tibetan people.
- Still others are from my wanderings in the wilderness with compass and map my companions. Many are featured from posts I have created here on Steemit and I will link to those whenever possible if you wish to read more of the how, when and where.
Please upvote if you liked this post, and follow for more journeys through our mysterious and amazing world. And please comment as I greatly value these and will answer any questions you may have (and generally go to look at your posts of course since I consider a group of friends the most valuable possible outcome from efforts on Steemit.
*This photo was taken with the Canon EOS 70D, 18-55 mm lens