Bugging out at night during winter

[THRCNBEONLY1]

Hope all are well.

In a few weeks time I have set aside a few days to check on my winter skills and was looking for some advice on a few things if at all possible.

In a nut shell; I've never 'bugged-out' at night before during winter. Plenty of winter camps under my belt, but these have always been extremely well prepared for. So I will be getting dropped off approx 5 miles away from my intended overnight spot around 9pm and have limited equipment to simulate a last minute retreat.

Plan is to take backups with me, so I will have a tent and my sleeping bag (good to minus 20) however I will be taking no food (see below), fuel or water with me. Hoping to keep the kit to under 10kg but I'm not fussed about weight as this is the first attempt at doing something like this.

Essentially I want to gain some experience in setting up camp in darkness. Main shelter will be a tarp.

Can anyone offer any advice or experience with doing this sort of thing? For example, the order in which you would begin setting up the camp, and where you would say priority lies.

The aim is to practice all the usual aspects, but at night and in winter (and no modern tools)

- Fire, will only be possible through flint or hand drill, and there will be no dry tinder available (potentially silver birch, but I'm not sure)
- Food, might sound silly, but I don't agree with hunting unless it is necessary so I will be carrying meat with me to simulate fresh kills. Plan is to eat some, but preserve the rest for the following night. No utensils to cook with.
- Shelter, will be tarp only however tent for backup.

If anyone can suggest other skills that should be practiced in this sort of environment it would be helpful. As rich as this forum is on information there isn't much in the sense of practical suggestions - skills that should be practiced BEFORE a survival situation presents itself. For example, the hand drill method took me years to get just right and even now I am not confident of being able to do it in winter dampness.

I reckon the whole affair will be hard going but I'm taking all available pro-cautions in the event I luck out and find myself in a proper SHTF situation. I just want to try and make the whole thing as real as possible without becoming life threatening. Scotlands' winter can be a very unforgiving. So any help will be appreciated.

If there is any interest I will post up something after I've completed the weekend and let you know how I get on.

Thanks in advance

Good luck to everyone.

[Deeps]

Good luck with it mate but its sounds like you're skipping a couple of pages, as you say it can get a bit Baltic up here. Make sure you've got your phone with you in case you need to ring someone to pick you up if its not going as you'd hoped. Let us know how you go.

[sethorly]

Love to hear about your experiences with this. And.....Don't lose your head! Don't lose your head!

[sniper 55]

Dare I suggest you try this a bit closer to home so if things go bad you can bail out quickly and easily.
Setting up a shelter in the dark can be a pain, it's harder to see what your doing and trips, falls or poking yourself with a branch is all too easy in poor light.
I'd suggest taking water and a small stove of some sort as back-up at the very least. If you have a problem and get cold and wet (not difficult here in the UK) you might be unable to put up the back-up tent, then at least you've got hot drinks to help warm you up.
Trying to light a fire in the dark, damp and cold with a hand drill is probably going to be a non starter unless you've done it before, and even experts fail more often than you might think.
If things go bad how far do you have to walk to get to the nearest pick up point?

[dazthechippy]

superb idea, great to stress test your plans, i'm more of a bugger inner than outer but like to think i could handle it (really!) - please let us know how it goes.

one thing I wonder about is tarp or poncho arrangement vs. just putting the sleeping bag in a bivvy bag for ease of erection (oh-er) and weight to carry...

good luck

[MissAnpassad]

Are you planning on staying at the camp site? Or are you going to continue walking the next day? That do effect the order of how I would go about it.

If you plan on staying put, I would start with making sure I would stay dry. So setting up the tent/tarp would be number one. Staying warm is number two. Water or food wouldn't be on the top of the list, as a healthy person can go without it for several days. So if you are tired, sleep first.

If you are moving out the next morning, you will need to drink before you go. So before I went to sleep I would find some rocks and put them on the fire so I could melt snow in a plastic bag or melt a hole in the ice in order to get water.

I don't agree with hunting unless it is necessary so I will be carrying meat with me to simulate fresh kills.

First of all, that remark is so "Modern man". You don't want to kill, but are perfectly fine with that others do it for you. I'm a smallholder and I've been told: "It's cruel that you slaughter animals. Why do you do it when you can buy meat in the supermarket?"

Secondly, are you an experienced hunter? If not, the probability that you would manage to hunt and kill in this scenario is highly unlikely. If you want it to be a more realistic scenario I would recommend you to learn which insects are edible.

[Plymtom]

First of all, that remark is so "Modern man". You don't want to kill, but are perfectly fine with that others do it for you. I'm a smallholder and I've been told: "It's cruel that you slaughter animals. Why do you do it when you can buy meat in the supermarket?"

Secondly, are you an experienced hunter? If not, the probability that you would manage to hunt and kill in this scenario is highly unlikely. If you want it to be a more realistic scenario I would recommend you to learn which insects are edible.

I've said stuff like that If I'm reading between the lines correctly he's not after testing/proving his hunting abilities at this point plus there's a bit of an issue permission wise where taking game is concerned, I look forward to hearing how it goes, I had similar concerns to the others and started a post earlier today then scrubbed around it, there's been an influx of people lately like the chap with the shed in the woods the other week, got to say I'm finding them inspiring, I never considered bug out as an option, yet in recent times I realized that the family could get split if something goes down whilst those of us who do are out to play as far as 75-100 miles from home, leaving a get home scenario requiring manual transport of some serious kit and some nights spent outdoors like it or not, it'd never happen that far from home in cold or really crap weather, never the less I'll find ONLY1s's experiences very valuable indeed whilst trying to figure out a way back.

[diamond lil]

I'm in Scotland and it's been below freezing here for several days, tonight is to be minus 10 in the glens. I'd be careful.

[woodsman1]

sounds fantastic what your doing, testing your survival limits and skills , because your going solo keep yourself safe and take alternative fire lighting kit.
like the others have said it gets very cold out there..

[Yorkshire Andy]

I've been family camping in the snow (wasn't planned but April has its moments weather wise)


Take a sleeping mat as most of your body heat is lost down into the ground

I got one of these goretex bivvy's


Still get condensation but if it hanks it down its nice and dry