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Eighteen-year-old Eirik Kettering spent a recent weekend sleeping outside in an igloo ... on purpose.skiing. “They had a blast,” Paulsen said.
Kettering joined four other Boy Scouts and 10 Scout parents and leaders
from Troops 72 and 320 for a winter camping excursion at Medicine
Mountain Scout Ranch near Hill City.
Steve Paulsen, a member of
the Boy Scout Council Training Committee, said this year’s trip was the
first winter camping trip in many years, but he hopes it won’t be the
last.
“My big push is always to make sure we had a year-around scouting program,” he said.
Preparation
for the winter camping trip involved classroom training, including a
presentation by a man who survived two days stranded outdoors in a
blizzard. Scouts were also trained in proper equipment, winter first
aid, food preparation in extreme cold and shelter building.
Kettering,
who earned his Eagle Scout rank in January, had winter-camped only once
before. For his sleeping arrangement at Medicine Mountain, Kettering
and his fellow campers cut snow blocks out of a frozen snow bank and
built walls. He used old wood for the roof and hung burlap for the door.
The
temperature dipped to about 8 degrees (-12c) one night, but Kettering swears
he wasn’t cold. “It was pretty warm. It was just uncomfortable because
the ground was frozen and bumpy,” he said.
Kettering’s father,
Michael, used a parachute and poncho to make a tent. Another Scout
slept in a snow cave. Paulsen and his wife, Pattie, slept in an
all-weather tent.
Some members of the excursion opted for the cabins at Medicine Mountain.
“There is always a fall-back because this is training,” Paulsen said. “Not everybody is ready for it.”
The
campers learned how to cook in cold temperatures, whipping up a batch
of chicken and rice soup. The Scouts also went snowshoeing and
cross-country
Kettering said the hardest part of winter camping
occurs in the morning. “The trickiest part is pretty much getting
dressed every morning, because your clothes are cold,” he said. “Once
you’re dressed, the rest is pretty easy, and it’s warm the rest of the
day.”
He sees the winter camping and the cold as a challenge, something that can be overcome.
“It’s
kind of just mind over matter. ... Even if it’s cold, just live with
it. You’ll get used to it. Your body adjusts,” Kettering said.
Paulsen
hopes next year’s trip will include even more Boy Scouts, but boys must
be at least 11 or 12 years old and 100 pounds before they can join a
winter camping trip.
Paulsen said his hope is that more boys
will put down their video games and realize that there are lots of
things to do outside, even in winter.
“What I want them to understand is that there is more than one season of camping, more than one season of outdoors,” he said.
He
also wants them to be prepared if they find themselves in a winter
emergency. “Just learning a little common sense toward dealing with the
winter ... and some survival techniques,” he said.
Lynn Taylor Rick
[URL="http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2008/02/13/news/outdoors/doc47ad62d863339239412378.txt"]Article[/URL]
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he managed to have all of our boots completely dried and he saved our lives.. if it hadn't been for my dad keeping the fire going, i would have probably froze to death. my pants were frozen shut at the bottoms :S i sat naked next to the fire for 20 minutes just trying to get my pants on! 
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