3 Days Stranded in Alaska Without a Tent - Camping in Deep Snow Survival Shelters

Luke here on the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel and I've been

stranded

here in the Alaskan Bush for the last three

days

and I'm a long way from civilization. I'm not really sure how things are going to work out, but it's up to me. to get home and one thing is for sure it will be an interesting video on how to reach the city lights this is where I belong hey look at me more than I have become and I have been wanting to look for something I am digging

deep

into these nights what I thought was gone all along I think it's time to go to Bridges, all I know, I got lost along the way, okay?

There goes my trip, no, guys, that right there was the hurricane train. a Whistle Stop train operated by the Alaska Railroad and it just dropped me off in the middle of nowhere here in interior Alaska and that's what they do, you just tell them what mile you want to get off at and they stop and drop you off. and if you need a pick up, if you just wander down the tracks and flag them down like you would flag down a taxi, this train only runs twice a week, but I don't plan on stopping it. I have something else. in mind, but first I need to put on my

snow

shoes, let's see how it pulls.

It's the middle of winter here in Alaska and I really am in the middle of nowhere. This railroad is my only connection to civilization, but I'll be here in a few minutes. I'm going to leave this railway and start walking that way. I don't have any trails and at least a set of mountains to cover, but I'll try to hike back to civilization and for the next two nights. I'm going to build my own shelter, this is where it gets complicated. I have to find a way through these woods. I have to go up about 600 feet in elevation once I do it should open up as the

snow

is going to be very soft and

deep

there now there is about four and a half feet of snow on the ground and my snowshoes are barely keeping me up. float on top there is a layer of crunchy snow on top if I put too much force down or if I try to go up a hill I go through that cross and now I'm in snow up to my knees and thighs that's why I can't wear a backpack , that extra weight will make me break. through the top layer of snow and then I go down deep even on snowshoes, this is a lot of work, look, well, look at this, some blueberries, you see Barry is still in the bush in the middle of winter, which tells you that there is not much. animals around I'm not following any trails so I have to navigate landmarks, so I'll keep this keeper to my right and follow him to the top of a 600 foot bench.

Alright guys, this is my first time. I had a big obstacle getting up this 600 foot bank but when I'm pulling my sled uphill it puts a lot of extra weight on my snowshoes and I go through that snow and I sink deep and then I sink into the snow trying to go uphill, but this is a big turning point for this trip, if I can't get off this bench, I have to come up with a plan B, let's try to hit this at a weird angle. he just wants to get me off the hill there's a lot of time and energy just to go this little distance oh just by sinking your foot it sinks and then you have to lift your foot all the way up here just to get to the next step I made it to the top of this little knoll, but it's by no means the top of the hill because once I get to the top of this bank I'll have to do it at least one more time.

I made decent progress, but I have to get out of it, okay. I'm going to try to change gears. It's about to get a little dark. I need to go and make a path and figure out where I'm going because it's going to get very difficult. navigate I'm in the wrong place this ridge ends in a razor's edge my map wasn't detailed enough there's no way I can get through those altars and I'd just have to go down this valley and up some extremely steep slopes through some very thick. It's just not an option. The problem is that even if I got through all this weeds, I'm not done.

I still have about a mile to go until I reach the plateau and then on the other side of the mountains I have to go through terrain very similar to this again if I break some equipment or tear a muscle I am a long way from getting help this just seems like a Bad idea, the only way to get out of here is on my own two feet and I can't go that way well. I am quickly realizing that I can go down this hill with grace and speed. I just can't do both at the same time.

It took me two hours to do all that climbing. for five minutes to get down without having to break The trail is much easier going down and occasionally finding these hollow spots in the snow and now my snowshoes stuck oh it's all more work in the deep snow oh the sun is setting and I'm running in Twilight I need to go ahead and make ham and this seems like as good a place as any. Let's find out what's under this snow. That's why I have so much trouble going up those hills. This snow is so light and grainy.

I can't hold any weight, oh boy, oh, without my snowshoes, I'm going straight to the bottom, so look at this big mass right here under the snow. I'm guessing it's a root ball from a falling tree that will provide excellent heat. reflector and a great place to light my fire, so if I put my fire there against the root ball, I'm going to put my bed right here. I need to build a wall around it to keep the wind out. a little hard yes, that's going to be ice very soon I'd better light the fire, it's getting cold.

I need to start looking for foreign, foreign firewood, my gloves are soaked, I dry this stuff now, that's working, yeah, here we go, hopefully. that will keep my water bottles from freezing, yes my blood isn't pumping as hard as it used to and the air is getting colder. Strange, it feels good to sit down. I think my next order of business is to make some dinner, well I'm melting a little. snow for my dinner, but that's going to take a little time, so I'm going to have some snacks, cheese crackers and salami here, I have a Texas wild pig salami, a nice wild boar salami with cheese and a cracker from the Ritz.

Wow, I have this delicious blueberry wensleydale. It's good, I also have some dried figs here, okay, I have some instant Korean rice cooking and I'm looking forward to it, I'm really hungry and tired and it tastes so much better than dehydrated

camping

meals, oh yeah, here we go. I love this bag of boiling rice, it's great for

camping

like this little instant Japanese curry, here you just heat and serve, I lived on this stuff, although when I was in Japan, it was fine, curry rice and a piece of pilot bread to eat , it's not bad at all.

Right, I have some dessert planned. I have some dehydrated creme brulee. I'm not sure how it will work, but we'll see, okay. I'm supposed to add cold water. Luckily, I know where I can find some scrambled eggs. I'm going to vigorously sprinkle the caramelized sugar on top, try it, it tastes like caramel pudding, but you know, a little bit of creme brulee flavor in there, oh that wasn't so bad, it had more sugar than usual. I eat all day, but it's not so bad now that I got dinner. I need to do something with my bed.

The ground here is very lumpy. There's about a five and six inch dip right there and then there's a 10 to 12 inch dip right there. uh we'll find out how good a job I did tonight, hopefully this sticks because if not it's going to be a really miserable night. Okay, moment of truth, well it's been about 30 minutes and my ugly patch seems to be holding up. air, enough air, I think we can try, well, it's nice and level, foreign pants, let's try it, it's pretty late and I'm really tired, so I'll turn off the camera, I'll see you.

Guys, in the morning, oh good morning, it's around 6:30 am. and I think I'm going to get up. I need to start early. I've been thinking about it and I think I figured out how I'm going to get out of here without having to go back up that hill, I think I have a plan B, but it's pretty cold right now, it feels a little above zero, I light the fire . It snowed a little last night, there's plenty of snow on my tarp if my boot froze to the ground oh we had an inch or two of snow last night it's so cold I gotta light this fire oh that's what's there oh that's good I'm in a bit of a I'm in a hurry today so let's get our stove out because we have to boil a bunch of water, make some breakfast, oh my stove is frozen, ah, no matter how clean the snow looks, there's always floats in it, there is a lot of garbage in the water.

When you melt snow, some floats, some sinks, pour the first little bit to remove the floats and then throw away the last little bit so that what is at the bottom does not get into the water. Take care of 95 percent of the trash. I'm in a bit of a rush this morning, so we're going to use super simple instant oatmeal, some instant oatmeal with bits of alder twigs. Well, it's 8:30 in the morning and I'm here. I'm starting to see some color in this guy. I think it's time for me to get out of here. Just use the leftover water to clean my cup and then drink it.

Melting snow takes forever. You don't waste water. I have to say it. You, when that fire was there, it was very hot, that was a good shelter for me to make some tracks. I just realized I don't have my glasses, oh boy yeah I forgot my glasses, oh boy we've been here they are. not there, yes they are not there, I couldn't find them at the shelter and yes, it seems like I'm doing this trip without my glasses. Mr. Magoo is going camping. Well, last night I had a lot of time to think about it and I think I came up with a plan B: how I'm going to get home.

It will be a longer hike but it will be flatter so I will have to make some serious tracks if I want to get to where I want to be. tomorrow, alright guys, last night I was looking at my map and I think I figured out my plan B. I'm going to follow these railroad tracks and they'll take me in the wrong direction for many miles, but eventually they'll go away. to open up to a swampy frozen river bottom that I can go around this mountain and get to where I want to go, it's a lot further away but it's flatter and I won't have to fight brush as much, which is a big problem because this is a terrain flat and open.

I'm going to switch to my skis, okay, these Trucking skis float on the snow much better than snowshoes, so you don't have to lift your leg, you just glide across the snow and burn much less energy, but unfortunately they don't It does well maneuvering in the woods or climbing hills. I've got a bit of a rough day ahead of me and I'm really behind, but look at this, it looks beautiful. a Hallmark Christmas special here I'm trying to keep an eye out for moose without my glasses if I see a moose I'm definitely too close lol so right there is the bench I was trying to get on yesterday.

I have to find a way around it. I'm not going to cross this bridge because it's safe. I'm doing it because it's better than crossing that stream. My sealskins keep coming off. Sealskins are basically synthetic hair that allows you to slide forward but grabs when you push back. so it allows you to slide through the snow and pull the knob with ease, but this shiny one stays loose and keeps coming off every mile or so. I hope this problem doesn't get worse, but if it does, I'll get my snowshoes out, but that's the sketchy part about going out in this deep snow, if your snowshoes or skis break, you'll be stuck in new moose tracks. .

One of my big concerns is that I will encounter moose on the slopes and those moose won't. Get out of the way for me, it seems like every year in Alaska someone gets attacked by a moose while cross country skiing, hey look there's someone's shovel and their sled right there, someone has a farm or a cabin in the woods from there and this is where they come to access the railway to enter the town to buy provisions when they return from town with all their purchases they put it in the sleigh and take it to the forest there is not much snow on that sleigh they probably took the train from which I got off yesterday when I was snowshoeing.

I was averaging about a mile per hour on this flat terrain on my cross-country skis. I'm doing about 2.4 miles per hour making much better time. Oh, we choose. About an extra inch of snow has accumulated since I started and it's making it harder to pull the sled. You know, snow conditions have a big impact on your ability to travel in the winter if we had a discharge of one or two feet of this light. powdery stuff that we couldn't do to hunker down until the snow settles and compacts a little. Look, there's two moose up there on the hill, look how deep they're sinking, their bellies rubbing in the snow, okay, I think I'm going to take a little lunch break.

You know these cookies aren't that good. Frozen, you need to eat quickly. I'm starting to get cold. Okay, enough laziness, let's get real happy with my sled. I have been looking to buy one. Polk for several years finally found one that was manufactured here in Alaska by a company called Northern Sled Works. Turns out they are the same company that makes the Arctic Oven hot

tent

that I use. I am very satisfied with it, it is much lighter. and shoots much betterthan my ice fishing sleds. Oh, this snow keeps falling, it's getting deeper and deeper. I can't even see my skis anymore.

Okay, there's the bank we've been trying to get around. Oh, that's nice. I've been going for about five hours and we're already a little more than halfway done with what I wanted. achieve it today is going to be a long day today my feet are really starting to kill me. I'm worried that I'll start getting blisters very soon. I'm making good time, but this is taking away my control. My feet are chewing. I'm a little worried about whether I'll make it to my destination tonight oh seriously, quite tired, very tired, we're starting to climb the side of a small mountain here and you can see the valley to our left and the other.

That's the side of the mountain we were trying to get around. I still have a long way to go before I hit any highway or road, but it's a big milestone, but the sun will set on me any minute now. Thanks guys, I've been skiing. for about two hours after sunset and I'm exhausted, it's time to camp, but I made really good time and, uh, I'm on target, so I feel good about what we did today, oh, oh, that hit tried to make me lose balance. Hey, let's find a place now that looks pretty good there, foreigner, foreigner, I'm just waiting for the water to boil so I can make some tea and dinner, and I'm freezing, it's gotten really cold outside with sunset sun.

Now that I'm not moving, it's cold. I am very cold and very thirsty. It took me a couple of hours, but I melted about three liters of water. I had it boiling. I'm going to put her in my sleeping bag. Okay guys, I'm freezing. Ass, I think it's time for bed, thanks, so I'm going to turn this off. I'll see you in the morning. Hello, good morning, last night it was very cold, it stopped snowing and it cleared up and the temperature dropped very aggressively. I think it was around zero once I get out of the sleeping bag, it's going to be really cold so I want to start moving as soon as I can, let's do this.

My socks were a little wet last night, so I took them off and put them on. I have them in my bag, oh they are all nice and they smell horrible, okay though, these puffy pants I bought are the best thing I have ever seen, they are so warm my legs and feet get so cold at night that my water bags hot I hope that thaws them. a little ah the sweat on my hands made my gloves get a little damp now they are a little frozen thank you foreigner the snow here was very soft yesterday but after the cold snap last night it is really firm, it's going to make life a lot It's Better to have a little more snow.

Frozen makes all the difference in the world. Well, last night, in the dark, I finally made it around the tip of the mountain and set up camp just after leaving the train tracks, so today we have an easy jaw crossing flat terrain, but I still have a brake. The trail and my legs or feet hurt a lot. You can't see any landmarks in these woods, so I'm navigating entirely by GPS right now. I have to make sure your batteries are charged. Get lost very easily just by going through Straight Force like this, inches like this will soak you so if you continue you won't get snow down the back of your shirt, you just stepped on a tree, well some of the little trees get buried in the snow and it creates an air pocket and if you step on one of them, you go all the way down, you see all those alder trees right there, you go in and you'll hit a lot of trees.

Wells abroad. I can hear the road we're on. close, oh I think I see it, here we go, oh we made it, the first people I've seen since they got off the train, well guys, they didn't do it the way I was planning, but I did it. I think I broke about 18 miles of The trail is really intense now I just need to wait for my ride to arrive. I'm going to take off my jacket too. I'm already freezing. Oh, no joke, it's cold today. Alright. I think my journey is here. They arrive a little early. it's okay, oh it's wonderful, oh it's so nice to be warm, well guys, he's back safely, he's out and I hope you enjoyed this video.

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