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#24165 - 02/24/04 06:50 PM Re: Erth's. Wldst. Plcs. / The Srvl. Aspects.-COLD
ScottRezaLogan Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 723
Loc: Pttsbg SWestern Pa USA N-Amer....
ALASKA - ( Itself Now.) I'll Try for Another One, on the "Lesser Length" Front. Though I Initially Ended up doing somewhat Good there on the Last One, the Cumulative Effects of some Neccessary Edits, Have it now that it Isn't so Good there. I Think I can Do so with Alaska Itself right now, I'll Try so again. So we'll Detour from Iceland for a Bit yet, and just Head Up thru the Aleutians and the Peninsula, to the Main Part of Alaska Itself! As a Song says, "North to Alaska!". Lets now Look and Turn North. To Alaska Itself!

ALASKA ( Itself.) - Here's one of the Great Areas of the World, Synonomous with The Great Outdoors, Frontiersmanship, and the COLD ! In the Far Northwest of Canada, / America, / and the Americas North and South, -She (Or is Alaska a He?) Reaches Outward from there, towards Siberia and the Eurasian Continent!

656,424 Square Miles of Such! This is a Sizeable Fraction of the Area of Both of it's Larger North American Neighbors, -Canada and the Lower U.S. They Come In at Three Million and 849,674 and Two Million and 879,854 Square Miles respectively. ( Funny, but I Think I once Recall that the Square Milage of the U.S. minus Alaska may have Come In at a Little over 3 Million Sq. Miles.) (My Source, from which I Subtracted for This Value, -and It Does Check Out, -is the 1997 Edition of the World Almanac.) So 3.8 Million, and 2.8 Million, Next to 6/10 ths of a Million Square Miles, is about It. Thogh Dwarfed in Comparison, Alaska Gives a Sizeable Enuf Addition, and is Huge. Obviously our Largest State, which with Both it's Southeastern and Aleutian Panhandles, -Can Stetch between Charleston SC and San Diego! If Overlaid on our Lower 48. Many of us do happen to Already Know that. It's Great Central Bulk would Take Up most of our Great Plains!, if similarly Overlaid.

It's in the Northern Arctic Regions of the World. It's one of the Last Great Frontiers, and one of the Earth's Greatest Wild Places!

Fish, Game, Forests, Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Tundra, Oil, Permafrost, Glaciers and Ice Floes, Volcanos, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Native Peoples, with Eskimos and Aleuts, Totem Poles, Dogs and Dogsledding, Treks and Hikes, Campfires, even some Forest Fires Beware!, Winter Cold and Snow, Salmon, Bears Polar / Black / Grizzly / Kodiak / and Brown, Fiords and Inlets, Landslides, Avalanches Down around Jeneau and Elsewhere, Snowshoeing and Cross Country, Bush Flying, Pioneering and Frontiersmanship, Mountaineering, Anchorage and Fairbanks, Ketchikan and Sitka, Defense Installations and an International Air Hub, Geology and Landforms, Gold and Other Prospecting, a Great Pipeline, Auroras and Midnight Sun, (As Well as Noon Darkness), Giant Vegetables, The Arctic Circle, a Far Reaching Oceanic Island String, The Mighty Yukon, Caribou Herds, Mt. McKinley, Katmai and it's 10,000 Smokes, Kodiak Island, The Malaspina and Other Glaciers, The Historic Russian Heritage, The Mega Quake of 64, People Usually Few and Far Between, ( But Usually Great and Helpful Company when They Are Around! )and Last but Not Least, -So Much of The Great Outdoors! As Well as Many Other Such Things in Between! Alaska is All These Things and More! I Admit thats quite a List, but Thats also Quite Alaska!, as well.

I Love and Am Drawn to Alaska Quite So! So Many of These Things are "Right Down my Alley", and in Many Ways and Respects, I Consider myself to be an Alaskan At Heart!

I would Like to Share Something of This Great Wild Area with you, includeing various Important Things concerning it's Survival Aspects.

Now How's It for Living and Surviving Up There?!

Well, it Revolves primarily around Cold, Forest, and Mountain Survival, as well as All the Other Sorts of Survival Subareas, mentioned in such Places as Siberia, Kamchatka, and the Aleutians. Some of these Lack only Trees and Forest. Alaska Overall has No such Lack, even if some Sizeable Subareas of Itself Does.

All of the Other Survival Techniques and Practices mentioned regarding Other COLD Wild Areas of the World, -Can Usually be Very Much Applied here as well.

I'll Add that in Much of Alaska, -You may be Well Inland. If you Want to Get Out, -Then you'd generally Want to Work your Way Southward andor Coastward. The Yukon and some Other Rivers would Serve you Very Well here.

The South Coast and Southeastern Panhandle, though Cool, are Uncharacteristically Wet, Warm, and Mild, for Alaska. As Oppossed to Most of the State's Weather and Climate, and the Public Perception of Such. This is a Lot like Britian or Seattle. This is the Moderating Oceanic Effect, from the Vast Pacific just Below. It Rapidly Decreases the Further Inland you Go. It's additionally Stopped, by Mountain Ranges such as the Chugach. I would Consider Placing a Higher Priority on Chooseing to Survive in This part of Alaska, than many Others. This would also be a More Preferred Coast, that I'd Want to Work my Way Towards. The SE Panhandle is particularly Filled with Fiords and other Inlets, Inside Passages, and Steep Forested Mountains Rising right up Out of the Sea!

Have and Use things like ELTs and GPS, Strike Out Towards, andor Try to Establish Radio Contact with a Settlement, and be Consciously Aware of Compass Problems, this Close to the North Geomagnetic Pole! River Floatdowns are a Great Way of Reaching a Settlement as well.

Some of your Most Crucially Important Things!, in Alaskan Survival, would of course be, -All Matters related to Fire, Shelter and Shelter Materials, Warmth and Dryness, Wind and Rain Protection, and Food and Water. Fortunately, At least these Last Two are Often quite Readily Available. As Often Fuel, Firewood, and Shelter Materials also are. Make Fish and Fishing, -a Major Part of your "Food Front", as well. Coupled with Having Smoking, Salting, Drying, and Other Food Preservation and Storage Techniques, -Down Pat.

Beware of a Lot of Soggy and Boggy Grounds and Swamps!, as well.

Signaling Can and Would be Very Important, and Possible, especially with Aircraft! Have such Equipment and Knowledge About yourself, Beforehand!

Warmth / Shelter / and Cold - Elements Protection is Foremost! Followed Closely by such things as Food and Water. Followed in Turn Closely by Things such as Compass, Maps, and Signaling.

Along with Mountaineering Knowledge, Rock and Other Climbing Knowledge would Come In Very Handy and Helpful too!

I would also Want to Find and Make Use of, some Sheltered Valleys and the Like, in the Mountains. They Moderate and Enmilden the Predominant Climate. It's Still Cold in the Winter,( and I'm Sure much of Autumn and Spring too.), but Less so. The Matunuska Valley is such a Place. This is Precisely a Reason Why it is such a Rare Alaskan Agricultural Breadbasket. I'd Try to Locate and Make Use of such Natural Shelters. (Or *More* Sheltered Areas anyway.)

Additional Pluses are that you still are in the United States, and that Nearly Everyone, Speaks or at least Understands, English.

Alaska would be a Fine Place to Stay! Though it's certainly Not the French Riviera or Tahiti either! But whether Staying or Trying to Extricate yourself Out, -You're Gonna Have to Survive! While There, You're gonna Have to Hold Fort, Make Best for Yourself, and Survive! This so has been a General Introduction to Alaska!, as well as One concerning some of it's Foremost, All Round Survival Aspects.

See Other E.W.P.-Survival Aspects,-COLD Mentions, -for some More such Survival Specifics. Many to Most of those are Very Applicable to Alaskan Survival as well.

Now concerning the Length Factor, Lets See how well I Did?!

Well I Did Do this one in 3. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]


Edited by ScottRezaLogan (02/25/04 04:49 AM)
_________________________
"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.

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#24166 - 02/25/04 06:22 AM Re: Erth's. Wldst. Plcs. / The Srvl. Aspects.-COLD
ScottRezaLogan Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 723
Loc: Pttsbg SWestern Pa USA N-Amer....
CANADA And ITS WILDS - Before Heading over to Iceland, Lets Stop Over in the Canadian Wooded Wilds! It's just a Stone's Throw from Alaska.

Canada is the Second Largest Country in the World! Had History been just a Little Different, It could have Become even Larger! As concerns Alaska, Greenland, and the Hudson Bay.

Had Alaska Not become a Part of the American Union, It could have Ended up being a part of Canada!, to which it is a Natural Geographic Adjunct.

( Heck!, Had the Czarist Rushans Not Cut their Losses, -We could have been Facing the Soviet Rushans during the Cold War from the Canadian Yukon! -Not *From* Alaska as we actually Did! Imagine All of Alaska as just an Extension of the Vast Soviet Siberian Gulag, and Forward Military Deployment Area. Mt. McKinley would Instead have Received some sort of a PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. Glorificational Name! Seward's Folly became our Smart Move! )

But Had we Not, It could now be Russian or Canadian.

Greenland too, Could have become Canadian, if the Winds of History id have just been a Little Different. Just Look at a Map, and See How Close the Two are!, for a Good Stretch of Greenland's Northwest. Why!,-They're just Across a Narrow Channel from One Another! But Far Off Denmark got there First.

And if the Vast Hudson Bay just happened to Instead be Land, Canada, Already the Second Largest Country in the World, at 3 Million, 849,674 Square Miles!, Could be even Larger!

Alaska in it's West, Greenland to the East, and Hudson Bay toward it's Center.

Even without these Additions though, Canada's Still by a Large Margin, -the Second Largest Country in the World.

( No Hudson Bay?!,-The Vast Ice Sheets which once Bore Down on Canada, -Would Never Have that! I Like it there Better than Not anyway. Cold Canadian Winter Blasts would be even Worse, in it's Abscence. Though I suppose the Bay getting Iced Over, -Does a Lot to Negate such Effect anyway. Even so, I Like this Giant Bay being there!, as oppossed to Not.)

From Skagway and the Klondike Area near the Alaskan Border, to the Easternmost Tip of Newfoundland! From it's Southernmost Point along Lake Erie, (Not All that Far Above me!), to the Top Tip of Ellesmere Island, -a Good Half Way Across the Arctic Ocean to the Pole! My Own Country is Honored up here!, in Mountains known as the "United States Range". This All is the Scope, Scale, Depth, and Breadth!, of Canada!

Lakes Galore!, Crystal Clean Freshwater Rivers, Forests, Fish, Game and Wildlife, Glaciers, Great National Parks like Banff and Jasper, Scoured Rocks of the Canadian Shield, Bush Pilots and Flying, Bears Black,Polar, and Grizzly, Outdoorsmen, Mounties, Wheat Fields on it's Own Great Plains, Rocky East Coasts and Forested Western Ones, Great Rivers in the McKenzie and St.Lawrence, the Northern Side of the Great Lakes, It's Own Native Indian Peoples, Eskimos, Bitter and Long Lasting Cold!, Maple Syrup and Sap, It's Maple Leaf Flag, Hockey, Molson and Labatt's, (Though I Do happen to be a Teetotaller.), French Quebec, and Majestic, Forested, Rocky Mountains of it's Own, -There in the Great Canadian West! These and So Much More!, are Canada and It's Great Outdoors!

Canada is an Outdoors Country Thru and Thru! France is Cultured, Greece is the Basis of so Much Western Cililization, No One Outdoes an Aussie when it Comes to Being Australian, Southeast Asia's got it's Buddhism, Italy's got it's Pasta and Wines, My America is the Heart, Hub, and Hope of Freedom in the World! And Canada has Gots it's Great Canadian Outdoors!!! If Canada is Not of the Great Outdoors!, -Then Pele Doesn't Play Soccer!

Canada Holds a Topmost Place in my Mind and Heart, Outdoorwise and Otherwise! If One's Got the Cold Taken Care of!, -It Isn't Too Bad of a Place at All!

Now it Does get as Cold as a Son of a Gun!, Up There! Ranking Right Behind places like Siberia and Greenland! I Know this from more than just Books and Such. I Get the Bottom Dips from it Many a Time!, in Many a Winter!

Canada's Record Low Temperature, (Again from my Earlier Mentioned 1977 Source.), was - 81 Degrees F, at Snag, Yukon, Feb. 03, 1947.( Greenland's Record came in at only some 5 Degrees Colder.)

Canada's also got the Very Short to Nonexistant Mid-Winter Daylight Periods, -Months at a Time! And Very Short, but at least Well Sunlit, Growing Seasons as well. It Shares All These Sorts of Characteristics and Drawbacks, as has been already mentioned, regarding Other Far North Locales.

You are Right in the Thick of the Whole Compass Mess too!, when you Start getting to Close to the North Magnetic Pole. It is Right There, in Northern Canada, Amidst it's many Queen Elizabeth Islands. Its on This, the Canadian Side of the Arctic, Not the earlier Siberian One.

Otherwise, from a Survival Standpoint, Canada is Much as the Other COLD Northern Wild Places already mentioned. Minus the Volcanos (Excepting but a Few near the U.S. Border), Minus the Treelessness of some of Those Locales, (Though Canada's certainly Got some of These as well!), Minus at least for the Most Part, -Coast and Island Survival.

Otherwise, -It's Quite Much the Same! With a Northern Continental Twist, as Siberia has.

Cold Survival, Forest Survival, and Mountain Survival!, are the Core of it's Cirricula! Other Types mentioned elsewhere under EWP-Survival Aspects-COLD, Figure In as well, But These are the Three Centermost!

Grasslands Survival and "Sodbusting", would be a Prime One of These! So much of South and West Central Canada is the Northern Extension of the North American Great Plains. British Colombia's Conifer Forested Mountains are Not a Part of the Scene here!

A "Rocky Sort of 'Grassland' ", -Exists in so Much of the Quebec and Ungava Canadian East!, as well! Here however, You Not only Don't have Trees, You Don't have Grass either! Groundwise, It's more Akin to a Desert Plateau, -though the Rain and Snowfall may be Plenty More than what would Qualify as a Desert. You'd largely have to Find and Assemble Rocks, for your Shelter here!

Elsewhere Across much of Canada, Your Prospects often are Much Better! The Atlantic Provinces have Much Fish, and often Good or Decent Growing Soil. Ontario's Great for Forest Resources, Streams, and Lakes! The Grassland Plains have Rich Soil! Nearly Everywhere between the Hudson and the Rockies!, is Lake, Fish, and Stream and River Filled! And Often, though Not Always, Forest Filled as well! That Canadian West and Rockies, is also Very Forest, Fish, and Game Filled! The Northwest Territories Ground gets Progressivly Barer, the More North and Northeast you Go, but the Vast Part of It, is still Chock Full of Fishing Lakes! Baffin, Ellesmere, and the Other Queen Elizabeth Islands, are of Ungava / Canadian Shield type Rockiness. Here this is Often probably even Worse. These Islands however, Make For a Sizeable Part of Canada's Total Territory! And They Take a Great Swing up toward the Pole! Far More than even the Northern Siberia Taimyr, or it's large Arctic Islands, Do! Survival here in the High Canadian Arctic, would Involve a Lot of Fishing, Sealing, and Etc. And of course, -Cold Protection! Now on the Other, Western Side of the Canadian Rockies, This shud be a Good, Promising, Survival Location. It's Richly Forested, and Has All the Marine West Coast Advantages as Southern Alaska. You also could Avail yourself of the Coastal and Sea Riches there! But Between the Sea and Mountains, you Often might Not Have All that much Elbow Room to Maneauver Around in! Many Coastal Mountains may Plunge right into the Sea!

But Taking it from the Western and Central Canada Core!, -Survival again would involve the Cold, Plentiful Fresh Water, Plentiful Fish and Game, Plenty of Forest Resources for Fire and Shelter!

This for the Most Part, is one of the Most Sparsely Populated Parts of the Entire World! That has it's Advantages and Disadvantages. But in my Book at least, It's Far More of an Advantage!

You'd just Have to Hunker Down in a Survival Conducive Area, Keep the Heck Warm at All Times! And I Mean Assuredly Do So! Backups of Backups of Backups! Lots of Firewood and Shelter Materials! And Lots of Ready Access to Such! You'd certainly Want to Have an at least Reasonably Rich and Reliable Food Sources, on Hand. And Water too, though that one Shudn't be a Problem. With the Exception of being in a Rain Shadow. It would be Good to be Near a River or Stream. For Transportation Purposes, Not Only Fish, Food, Bathing, Washing, and Water. Across so Much of Canada, This shud be No Problem either!

If you Don't Want to Survive and Stay, -Then Work your Way South / to Settlements. Settlements usually are Synonomous with the South! As well as at least being Not as Cold. Down here towards the U.S. Border, -You have Canada's Trans Continental Railroad. You can Use it to your Advantage, the Same Way you could Use the Trans Siberian Railroad mentioned earlier. Also like Siberia, What Canadian Cities and "Civilization" as there are, are Concentrated in the Far South, Towards the U.S. Border. Make For Here! Also as in Siberia, Don't Follow the McKenzie Downstream! It Too only Leads to the Northern Arctic! Though it may be a Way of Reaching a Settlement. At least Canada Only has One such Major, Arctic River, whereas Siberia has Several. You might Want to Follow the Yukon River Northwest, though. It Flows Not to the Arctic, but thru Alaska to the Bering. It would be a Way of Getting to the Major City of Fairbanks, though that Locale is on a Major Southern Tributary of the Yukon. You can either Roundabout Sail to it, or make an Overland Portage.

Cold, Forest, and Mountain Survival are once again At The Core!, of Canadian Survival.

The Lakes and Waterways, Forests, Fire and Firewood, Shelter and Shelter Materials, and Fish and Game!, would be some of your Coremost Watchwords!

And "Cold Protection" would be a Greatest of These!

Other Important Areas such as Signaling, would Come Into Important Play, too.

Such is Cold Canadian Survival! ( Canada has a Briefish Spring, Fall, and Summer too!, Use Those to Maximum Advantage! Includeing Getting Further South During such! )

Such is Canada! And Such is Canada's Survival Aspects! She's Great in so Many Ways All Around! She is Truly one of the World's Greatest and Wildest of Places! The Truly So Great Canadian Outdoors! But She Gets as Cold as a Son of a Gun!, as Well! Be READY For That!!!

[color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]


Edited by ScottRezaLogan (02/25/04 07:48 PM)
_________________________
"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.

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#24167 - 02/26/04 09:16 PM Re: Erth's. Wldst. Plcs. / The Srvl. Aspects.-COLD
ScottRezaLogan Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 723
Loc: Pttsbg SWestern Pa USA N-Amer....
ICELAND.- OK, -Now Lets Head on over to Iceland!, -That Arctic, Mid-Atlantic Land of Fire and Ice!

From the Canadian Wilds, as we Fly Past the Greenland Icecap once again, We Descend over the Angry North Atlantic thru some Half Foul or More of Weather, to Reykjavik's Keflavik Area Airport. This Weather Often Likes to Turn on a Dime, and It Does so, here on our Approach. This of course is Often a Turn Toward the Worst.

We Have Met Iceland in Her Southeast. -The Population Center of What Population There is! Thats Only a Quarter Million, in this Indiana Sized Island Country. (Iceland is Slightly Larger.) It Comes In at 39,699 Square Miles. It's one of the World's Reasonably Larger Islands. And a Quite Isolated One at that!

This Population is of Many a Fine Scandanavian Farmer and Fisherfolk!, -Direct Descendants of the Norse Vikings. Their Language is a Scandanavian one, -Icelandic. Which is Very Much the Old, Original, Norse. But Many Icelanders are also Quite Fluent in English as well, -This Shud usually be Little to No Problem. In Fact, our English is Related, to those Germanic and Scandanavian Languages. So it's Not Totally Foreign.

This Land is just Below the Arctic Circle. It's Northern Coast only Skirts It. Only One Small Northern Island, Grimsy, "Breaches It" a Bit. The Rest of Iceland Sits in an about 180 Mile North to South, and 300 Miles East to West, of a Squareish Oval, just South of It. Plus some Small Outlying Islands, of course. Now Thats still Pretty Darned Far North.

Though the Warm Gulf Stream just to it's South, Does Moderate the Climate some,- It Still gets Cold Enuf. And This Does Qualify as One of the World's Wild Places,-COLD! An Arctic and Antarctic Ocean and Continent it is Not. A Siberia, Canada, or Greenland it is Not. But a Pristine Wild Place, Arctic, Northern, and Cold, -It Definitely Is!

Though Possessing All that Goes with that, Iceland Additionally has Many Unique Characteristics All it's Own!

First of All it's a Large Island. In the Midst of a Cold, Polar Area of the World's Oceans.

Next, It's Very Volcanic! It's one of the World's Foremost such Volcanic Areas! Every Last Cubic Inch or Centimeter of it's Soil, was Formed via Volcanic Eruption or Lava Outflow. Were there No Volcanism there, There would be No Iceland! It's Area would just be More Cold, North Atlantic Water.

It Uniquely Sits Over Not just a Tectonic Plate Boundary Alone, (-Which it Does). And Not just Over one of the Earth's Deep and Rising Hot Spots Plumes Alone, (Which it also Does). But it Sits Over BOTH ! At One and the Same Time Both!

Its also been Thought by some, that some Distant Killer Asteroid, May just Happen to Have Struck Here!, -Setting Off or Accelerateing this Process! If so, -What a Place to Have Hit!

Even Without a Possible Asteroid Impact, The Other Two Coincident Factors, would be Enuff, to Bring Nearly 40,000 Square Miles of Mid-Oceanic Icelandic Land Mass, About! And it so Has.

Half of Iceland is also on the European Side of the Mid-Atlantic Rift, while the Other, Western Half, is on the North American Side. Where Iceland specifically Sits, upon such Undersea Rift, This Icelandic Rift Runs generally NE to SW, within the Middle of the Island Country. Iceland's literally being Ripped, Rifted, and Stretched, Along this Seam! New Volcanic Land, Continually Fills the Void, though! It's Not being Split into Two Islands as such. This is How Iceland Grows! This is How Iceland's Gotten as Big as it's Got!

Being as Volcanic as They Come!

And Being in the Arctic North Atlantic as She Is!

This is How this Icelandic Wild Place, is the Land of Fire and Ice!

It's Often been said, that both Iceland and Greenland have been Misnamed! And They Have! Like the Proverbial Blind Man Describing an Entire Elephant, by *Only* the One Tiny Spot he has Touched!, -Ice and Green Land's Too been Mis-Touched and Misnamed! Much of the Greenlandic Coast is Rock and Mountains, though it Turns to Towering Ice Not All that Far Inland! Some Parts of that Southern Coast even have Greenery! This is the "Greenlandic Elephant's Eye"!, that the Viking who Named it, -Saw and Touched. And Thus it's Description and Name. And Likewise Iceland Too!, Had First been Touched in a Quite Atypical, Unrepresentative, Spot. In a Far Northwestern Fiord, which Uncharacteristically Ices Up! The Gulf Stream Doesn't Reach there. The Viking who First Named Iceland, -Saw Only That! And Thus his Misnomer! Greenland is the One that shud Really be called Iceland! And Iceland is the One that shud Really be called Greenland! Though Much of the Icelandic Landscape, is Bare Brown or Otherwise Dark, Volcanic Ground. But She has More than a Little Green as well! But What has Happened Happened, and now we are Stuck with this Misnomered Convention! So Long as we now Really Know Whats What! Thats the Important Thing.

And Iceland Too, has a Few Sizeable Icecaps! Making Up perhaps 10 % of the Country, especially in it's Southeast! It's Not All entirely Ice Free! They get Thousands of Feet Thick too!

Just to Iceland's North, is the Frigid Arctic Ocean Ice Pack, and Floes! As well as Much of the Eastern Greenlandic Coastal Waters. The Ancient Greek Voyage of Pythias and Crew, Came Up Here, Reporting Such to a Tee! In What they came to Know as Ultima Thule!

So Iceland is an Almost Unique combination of Fire and Ice!, in our World. A Few Other small locales also Share something of This. Norway's Arctic Volcanic Island of Jan Mayen, a Good Ways Northeast of Iceland, and the McMurdo / Mt. Erebus Area of Antarctica, being Two of the Few. They're Small and Local. While Iceland is as Big as one of our Typical States.

It's also such a Perfectly Clear, Clean, Great Outdoors Locale! -Land, Sea, and Air! Though European, It's Set Well Apart from Europe and All of it's Development and Buildup, (And America's too, for that Matter.), in It's Great Isolated, Wild, Free, and Natural !, of a Mid-Atlantic Location. Little to No Pollutants to speak of are Generated here.

I Like and Love Iceland and it's Unique, Wild, Untouched, Volcanic Outdoors so! It is One of my More Favorite Areas of the World, Wild or Otherwise!

Most of What Small Population as Does exist, is Peppered Every Here and There around the Coast. More like Sprinkled! Far Far Fewer, in the Inland Interior! Like Hardly Anybody. Though you may See Icelanders Touring their Own Country there. Much of the Interior is Uninhabited, and Uninhabitable!

This Area Isn't so Uninhabited for No Reason! It's Ruff there!, for Life and Survival! And Not Only from the Cold or Oft Times Lack of Vegetation. Nor the Huge Glaciers which Overlie Part of it. Or Quakes or Volcanic Activity. It's also in the Often Bare, Rocky Ground! It's also in some of that, being Talus or Other sorts of Loose Scree. Footing's of course Bad to Non-Existant on such Spots! There's of course the Capricious to Bad Weather too!

But a Part of this may also be Due to, Settler's Natural Tendancy to Settle on the More Life Conducive Coasts. Or perhaps Up River, to some Extent.

For That is Where the Fish Are!, to say the Least. Iceland is such a Fishing Country and Culture! It's Surrounding Waters are one of the World's Great Fishing Grounds! Iceland is to Fish and Fishing!, as Coffee and Carnival are to Brasil!

Geysers and Geothermal Hot Springs Abound! Icelanders have Very Shrewdly and Skillfully Tapped into this!, for Very Much of their Water and Home Heating Needs!

Occassionally, Entirely New Volcanic Islands Spring from it's Nearby Sea! The Latest in Ages of Volcanic Additions, to the Icelandic Landmass as a Whole! Surtsey Sprang Forth in 1963. As Did Heimeay in 1973.

So How's It for Trying to Make It and Survive here?!

Ruff Enuf, but Far from Entirely or Prohibitively Too Bad!

You're on a Rather Sizeable Island, with both the Advantages and Disadvantages of Such.

You've got Few, but Friendly, Helpful, and Down to Earth People! Well Familiar with Iceland and Her Ways!

You've got Birdlife, Beachlife, and a Fish and Seafood Rich Waters and Coast! Fish Rich Rivers too!

Plenty of Fresh Water! At Least Much Food, Depending on where you're At.

Maybe a Satisfactory to Good Amount of Fire and Shelter Materials, Depending also on where you're At. But Precious Little of This will be in the Form of Trees, Shrubs, or Other typical Woody Plant Materials! Iceland's Not a Land of Forests! It is Sufficiently Above the Latitudinal "Treeline", to be Predominantly Timberless so! Trees and Forest only Exist in the Occassional Sheltered Pockets. And even Parts of That have been Cut Down, since the Vikings Arrived.

Shelter Materials will consist Largely of Soil, Rocks, Sod, Thatch, and Grass! Building Such at least partially Underground, would also Help.

Game Exists, but it's Smaller and I'd say Less Plentiful, than in say Canada.

Icelandic Survival would Sum Up to, a Combination of Cold / Arctic, Grassland, Sea and Coast, and Rocky Desert Survival. With some Mountain Elements, and of course Volcano, Earthquake, and Other Disaster Awareness, thrown in as well. Hunting, Fishing, and Trapping Skills and Equipment, would be a Great Addition too!

If in the North or Interior, Follow Southward, Eastward, or Westward Flowing Rivers, to the Coast. Beware of Rocks, Rapids, and Such, All Along. If in the North, you may also even Want to Head for it's Coast. It Beats being in the Interior! Strike Out for Iceland's Second Largest "City", -Akureyri, up here on the Northern Coast. (But Well Inleted.) Being a State Sized Island, you Don't have all that Terribly Far to go, to Get to a Coast. Some Parts of the Coast are More Hospitable / Inhospitable, than Others. If in a Less Hospitable one, Work your Way Up or Down, to a More Hospitable one. Most Ideally, You'd Want to Work your Way South or West, to the Reykjavik / Keflavik Area!

Iceland is a Progressive, First World, Developed Nation. As a Part of This, They Have Good Search and Rescue, Game Warden, and Etc. of Activities / Capability, in Place.

There is also I Believe, an at least Reasonably Good Island Ringing Road or "Highway". Make Good Use of that!, if you can.

Many of the Same Survival Techniques mentioned for Other Earth Wildest Places COLD, Apply here as well. As also mentioned though, Notable Icelandic Differences also Do exist.

Again, All in All, -It's Not an Alaska or Siberia! But it's Not the Cool Wet Washington, Oregon, or British Colombia Coast either! It Presents Quite an Across the Board Survival Challenge!

This is One of the World's Greatest Wild Places COLD and Arctic!, and This is How you're Gonna Have to very much Survive here! In Iceland's Fire and Ice! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]
_________________________
"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.

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#24168 - 02/28/04 08:44 AM Re: Erth's. Wldst. Plcs. / The Srvl. Aspects.-COLD
ScottRezaLogan Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 723
Loc: Pttsbg SWestern Pa USA N-Amer....
PATAGONIA And TIERRA DEL FUEGO - We've been up in the North Circumpolar Area for a while, Now Lets Return to the South.

The South American Continent, to which This Area Belongs, Does Stretch Far Enuf South, Far Enuf Toward Antarctica, To Be Well Out of the Tropics. A Good Part of it's Southern Reaches are at the Latitude and Climate of Northern Canada. (Though Not of Canada's Norternmost Queen Elizabeth Islands, -Just Think of Much of Continental Northern Canada, for such Climatic Comparisons.)

Patagonia is the Majority of Southern Argentina, and Much of Southern Chile.

It is Certainly Cold Enuf, to Qualify under "Earth's Wildest Places, -COLD.

There is Far Less Land, and Far More Ocean, in the Southern Hemisphere than in the North. And What Land there is, Usually Doesn't Stretch toward it's Southern Pole, as Land Masses Do in the Northern. The South American Continent though, is a Great and Noteable Exception.

True, Much More of It is the Amazon, the Orinoco, the Andes, the Pantanal, the Chaco, the Pampas, the Atacama, the Altiplano, the Guyanas, the Cerrado-Caatinga-Sertao, the Llanos, the Brazilian Grasslands of it's Center-West, the Selvas, the Mato Grosso, the Tepuis, and Chile's Great Central Valley. With the Exception of the Towering Andes, -Most of Those are Tropical or Subtropical. This is What South and Latin America is So Well Known for!

But a Cold Area!? Many would Not Readily Think so! But Sure Enuff It Does, in This Other Well Known Area of Patagonia and the Tierra Del Fuego. At least it's Names are Well Known, -if Not so much it's Cold Clime.

Also somewhat Unique for Cold Areas of the World, -This Area is Quite Tapered and Skinny, -what is known as the Southern Cone. The Further South toward the Antarctic you go, the Thinner Patagonia and Tierra Gets. It's Quite a Different Affair in the Cold Northern Regions, where These tend to be major Continental Land Masses. Similarly the Arctic and Antarctic Play these Reverse Roles. Everything seems to be Reversed in the Southern Hemisphere!, from Seasons to Weather System Soins to This!

This is Relevant to the Fact that Nowhere in the Cold South, is All that Far from Surrounding Oceans.

But the Mighty Andes Mountains, the Second Greatest Range on Earth!, Plays the Spoiler here! They Put Up a Great Rain Shadow Wall, Against the Moisture Laden, Pacific Prevailing Westerlies! With the Vast Part of Patagonia being East of this, it's as if it were Deep Inland! Patagonia is an Increasingly Cold, Dry Desert. (Though Not so Much as say the Sahara or Sonora.)

Isolated, Bare, Barren, Chilled, and Rocky, Few People Live here. It Truly is One of the World's Great Wild Places!

The much Thinner Chilean Side of the Southern Andes now, Chilean Patagonia, is in Contrast very Wet, Windy, and Rainy! But Cold as well! Much of it's Well Forested!, some of the Most Untouched, Unspoilt, and Spandiferous on the Planet! But even This Increasingly Thins and Bleakens the Further South you Go!

Quit Thinking of the South as Warm!, if you Are. Think of It as we Do our Cool to Cold North! For Down Here, -Thats Exactly What it Is! Again, So Much is Reversed, Down There!

Finally, Both Chilean and Argentine Patagonia Merge in their Southernmost Reaches, -of Tierra del Fuego. This is also the Coldest, and Bleakest Area, once again. This is the Land of the Fabled Cape Horn, the Southernmost, Storm Tossed Tip of the South American Continent! It's the Land of Both Magellan's and Darwin's Famous Voyages.

It's the Gateway to Antarctica!, Across the Drake Passage. Some 600 - 800 Miles from Antarctica Itself! Though Thats admittedy with a Great, North Reaching Peninsular Extension of Antarctica, -The Palmer Peninsula. You'd have to again Go another 700 Miles or so, Before you're Really at the Main Antarctic Landmass and Icesheet. But Still even the Tip of the Palmer, is at the "Latiquivalent" of Central Alaska! And Tierra / Cape Horn is about 55 Degrees South, the Latiquivalent of Central Ungava / Quebec, or Central British Colombia and Prairie Provinces. From Tierra Locales like Ushuaia and Puntas Arenas, Argentina and Chile Meets the Antarctic.

Tierra Del Fuego is a Part of Greater Patagonia, but With Additional Character All it's Own. As Long Island is a Part of New York State, but also Different Enuf to have Much Flavor and Character All it's Own! Considerably Different in Ways, yet Not so Totally Separate or Apart. They are Their Own Identities, but They are also Both Patagonia.

Tierra del Fuego is the Size of one of our Typical Eastern States, say Indiana or West Virginia. While Patagonia as a Whole, might be at about the Size and Area of Alaska.

These More Southern Andes technically are also a Part of Patagonia, but are Better Viewed as being a Part of the Andes as a Whole. They Peter Out to Much Lower Heights in the Tierra Area. Making One Last Showing, in the Spectacular Cliff Heights of Cape Horn!

Actually, a Small and Obscure Group of Non-Descript, Rocky Islands, is a Little Further South than the Horn. The Islas Diego Ramirezes. This is the True and Technical, Southernmost Reach of the Continent, -Indeed of All the Americas. But By and Large, the Horn Justifiably is It!

Talk About the Constantly Worst Sea and Weather Conditions on the Planet, or Something rather Close to It!, -These Waters are It! Rounding the Horn, can Pretty Well be Called the Supreme Test of Seamanship! It Follows that Conditions Onshore in Tierra, Can't Be Much Better!

Fortunately there are some *Comparatively* Calmer Water Passages Cutting Across Tierra del Fuego, such as the Beagle Channel and Strait of Magellan, which Makes it at least somewhat Better Sailing.

"Tierra del Fuego", as many know, Means "Land of Fire" From Magellan's sighting of Many Indian Campfires on the Nearby Shore, Ruffing it in this Bleak Land of Their's, which they Knew so Intimately Well.

I Don't Know just What, Patagonia may Mean.

Just as well, for the Most Important thing to Know, is just What Patagonia and the Tierra is!

A Ruff, Sparsely Isolated, Windswept, Cold, Predominantly Dry Land! With Pretty Much only One Difference in it's West, and Southern Tierra. And thats Wet and Rain! And it is Mostly Plains and Plateau, as well. It's Less Prevalent Andes Mountains, are what Makes it So Dry! A Cold, Empty, Arid Region!

However, Good Freshwater Streams from the Andes, Flow Eastward over It. From the Andes to the Atlantic, Not Often all that Far Away, Down Here in this Tapering Cone. But it Does Provide Freshwater, Fish, and Irrigation!

Glaciers too!, Exist in the More Southern Reaches of the Chilean and Argentine Andes! Some Reaching the Sea, to Calve Off Icebergs! At Least one of these, is among the World's Few Presently *Advancing* Glaciers.

This is Bleak, Cool-Cold Ruff Land!, Down Here! This Isn't any sort of a French or Italian Riviera!

English and Other Non-Spanish Place Names become More Common, the Further South you go. After the Many Explorers and Others, who've Pioneered this Area so. But Don't Take that as an Excuse Not to Learn at least a Few Good Words of Spanish, if you're ever Down There!

I Like, Value, and Enjoy Patagonia and the Tierra So! Better Yet, I More Love It! It Holds it's Head and Shoulder's Well!, -Among the World's Great Wild Places!

But How's It for Making It!, and for Survival, Down There?! Whether One Likes It or No!, Whether There by Choice or Circumstance, -How's One to Best Tide Thru and Survive?! As Well as Best Make It Out?!

Well, for Starters, It Revolves Around Cold, Arid and Desert, and in some Areas, Mountain Survival. It also would Much Involve a type of Grasslands Survival. With Ocean and Beach / Shore / Island / or Coast significantly Thrown In as well. Some Others may Make their Contribution. But Forest and Jungle Survival would Not be among them. Except on the Atypical Chilean Southwest Coast, Patagonia Vastly and Virtually has No Trees! Forest and Woodland Survival is Not an Option here. Not thruout Most of the Patagonia-Tierra Area anyway!

So if you shud Find Yourself Down There, What would be your Best Options for Survival?

First Off, the Further South you are, the Less Distance you'd have to Travel to get to the Ocean. And that Ocean would Preferably be the Atlantic. So as Not to Have to Cross the Towering Andes.

Even in the Patagonian North, (and Thus it's Widest Part), you Don't have Terribly Far to Go. Distances are Not Continental Down here. Except for the North-South Patagonian Distance, which would be Semi-Continental. Which could be 1000 Plus Miles. East-West Distances in it's Widest Northern Part, are typically 500 Miles or so.( Now it's Very Widest Area in the North, a rather Thin upper Strip, may Go to 800 Miles or so.)

No Use Crossing the Andes to it's West!, Unless you're Already in the Andes, or over there on it's Western Side If Not Too Far to their East.

You might in some Circumstances Judge it Better to Strike Westward, to the Pacific Coast. But Even Here just East of the Andes, You'd Usually Want to Go East, to the Atlantic. That would be the Much Better, All Round Thing to Do! No Great Mountain Barrier! There are Plains and Plateau, Albeit a Desert Like one. Distances a Little Longer, but Still Not Continental.

And there are a Good Number of River Pathways, Giving you a Clear One Eastward! They Usually Go Pretty "Straight Shot East"!, Not Heavily Meandering to do so!, like you'd Find in Many Parts of the World. They're also a Great Direction Indicator. And They're a Rich Source of Fresh Water and Food! Rich for the Patagonia, and Rich for you.

Ideally, Raft, Boat, or Otherwise Float Down somehow. But Beware of Rocks, Shallows, or Rapids, though.

You can at least Follow them down from Ashore, in such areas, or even for their Total Distance. Even Doing that for the Total Distance, is Better than having No River Guiderail, or Food, Fish, and Water Source, at All!

Plus you're More Likely to Run Into an Isolated Outpost or Settlement, here in the Quite Empty Patagonia.

But "Go East!, Young Man!", to the Atlantic!

Even if Caught Well Between such Eastward Flowing River Areas, the Sun shud provide a Ready Eastward Beacon and Reference Point. Though Skies are Often Cloudy, even here in Rain Shadowed Patagonia. But one can often get a Perfectly Good Idea on where the Sun is, even on many a Cloudy Day!

Though Both Patagonian Coasts are Quite Isolated and Seldom Visited, you Stand a Better Chance of Hailing Passing Seacraft, or Aircraft, in the Atlantic East, over the Andean or Pacific West!

True, the East is Much Drier, and the West is Quite Wet! But Especially given Patagonia's many enuf Eastward Flowing Rivers, -This shud be No Insuperable Disadvantage or Problem.

Go East in this Survival Situation! It is the Far, Far, Better Thing to Do!

And once on Patagonia's Eastern Coast, then Start Following that Coast, Striking Northward. Towards the Argentine Pampas, if Need Be. The Pampas are a Great Pasture and Grain Area as well! This of course Bodes Well, for Survival Situations. When you Get There, You are in the Orbit of Big Buenos Aires! Which in this Situation Equals Extrication, Civilization, and Rescue!

On your Way, You Won't be Able to Avail yourself of Trees and Conventional Firewood, once again. Nor such Plant Shelter Materials. Unless you're in that Small, Cut Off Area of Patagonia, in the Chilean West.

You're gonna Have to do Grasslands / Desert type Survival, and Rock / Turf / and Earth type of Shelter Building. Grass and Grasslands types of Firebuilding too! Though along Riverbanks, you may well find a Good Supply of More Conventional Wood. Perhaps Some anyway!

There is some Patagonian Game, which you can Hunt and Trap. Bird's Eggs may be a Reasonably Available Good Find. This is the Land of the Rhea!, or South American Ostritch. Or Nandu ( N(y)andu ), as you may hear the Natives call it.

Once you Do Reach the Atlantic Shore, (or Pacific for that Matter.), -You're Within a Much Richer Food Source Area! As regards both Sea and Land! The Air too, as Far as Birds are concerned. Much of this will be Seabirds. Gulls, Skuas, Petrels, -You Name it! Seals, Fish, and Other Sea Life Abounds! Whales are Off the Coast. The Normal Inland Patagonian Wildlife would Abound here as well. Deer, Llamas and Llama Like Animals, Puma, Fox, Rodents, Chinchilla-Vizcacha, the Rhea-Nandu, even a Few Marsupials. Among Other Animal Life. Here along the Patagonian Coasts, -You can Tap Into this! East of the Andean Slopes, This is your Best Food Source. Followed by that on and along the Eastward Flowing Rivers. Followed by what you could Find on the Eastern Slopes of the Andes. Followed more Meagerly, -but Not Neccessarily Sparsely, by What you'd Find Amidst the Great Patagonian Dry Plains Itself.

There may be some Food Sources Differences in Tierra and Southwest Chile. But it Shud be Similarly Rich, perhaps even Richer!

There we Have it, for the Basic Patagonian Food, Fire-Warmth, Water, and Shelter considerations.

Navigation and Direction Finding, would be Very Important in this Very Flat, Open, Sprawling Area too! It's Expanses will often be Landmark Poor.

Now as to the Patagonian Andes Themself, -Another comparatively Small Area within, This would entail All within the World of Mountaineering and Mountain Survival. See the Earth's Wildest Places Post on the Andes, to Come, for that.

This is South America's Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego! This is Survival in, and Extrication From, Patagonia and the Tierra Del Fuego! A Fine Outdoors Place to be!, but it's Leaner on Survival Provisions than Many! Still it is Far from the Worst! If ever Caught, or Otherwise Finding yourself in Pat or the Tierra, -This is What you'd be Faceing! These are the Things you Must Do!

I went Further on the Length than I'd like to. I'll Continue to Try to Keep it Down. I Have been sometimes Able to Do that, within this Thread, which gives me Cause for Hope there. Regrets and All Due Apologies once again. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]


Edited by ScottRezaLogan (02/28/04 06:32 PM)
_________________________
"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.

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#24169 - 02/29/04 06:35 AM Re: Erth's. Wldst. Plcs. / The Srvl. Aspects.-COLD
ScottRezaLogan Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 723
Loc: Pttsbg SWestern Pa USA N-Amer....
SOUTH GEORGIA And SIMILAR ISLANDS - This Sizeable, Cold, Bleak, Windswept, Isolated, Mountainous and Glacier Clad, South Atlantic Island, -is the Centerpiece of a Horseshoe Shaped Island String. This Stretches from South America's Southern Tip at Tierra Del Fuego, Clear Across to the Mid-Atlantic, Before Doubling Back to Antarctica's Palmer Peninsula, by way of the South Sandwich and South Orkney Islands. The South Shetland Islands Wrap this up, Closest to Antarctica's Palmer. The Falklands or Malvinas begin this Island Chain, Much Closer to South America and Argentina. It shall be Discussed after This One, in a Post of it's Own.

Due to the Horseshoe type Curving Back of this Chain, -Each End, -The Falklands and South Shetlands, -are Actually Closer to Each Other, than either is to South Georgia, the Chain's Central Anchor Point. Let Alone the South Sandwich ones, the Most Distant of All from Any in the Chain.

Well Further Across much of the Southern Atlantic, is Norway's Bouvet Island. It is Too Far East, however, to be considered a Part of this Same Geological Formation and Chain. It has the Same Utterly Rotten Sea Conditions and Weather!, and is probably just as Ruff, Rugged, and Rocky! It will be Discussed Later, under ISOLATED WORLD ISLANDS.

It's East Enuf to be Quite Close to the Greenwich Meridian. Whereas the Easternmost South Sandwiches, are a Good Thousand Miles further West than Bouvet. Still, the South Sandwiches *are* Quite Near the Mid-Atlantic. South Georgia and Other Scotia Islands may Not be in the Mid-Atlantic, but They're Still a Good Quarter of the Way Across, nevertheless.

These Islands are all within about 52 -63 Degrees South Latitude. The Roaring 40's and the Angry South Atlantic! The Antarctic Circumpolar Ocean! This is Pretty Far South and Cold! Just Picture once again 52 - 63 Degrees North, To Get the Spirit, Flavor, and Idea! The Weather and Climate here is as Bad as I said for Cape Horn, or Worse! (See Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego.)

These also Qualify to be Covered under "Earth's Wildest Places, / The Survival Aspects.-ISOLATED WORLD ISLANDS". But also Being COLD Such as they are, They will be Covered here. Some Other Isolated World Islands are Down At or Near these Latitudes, be it North Polar or South Polar. But All of these, with the Exception of Norway's Far North Atlantic Volcanic Island of Jan Mayen, (and Ones such as the Arctic Siberian Islands already Discussed.), will All be Addressed under EWP, Svl. Aspects, ISOLATED WORLD ISLANDS. That will Come sometime Later.

All of these Islands in the South Georgia String, also Called the Scotia Islands and Sea, -All are Typically Small, Windy, Cold, Rainy, Foggy, Rocky, Sea Swept by some Pretty Ruff Ones!, and Isolated. Some can be Pretty Big for "Small" Islands, though! Looking at my Globe, the Falklands are perhaps 100 Miles Across, South Georgia is maybe 70, and Coronation island is maybe 20 or 30.

They have been Formed by Long Ago Volcanism, though they are Not Neccessarily Volcanic now.

We'll from this point on Discuss primarily South Georgia, the Chain's Frigid, Forbidding, Jewel and Centerpiece!

Virtually Anything Discussed as Characterizing South Georgia, is Equally Applicable to All Else Down Here! (Except some of the Other Islands may Not have Glaciers.) So we'll let South Georgia do a sort of Double Duty here. Beyond whats already been said relating to them, We would have to Skip over these Less Important, More Minor Islands, anyway.

So How is South Georgia?

It is a Longish, Slightly Curving, (With the "Grain of the Chain"), Ovalish yet somewhat Rectangular, Ruggedly Mountained, Bare, Snow Capped and Glaciered, Windswept and Sea Lashed, Bleak, Ruff, Rugged, and Rocky!, 70 or so Mile Long Island! In the Deep, Cold, Southern Ocean! It might be Lucky to be 20 or 30 Miles Thick. at it's Thickest!

What Columbus said of Dominica's Mountainousness to his King and Queen, -Can be said just as Much!, of South Georgia! Columbus Didn't have to say a Word to Make his Point, -All he Had to do, was Crumple up a Piece of Paper Before his King, which he Did. That is as Much the Story of South Georgia's Mountainousness!, as it is of Dominica's!

Hardly Anyone Lives there! This is of course Due to it's Atrocious Conditions and it's Smallness. But even if that were Not so!, It's Isolation, Obscurity, and Remoteness, would be Enuf to Make it, Virtually Uninhabited So!

It's Cold as it is! Plus this High Altitude, Ruff and Rocky Place, Does get a Winter!

This is the Famous Life-Saving, Make It or Break It!, -Destination of Shackleton! As he and some Select Men set out on Not the Best of Boats in Any Sea Conditions, Let Alone These!, of the South Atlantic Drake Passage! Toward South Georgia! They so Set Out for South Georgia, Without the Best of Navigation Equipment or Observing Conditions! It Came Down to Knowledge, Determination, Discipline-Both Self and Group, Tenacious Endurance, and Sea Sense and Real Top Notch Seamanship! And They Finally Made It! Thru Ruff Seas and Weather, Utter Hardships and All, -They Finally Made It!

But to the Wrong Side or Coast!, of South Georgia! -It's Southern Underside. But this could Not be Helped, in that They were *Coming* from it's Southern Underside! They Knew that Very Well.

As if their Hardships that they've Already been Thru were'nt Enuff!, They now Knew they had Miles of Icy, Rough, Over-Mountain and Overland Travel Ahead of Them!, Before they could Come Out at What Made For Humanity and Civilization Down here! This was the Tiny Whaling Station at Gritivkyn, on the North Side of the Island. They Used only the Barest and Sketchiest of Maps, if even That! An "Educated Gauging of It", as They had Done earlier, Out on the Sea!

But They Made It so!, into Lonely Gritivkyn! Word was Finally Relayed, of the Entire Group's Status and Plight. A Far More Standard Rescue was Soon Enuff Made, to a Large Part of his Men, Still Left Behind, as in the Circumstances They had to be, on Elephant Island. This Island is Far Closer to the Antarctic, one of the South Shetlands. A Part of this Entire South Georgia / Scotia Island String.

As an Isolated World Island, and Great Outdoors Wilderness Location, I Like, Love, Respect, and Regard South Georgia so!

As a Hiking and Survival Locale, I Respect It so! More than Anything Else. It's a Real Bear!, as Shackleton's Crew only All Too Well Knew and Experienced!

It's Coldness, It's Roughness, It's Atrocious Winds and Weather, It's Exposure, It's Rain, It's Mountains and Glaciers, It's Lack of Trees, It's Lonely Isolation, It's Many Ever Present Perils and Dangers!

This is South Georgia!

This is Survival in South Georgia!

But it's a Very Crisp, Clean, Great Outdoors Location All the Same! It Truly Takes it's Place!, in the Ranking of the World's Great Wild Places!

Be That as it May!, or rather Is. If Down Here, -You are Going to Have To somehow Survive! Survive and Make It Out! -In These Quite Non-Survival Conducive of Conditions! There may be a Little More of Man's Prescence there than in Shackleton's Day, -but Not Much! It's Still so Very Much the Same Old South Georgia Survival Challenge!, as Ever! It's just a Fact, that if Down There, -You *Will* Have to Face the Same sort of Survival Challenges and Conditions, as Shackleton and his Crew Faced! South Georgia makes No Differientiating Distinction, between either You or They! It may be Quite Ruff and Hostile, but it's Nothing Personal. It's just Nature and the Outdoors being Nature and the Outdoors! It Feels that we are on It's Turf, and at It's Pleasure!, -Not Vice Versa! Its so Thruout the Entire World of the Great Outdoors!, and South Georgia is No Exception!

So How's Specific Survival Down Here?!

What Will you Face? How Will you Hold Tight and Over? What Will you Do?, and Just as Importantly, Not Do? How Do you Plan on Getting Out? Of Reaching your Own sort of a Gritivkyn. (Which just as "Easily" could be Gritivkyn Itself.)

South Georgia would Involve, Cold Survival,Mountaineering and Mountain Survival, Sea and Coast Survival, Glacier Survival and Savvy, and to some Substantial Extent, a Kind of "Grasslands Survival".

It would Not Usually, if Ever, Involve Forest or Woodland Survival! South Georgia is Another Cold Area of the World, Where you Cannot Readily Avail Yourself of This! But there *May* be *Some* Trees and Forest in *Some* Areas, -I'm Not Sure on That! Count on Grasses and Such, and Rocks and their Like, for your Fire-Fuel and Shelter Needs! What Plants there are, are your Non-Woody ones. You're Not going to Find even these Grasses and the Like, in so Much of South Georgia's Bare, Snow and Ice Covered, Mountains!

Tussock Grasses and Such. They are Highly Nutritious!, at least for Animals. And All Grasses Do happen to be Edible. And there are an Awful Lot of Grasses on this Planet! I Don't know for Sure whether Tussock Grass is an Actual Grass.

(All Birds too are Edible, at least until I heard about the Discovery of a Very Poisonous One in New Guinea, over the Past 15 years or so! I Believe this Bird is Partly Orange, and may also have some Black. I am Not Entirely Sure about these Colors, though.)

You're Obviously gonna Have to Do a Lot of Cold Protection and Preparation!

Altitude can Become somewhat of a Factor, though Not Everests, the Mountains Do get Pretty Darned High!, -Nevertheless!

Glaciers Abound!, Complete with their Crevices and Other Pitfall Dangers.

Avalanches too, should certainly be Possible.

You'd Want Wind and Rain Protection! Especially the Cold Rain Protection! ,-No Diminishment whatever to the Imperatives of Wind Protection as well! As in Any Cold and Wet Climate, -You're gonna Want to Keep Warm and *Dry*!

Fresh Water shud be at least reasonably Accessable! Even if you have to Melt Snow and Ice, to Get at it!

South Georgia may have some Streams. One would Think that such a Wet, Mountainous, Snow and Ice Clad, Sizeable Island as This, Ought to! But the Island may Not have what one might consider Major Rivers. Even if it Does Possess some, They would have to be Short, on such a Smallish Island.

The Island is Small compared to more Usual Land Areas. But Large!, for one of the World's Typically Small, Isolated World Islands! If One Wants to Consider a Vermont or New Hampshire Sized Island (Perhaps), to be Small, then So Be it. But it so Much Comes Down to What you're Comparing it To! New Hampshire and Vermont *are* Two of our Smallest States. But That's an Awful Lot of Ground to be Tramping Around in! If Anyone Owned that Much Property, They'd be a Land Baron or Something! So South Georgia is at Once either Small or Large, Depending on How you're Looking at It! If you've Got to Survive Here!, and also Hike your Way Out!, -You're gonna be Viewing It as Rather Large!

Food may be Very Iffy to Non-Existant!, in the Interior.

But it can be Quite Abundant and Rich!, -Along the Coast! All the More Imperative Reason, to Strike and Head For, that Coast! Others of course would be to Gain a Gritivkyn type Rescue, and to Get the Heck Out of the Glaciers and Mountains! You may well Find Rich Sea, Bird, and Shore Life!, Along the Coasts! Seals and Whales shud be a Part of Such. Though you're Not likely to have Ready Access to Whales. But Seals Do Come up onto Rocky Beaches! Where They can be Available as a Good, On Hand, Food Source. Head for the Coasts for This and All Other Reasons to Go There! Avail Youself of This Greater Coastal Bounty!

You might Not have all that Far to Go to Get to a Coast, -But you Do Have an Awful Lot of Mountain and Glacier Hurdles to First Get Across!, in Order to Do so! So if it could be Rated on an Index, -This might be the Equivalent of at least Hundreds or More Miles, of a Ruff, Flat Surface, Wintertime, Canadian Hike!

As Atrociously Bad as the North Coast Sea and Weather Conditions typically Are!, This Northern Coast is probably the Better of the Two! The Southern One, in the Direct Face of Antarctic Blasts, is Most Probably Worse! Try for a Coast!, -But Try for the North Coast, as Oppossed to the South Coast. Some Coastal Areas may be More Advantageous than Others, as Far as Food Sources Go. Here I Do Not Know of specifically Which. The North is Still the All Round Far Better One to Strike Towards! Here you also Face the Civilized and Developed World to the North, whereas on the South Coast, You Only Face Bleak and Empty Antarctica! There is an East and West Coast too, but these are Minor "Ends" of the Island.

Pick and Work your Way Out of those Glaciers, Cliffs, and Mountains! Surviving as you Do! Work your Way to a South Georgian Coast!, again preferably it's Northern.

Occassional Shipping Does come in to Gritivkyn. There may even be Occassional Air Traffic, if there's an Airport. On such a Large and Important Island as This, There probably is an Airfield. Passing or Visiting Ships and Aircraft, -Signal for Them!, andor Wait for Them!

There may also be a Science or Nature Station or Two on the Island. Or a British Defense Installation or Two. Stike and Head for Them!

And as a Last but Not Least!, Things like Good Maps, Compass, and GPS and the Like, would Sure come in Very Important and Handy!

This is South Georgia with it's Fellow South Sandwich and Scotia Islands! And These are some of your Topmost South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Survival Characteristics and Imperatives! You're in for a Ruff, Exposed, Wet, Windy, Cold, Highly Deprived, Mountaineering Stay!, -Shud you ever for any Reason Find Yourself Having to Survive Down There! South Georgia may Not be among the Very Coldest of the World's Coldest Wild Places, but it's Very Ruff and Cold Enuf! South Georgia is Nothing to Pooh Pooh over or Sneeze At! Just Ask Shackleton or Any of His Crew!

Tried again on the Length Front and Didn't Pull Thru on this one. Regrets and Apology. Will Cotinue to so Try. I Did Do it Before, and I Think I Can and Will Do It Again. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]


Edited by ScottRezaLogan (02/29/04 06:41 PM)
_________________________
"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.

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#24170 - 02/29/04 08:59 PM Re: Erth's. Wldst. Plcs. / The Srvl. Aspects.-COLD
ScottRezaLogan Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 723
Loc: Pttsbg SWestern Pa USA N-Amer....
The FALKLANDS / MALVINAS - Though a Part of the Great South Georgia / South Sandwich / South Scotia Islands Chain, -The Falkand Islands or Malvinas also Sufficiently Stand Off Apart from It, in it's Own Right.

Like South Georgia, It is Stand Out Large in the Chain! In Fact, a Good Deal even Larger than South Georgia!

It's also Very Near Argentina, Tierra Del Fuego, and South America, Unlike the Others. (If you can Call being some Three or Four Hundred Miles Off as Quite Near! But Relative to the Rest of the Chain, -It Is!)

It also has a Long Established British Settler Prescence.

And the Whole Matter of British and Argentine Counterclaims to the Twin Island. And the Falklands War which had Resulted. Though Places such as South Georgia, also Played a Minor Supporting Role, and Acted as a Side Front, in that War. But Vastly and Virtually, the Falklands Stands Apart and Alone, in This Regard as well!

The Falklands or Malvinas Themselves are Two Main, Large, Rocky Plateau type Islands, of about the Same Size and Shape, Facing Each Other across a relatively Narrow, Split Down the Middle, of a Channel. Many Other Smaller Islands and Rocks Accompany it so.

It has a Quite Cool to Cold Climate too. But it is Not as Bad as South Georgia and the Other South Sandwiches. The Falklands has More of a Scottish type Climate than They. However, the Falklands or Malvinas is Right Next to Southernmost Patagonia! And it's Only a Little Ways North of Tierra Del Fuego and the Horn! So it Gets More than a Little, of the Same Bad Seas and Weather! The Falklands or Malvinas are at a somewhat More Northerly Latitude than South Georgia. And Certainly over any Others among the South Sandwiches or Scotias! This Accounts for it's somewhat Warmer and More Hospitable Clime!

Now as to Why I also Call them the Malvinas. This goes back to the British Calling them the Falklands, and the Argentines Liking to Call them as the Malvinas. Very British and Argentine Spanish Sounding Names!, I'll Add. It's Easy to Call Them as One or the Other, if you Personally Lean or Stand, Behind One or the Other! But When you See Areas of Merit and Possibility to Both Claims, It's Not so Easy. And so I Do Fairly Make Mention of Both. I Give a Little More Weight to "Falklands", since that is the Conventionally Understood Name. And the Brits will Feel that if they Have Rights to the Territory, then they also Have Right to the Name.

But Beyond Fairness and Consideations to Both Sides Angles, -I Personally just Happen to Like, Love, and Prefer the Name "Malvinas" Anyway! While at the Same Time, Not Particularly or Personally Liking or Careing For!, the Name "Falklands" (With All Due Respect, -because I can See How in Itself, -It is a Fine Name! As is Also "Malvinas"!)

As to the Pro and Positive Aspects of the Argentine Feeling and Claim, -It Shud be the Malvinas!

But Just as Much to the Pro and Positive Aspects of the British Feeling and Claim, -It Shud be the Falklands!

Briefly, Without Getting into the All Round Controversial and Political Issues, the Argentines have a Natural Proximity on their Side, While the British have a Long Established Settlage. The Climate is Far More British and Scottish, than Warmer Argentine or Latin American. Also, the British have essentially Developed the Place, to the Extent that it's been Developed, -Whereas it's Always been a Forgotten Backwater to the Argentines, even back when they earlier had any Chance.

Argentina Feels that by Rights, this very Proximate Land is Their's. And I'm Personally Inclined to Very Much Agree. It's Obviously Much Closer to Argentina, and Well within it's Normal and Natural Sphere of Influence. In at least This Way, It shud only Naturally Belong to Argentina.

But I Understand and Respect the British Points and Feelings too. I Understand How They'd Feel, if we had Gone In and Annexed their Bahamas Possession, (Before it's Independence.), which is Proximate to us. In a Similar Falklands / Malvinas Situation.

A Good Compromise Solution, might be to Divide Up the Islands Between them Both. East Falkland goes to the British, West Falkland to the Argentines. With Each getting all appropriate Accompanying Islands. They are, After All, Mirror Images of Each Other in Nearly All Respects!, It's Not like One would be Getting More than the Other!

But Until This or any Other Settlement may Possibly someday Come Along, the Falkland Islands are British.

Thats That on That.

Now as to Survival Down Here! It's something of a Ruff Scrabble type of Scottish Sheepherder and Fisherman, type of Survival and Living Down Here! Everything so far said concerning South Georgia and Co.,-Largely Applies Here as Well ! Minus the Glaciers. Minus the Mega Mountains. Minus Some, but Only Some!, of the Roughness!

Few People Live here! Even the British Population is Not that Great! There is Far, Far More Sheep and Other Livestock here, than People. That can be a Boon and Have it's Food Value, in a Survival Situation! Thats Another Difference with South Georgia!, Wild, Empty, Mega Mountainous South Georgia, Doesn't have Sheep Grazing and Raising! So Far as I know, anyway.

Work your Way to one of it's Many Inlets, or elsewhere on it's Coast! You Have even More Food Sources Available to you here! Many such Coastal Locations will be Ruff and Rocky. But it's as a Plateau Mergeing into the Sea, -Not as Mountains Crowding Right onto the Beach, as you might often have in South Georgia!

It's Cool to Cold Survival again! It's Sea and Coast Survival. It's "Grasslands" Survival!, certainly of the Thatch, Turf, and Sod type! You Can't Avail yourself of Forests or Firewood here! You Don't Really have any Mountains to Speak of. So Mountain Survival to a Good Measure, Does Not Apply.

Food and Water are Much as on South Georgia, and here again, your Focus and Aim would be More the Coast! Except that here on the Falklands or Malvinas, You have Much Better Inland Food Sources and Survival Resources / Capability, as well! You can also get to Coaxing Along a Garden, and May be Able to Make the Land your Primary Food Source, over the Coast.

Shelter would Have to be of the Ground / Rocks / and Sod House type!

Fires and Stoves would Have to be of such Grassland Materials and Types, as well!

In the Falklands, however, it shud be a Fairly Quick and Easy Matter, to Come Upon Settlers or British Personnel and Authorities. As such, It's Not Really a Survival Situation, or if so, Wouldn't be so for Long! Though a Quite Wild and Frontiersy Place, the Falklands are Settled, though with Few. Unlike so Many of the Other World's Wild Places as we've Talked On, or Will Come to Yet Meet! These are the Falklands / Malvinas Survival Imperatives. But you probably Won't be Needing them!, -Not for Long Anyway! It would be for a Lot Longer, however, -if you Wanted to "Survive as a Settler", Down There!

Finally, a Very Important Falklands Survival "Last but Not Least"! And that is the Matter of Minefields! Going Back to that Falklands War mentioned earlier. The Argentines had Sowed it with Thousands upon Thousands! Maps are Inaccurate or Missing!, if They've even been Made at All! The Argentines had Made the First Land Grab Move in that Conflict. They had Time to Sit and Wait, Before the Distant Brits were even Able to Get There. They Prepared the Meadows and Moorlands Well with Minefields! I'm Sure the British have Located and Cleared Many by now. But Chances are Good that Many yet Remain! Minefields have a Notorious Way of Being Like That! So Beware and Be Aware of Mines and Minefields!, if ever Down in the Falklands, for any reason!

See!, Truly Wild and Untouched Areas of the World *Aren't* Mined! *Some* of Man's Touched Areas Are! The Falklands / Malvinas is Such a One! Be Aware and Beware!

This is It now, for the Falklands / Malvinas. Now it's Time to Go Back North! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]
_________________________
"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.

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#24171 - 03/01/04 08:18 PM Re: Erth's. Wldst. Plcs. / The Srvl. Aspects.-COLD
ScottRezaLogan Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 723
Loc: Pttsbg SWestern Pa USA N-Amer....
THE WILDS OF MAINE - We now Fly Back North Across the Equator and the Atlantic, to the Great Outdoor Wilds of Maine! This is quite a Great, Wild, Empty, Crisp, Clean, Clear, Outdoors Wild Area that I Like & Love a Lot! Our Plane Touches Down in a Place like Portland or Bangor. We are now In that Great Wild Maine Outdoors!

Forests, Lakes, Fish, Mountains, Moose, Potatos, Lobsters, Seafood, Rocky Sea Bashed Shoreline, Great Outdoors Country Folk, Gem Hunts, Mt. Katahdin, and Wide Open Spaces with comparatively Few People! This is Maine! This and More is Maine! -The Great Maine Wilderness and Outdoors!

Just one Look at a Map of the Northeastern U.S. Shows this to be so! So Atypical for an Eastern U.S. State!, -Maine *Is* Empty!, Maine IS Wild! You See All the Built Up Developedness of New England and the American Northeast on such a Map, -And then you Come to Maine! Maine is Different! You Suddenly See a Great Thinning Out of Things!, and Emptiness on that Map! Such is Maine! Maine can be, and Often is, Such a Refreshing Change! After All, It abuts Right Up with Canada!, -Moreover, even up Into Canada! The Land and Life is Rugged and Harsh Enuf here, for even such an Eastern American Locale as This, to be so! You've Only got a Stone's Throw North, -Before you're in One of the Wildest, Emptiest Places in the World, -Canada's Ungava, Labrador, and Quebec! No Darned Wonder!, Maine is so Wild, Empty, and Isolated! Up there in our Nation's Far Northeastern Corner. It's one of the World's Great Wild Places!, -Right Here in the Good Ole U.S.A.. And in our East at that!

You'd Think that anything Really Wild within the U.S. would have to be in Alaska or our Great American West! That is Indeed Largely the Case. But we've Got some Others as well!

The Adirondacks, the Appalachians, the Everglades, the New Jersey Pine Barrens, Wild Wonderful West Virginia, New York's Finger Lakes along with Champlain, the Louisiana Bayou, Upper Michigan, the Ozarks, Mammoth Cave and Carlsbad Caverns, the Nebraska Sandhills, Acadia and Shenandoah, the Great Smokies, Mt. Rushmore and the Dakota Badlands, Bristlecone Pines-Sequias-and California Redwoods, and So Many Great and Spandiferous National Parks! (Though the Majority of this last One is Out West.)

And to This we Add, -The Wilds of Maine! Truly the Largest and Wildest Area of our Entire East!, Second Only to the Appalachians as a Whole.

(Only 40 per Square Mile, -This Isn't as Sparse as some Other Great Wild Areas of the World. But still Maine has only One and a Quarter Million People in the Entire State!, for such a Population Density of 40 per Square Mile. And a Lot of Those are Concentrated in Places like Portland, Augusta, Bangor, or Other East Coast Locales. These are Based on 1990 Figures. Comparatively Few People Live up here! It may Nominally be a Part of New England, as Well as Being of New England in Other Ways too. But This is *Not* Connecticut or Massachusetts! It is a Place like Bangor, but it is Not Boston! And this is in a 35,387 Square Mile State. Thats a Bit Smallish for even an Eastern State, but a Towering Giant!, when Stacked Next to it's Far Tinier, Fellow New England States as it is! Thruout the Great Majority of Maine, -You *ARE* going to be in Very Empty, Sparse, Wilderness! You Will Know and Feel it to be so!)

Maine is a Good Ole Country Folk Area as well! It may be Well Cut Off from Other Kinsuch Country Areas well to it's Southwest, such as Kentucky, and Other Great Country Hicks / Hillbillys / and Hoedown of Areas. But though Maine may Not be Hillbilly, It certainly is Country! Without a Doubt! Though Maine may Not Entirely Know It, It Shares a Kinship with Other such Great Outdoorsish Country Areas of our's!, All the Same!

America and Americans shud Get to Know Maine a Little Better! Our Own Fellow Brother and Sister, People and State of Maine. While also of course Very Much Leaving it the Heck Alone! -The "Leave Only your Footprints!" Principle. Americans Shud Know that it is There! We shud be so Aware. It is also *Our* Maine, -Not Only that of the Maine Down Easters Themselves! It is There and Available!, to Go Up to, and Get a Taste of! It's Most Definitely Not!, just Another Developed Northeastern State. In Many Ways, It's Not even just Another typical New England State! If it's Fellow States just to it's South and West are as "England", -New England, -Then Maine is as New Scotland, New Wales, or New France!

So Just How is It!?, Up there in Maine? As Both a Great Outdoors Experience, and as a Survival Imperative?

First Off, It's a somewhat Northern Locale. Though on the Southern Fringes *of* Such Great Northern Wild Areas,-COLD. It as such entails, Winter Living, and Cold Survival!

It's also Heavily Forested! It would involve Woodland and Forest Survival! This Boons and Bodes Well for Firewood and Shelter Materials considerations.

It is Four Seasoned Continentally Climed. This includes a Good, Long, Cold, Winter! This certainly Calls For Cold Preparedness and Survival!

If you're Coming from somewhere like the Yukon or Siberia, -True, -You are Going into an Oftentimes "Warmer" Area. But you're Not Going Down to Miami or somewhere! Don't be Fooled or Misled! Cold Arctic Blasts Always Strike Well South! And can Catch you Short! 20 or 30 Below is 20 or 30 Below!, Regardless of whether that be in the Yukon, or More Southerly Maine! Be Just as Prepared! If Arctic Blasts can Strike and Dip Down into the Carolinas!, They Can and Assurredly Do!, Sock and Cover the Likes of Maine!

It has a Rocky and Deeply Indented Seacoast! This Calls for Sea and Shore type Survival! Good Seamanship as Well, would be Well Advised!

The Northern Extents of our Appalachians Come Up into here!, Summiting Off in Mt. Katahdin! This is the Beginning and Ending of the Appalachian Trail, Depending on How you Look at it. Depending on whether you are Beginning or Ending your Trail Journey here. (Another, More Westward Running Trail shud Begin and End here too!, as I Make a Case For, in "Another Appalachian Trail") Maine too!, is an Appalachian Mountains State! This Calls for Mountaineering and Mountain Survival Skills and Techniques!

There are Freshwater Lakes, Fish, and Streams Galore! This Brings the Wide World of Fishing!, to the Fore! Including that Wide Sub-World, of Survival Fishing Techniques!

Similar Hunting and Trapping, Knowledge and Preps, would Serve you Well Up Here, too.

Being Four Seasoned, Maine is Not All Winter! As Wintry as it Often is! Summer with it's Summertime Dry Spells and Downright Droughts!, -Does Come to Maine too!

Which Includes the Very Real Possibilities of Forest Fires! Across Much of Maine's Great Forestland. The Vast Majority of the State *is* Forested! The "Whole State" could conceivably Burn up, as Largely Happened in a Drought of the Late 40's. Forest Fire Safety, Knowledge, Awareness, Sense, Prevention, Detection, Fighting, and Fire Escape and Survival Techniques, are Vital!, Up Here! Who says Forest Fires only happen in the South and American West! Some Can and Do Happen in the East as well, and Maine is a Prime One of Them! Admittedly, however, Most and Many of the Greatest, Do typically Occur Out in the Great American West.

(See "Wildfire Loose, -The Week Maine Burned", by Joyce Butler, Down East Books, Camden Maine. I'm Using the Second Edition Reprint, with a 1987 Copyright. The First Edition came out around the 30th Anniversary of the Fires, in the Late 70s. She Tells a Very Illuminating, even Riveting, Account! Her Only Real Drawback, is that Often, She seems to be "Describing Grass Grow"!, with some of Her particular Style. But Otherwise Superb!, and Well Documented and Researched. Not Much elsewhere to Find Fault with!, and So Much to Compellingly "Keep you Within the Pages"! Joyce Butler's Excellent Work on the Statewide, 1947 Maine Wildfires, once again. I can Only Highly Recommend It!)

But at least Maine *Doesn't* have Earthquakes to speak of! Though Once in a Great While, There's a Really Big One in New England, Eastern Canada just to it's North, Offshore in the Atlantic, or elsewhere in the Eastern U.S. It's something you can Pretty Well Keep on the Shelf!, up here in Maine. But you shud still Keep it in the "Could Happen" Department. On that Part of your Overall, Preparedness, "To Do" List.

Volcanos, however, -Maine has Absolutely None! The Nearest Being as Far Off as Iceland, the Mid-Atlantic, the Carribean, Mexico and Central America, Alaska, and the American and Canadian West! You Won't have to be concerning yourself Any!, with Possible Volcanic Dangers, in these Maine Centered Parts!

Hurricanes so Rarely Ever come up here as well!, and when they Do, they're often somewhat Understrength. Joyce Butler in her Book does speak of one which Came Up to Maine, in 1938. (Page 219).

Tornados are More Common, but are also Quite Rare! So Much so as to be Almost Unknown. But Each and Evry of our 50 States has Gotten Them! I Think this even Includes Alaska and Hawaii. And a Number of Other Countries Get Them too! Albeit Much Less! The U.S. and it's Great Plains Come in as King!, when it Comes to This Subarea of Weather Emergencies! Maine Once in a Rare While Gets one too! But as a Usual General Rule, Most Probably Won't!

Some Other sorts of Survival Imperatives are also Out!, in Maine. Beyond just such Obviousities as Desert and Jungle Survival.

I'm Referring to Less Readily Obvious things such as Swamp and Grasslands Survival. Maine is Not under a "Near Rockies" Rain Shadow. If it were, it could Involve Grasslands or even Desert Survival, even at This Latitude. Maine Simply is Not Under such. And it's Own Appalachians are Not High Enuf, to Do so. Maine as such is Well Forested, -So Grasslands Survival does Not come into play here. While Maine may well have some Swamps, It is Not the Louisiana Bayou either! And so Swamp Survival is at least for a Large Part, a Non-Player, up here in the Wooded Wilds of Maine.

To more specifically Survive up here, You've Got to be Prepared for the Cold! You've Got to Avail Yourself of the Rich Resources of it's Forests! These being Food, Fish, Game, Water, Firewood, and Shelter Materials, among Others. More than just your Tent or Other Survival Shelter, -You Can, and Shud Come To, -Build Yourself a Cabin of some sort! Shud you be there for Any Significant Length of Time. You Have *Got* to be Fire Safe up here!, Especially at Any Time Outside of the Wet Season! Use the Streams. Work your Way to Homes, Farms, Firetowers, Towns, Roads, Clearings, or Settlements. Follow the Streams Eastward to the More Settled and Developed Coast. Caution, There will be some Rocks and Rapids. If in the North, Strike South or Southeast. Or perhaps North to Canada's Nearby St. Lawrence Seaway! You Surely shud be Able to Signal to a Passing Ship there! If in More Central or Southerly Parts of Maine, Head Out East. Or West toward New Hampshire and Vermont, but These are Quite Isolated, Mountainous, Wild Areas too. Or you can here Strike a Little South to Nearby Massachusetts, -Surely a Civilized Area.

In any event, as in the Falklands / Malvinas, -You're still in "Settled" Enuff of an Area, that it Shudn't be All that Hard or Long, Before you can Reach Civilization or Rescue! (If indeed you Even Want to Come Out!, of the Wilds of Maine!) Maine too!, I'm Sure has Good to Great SAR and Other Emergency Capabilities as Well! Even Better I'd Imagine, than in those earlier Lonely Falklands. ( Nothing Meant to Take Away from that of the Excellent British Authorities and Personnel, that I am Sure to be Down There! ) Survival can Very Well be a Pressing Imperative!, here in Maine! The Weather and Elements Don't Care a Hoot!, at What Capabilities as we've Got! But either Soon Finding your Way Out, or Soon Having your Way "Found" Out!, Shouldn't be Much of a Problem! Unless of course you Don't have an ELT or Anything!, there in the Deep Maine Woods and Interior! But Otherwise, When in Maine, -It's Not like you're in the Mid-Sahara or Tibet!

These are What Maine both Is and Is Not! Both Survivalwise and Outdoorswise. These are the Wilds of Maine! The Great Maine Outdoors! Wild, Free, and Natural! I Love, Value, and am Drawn to It So! -Only Naturally and Of Course! And Whats More, It is Really Not All that Far Away! (At Least to I and Others here in the Northeast / Canadian Southeast.) Try for Having at least some Nodding Awareness and Acquaintence, of the Great Outdoor Wilds of Maine! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]
_________________________
"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.

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#24172 - 03/02/04 06:07 AM Re: Erth's. Wldst. Plcs. / The Srvl. Aspects.-COLD
ScottRezaLogan Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 723
Loc: Pttsbg SWestern Pa USA N-Amer....
SPITSBERGEN - SVALBARD - We now Go a Good Ways Northeast, Past Greenland and Iceland, to Norway's Large, Far Arctic Island Group of Spitsbergen. ( Perhaps Also can be spelled Spitzbergen.) ( And a.k.a. Svalbard). It actually Means "Cold Coast" or "Cold Rim", in the Old Viking Norse Language. And that is Very Much Exactly What it is!

They're so Much like Siberia's Large Arctic Islands talked of earlier. And They Share that same Cold Arctic Ocean Area. Spitzbergen too, is Such an Island. The Only Major Difference being, that it Belongs to Norway, Not Rusha. Rusha has the Others. As such, Spitzbergen is Off in the Far Western Arctic Ocean, whereas the various Siberian Ones are Farther East. Though Not Quite so Far West as Greenland, It is Off Toward that Direction.

It's 352 Miles from Northernmost Norway Itself.

( Things start "Crunching Together", the Closer to the Pole you Go! Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen, Norway's North Cape, Novaya Zemyla, the Islands of the High Canadian Arctic!, They Do Start Coming All Together, -Just Look at a Globe!, -This Shows it Well! And you *are* Getting Ever Closer to the Pole, at These Latitudes! This Figures into my mentioning How it's Off in Greenland's Direction. "Normally", if Greenland were at *Lower* Latitudes, Greenland would be Much Further West! An Interesting Effect!, Up Here in these High Arctic Latitudes! )

It Comes In at some 39,000 Square Miles, the Size of many typical Eastern American States. That Makes for a Pretty Large Island!

Actually, it is 4 Main Islands, Along with Numerous Smaller Ones, Clustered Together. The Largest One, Spitzbergen or Svalbard, is the Namesake for the entire Cluster. It Counts for More than Half of the Group's entire Area.

Svalbard is the Norwegian Name for the Entire Cluster. While "Spitsbergen" Began as just the Name of this Largest, Mainmost, Island. Thru Common and Conventional Useage, -"Spitsbergen" too, has Come to Mean the Whole Island Group. The Two Names are now Synonymous. Spitzbergen, at least Outside of Norway, is the More Commonly Used One. And it is the One I shall Predominantly Use here.

This Whole Bleak and Frigid Territory, has Only some 4,000 People! Many of these are Norweigan and Russian Coal Miners. Were there Not Coal, There'd be even Fewer People, -Plenty Fewer! Now if there were Only 4,000 People in one of our Eastern States, -That would be Pretty Sparse Indeed! It Gives some Additional Idea, of it's Vast, Bleak, Expanses!

Spitzbergen, just like it's Fellow Siberian Arctic Islands, is Cold, Bare, Barren, Mountainous, Ruff, Rocky, Rugged, Rainy, Windy, Foggy, Icy, Ice and Glacier Covered, Sea Bashed, and Otherwise Bleak! The Weather and Seas are Often Nasty and Sour!

The Islands are so Barren and Cold, that Aside from Lichens, They have Next to No Plants! You Do Not have Those as a Food, Firewood, or Shelter Materials Source!

You May be Able to Avail yourself of Rich Fishing Waters in this Area! So Strike Out for it's Coast!, shud you Find Yourself there! But Watch Out for the Cold Ruff Seas and Weather!, there on the Coast as well!

Survival here Includes Firstmost Cold Survival. Arctic Cold Winter exists for Much of the Year. Along with it's Many Months of 24 Hour Darkness! And What Passes for it's Spring and Summer, Certainly's got to be on the Cool Side! When you're Up this Far North!

In July, Temperatures can get up into the 3 to 9 Degrees *Centigrade* Range. It Occassionally Shoots Higher. Even in the Spitzbergen Summer, You can sometimes expect Drops to Negative 7 Degrees Centigrade. Now Those are just the Short Summer Temps!

Their Fall and Winter Temperatures can typically Get Down to Negative 20 Degrees Centigrade. And it Can at Times Get to Negative 40 Degrees Centigrade!, in their Winter.

Spitzbergen Survival also Involves Absolutely No Forest or Firewood Resources! Nor is there Any such Shelter Materials! Not even Turf or Grasslands Materials! Unlike Many Other Non-Forest Locations of the World. You'd Have to Use Rocks, Earth, Ice, or Snow, for your Shelter Purposes!

Survival on Spitzbergen also Involves Sea and Coast Survival. Protect Yourself from Storms, and from the Ruff, Cold, Salty Seas! And Avail Yourself of the at least Relatively Richer, Sea and "Beach", Food Sources! Land Based Food may be Little to Non Existant! Sea Based Food could be Abundantly Rich! Know How to Find and Gather Beach Life. And Know How to Fish!

You Want to Protect Yourself from the Wind, Cold, Ice, Snow, Wet Waters, and Rain! Keeping Warm and Dry would be Paramount!

Fire Towards your Warmth, Light, Cooking, Dryness and Drying, and even Morale is a Paramount Neccessity! Yet there are Virtually No Such Sources for Such, on the Land! How Do you Possibly get Around this Conundrum?! Perhaps your Only Fire Fuel, may Come from Dried Seaweed and Such, as you can Gather. What already might be Dry on the Shore, Others that you can perhaps Gather from the Waters, and Set Out to Dry! Plus some Driftwood, but that can be Hit or Miss, and there may be Too Little of that anyway! Maybe there are some Other Small Tinder Sources that can be Found. But on a Place like Spitzbergen, All Three of These may be just Too Little! In Quantity and Quality. Seaweed, even if you can Gather Oodles of it, -are Not Logs! I Guess in a Truly Worst Case Scenario, where you Truly had Absolutely No Fire Sources!, -That Bundling Up, Insulation, Keeping Dry, and Sheltering would be your Only Options! You'd have to be Ready to Signal and Such!, and Otherwise be Actively Seeking Rescue. If Thats Not Enuf to Tide you Thru, and keep you Warm and Dry Enuf, -Hate to say it!, but it's Possible that you Might Not Make It! Well the Eskimos and Others somehow Do It! So there Must be a Way to somehow Get This Done! The Eskimos perhaps Use Seal and Whale Blubber and the Like. Desert Survival is Similar in these general Firemaking Regards, but at least in Many of Those, you can often eventually Scrap up Enuf wood!, for a Fire!

Water on Spitzbergen may be reasonably Easy to Get, if in the form of Melted Ice and Snow. There may also be some Rainfall to Catch, or Puddles, Ponds, or Lakes. There may even be some Streams. You may be Able to so Catch or Gather some to All of your Water. It might Not Always be Neccessary to Utilize Ice or Snow for this.

The Polar Bear, and Spitzbergen has them, is a Definite Danger to Watch and Be Wary for! For This Bear Views Man, as just Another of His Food Sources! If it's Hungry and Wants you for Dinner, It's a Pretty Sure Bet, that it Will Kill and Eat you! Unless you can either Stop it somehow!, or Avert, Avoid, Evade, or Escape It! It is *Your* Predator!, -And *You* Are IT'S Prey! -This Great White Bear of the North! Nothing Personal !, It's just Trying to Survive and Have Dinner, just like we or Anything Else! This Caution of course also Applies to Any Other High Arctic Territories, that this Great White Bear Frequents or Inhabits, -Not just Spitzbergen.

You'd Want to Know and Use Signaling!, as well.

Navigation and Orienteering is Quite Feasable on these Islands, Provided there's No Fog.

You shud also Set Out for one of Spitzbergen's Rare Outposts or Settlements! This is Not so Easy as it may be, say in the Falklands. Spitzbergen is a Mighty Big, Empty Place! With Outposts and Such, Few and Far Between! But it is Possible! It Can be Done, -So Try to Do So!

Survival on Spitzbergen and on the Other High Arctic Islands is Dicey and Hard ! I Don't Think One would exactly Want!, to Stay On and Survive here! But if Circumstances Have it that you *Have To* Survive here!, -Then This is How you would Have to basically Go About Doing It! It is Better to *So* Survive here, Long Enuf to Tide Yourself Over to Finding a Settlement or Signaling a Rescue. Rather than Trying to Do an Indefinite sort of Stayon Survival !, Here on Frigid, Bleak, and Empty Spitsbergen!

With perhaps Only Minor Differences, -All that Holds True here for Spitzbergen Survival, -Also Holds True on Any Other Large Arctic Islands. From the North Siberian Arctic, to Canada's Baffin and Ellesmere. Survive on Spitzbergen or any of Those if you Must! But Seek Extrication and Rescue, if you Can! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]
_________________________
"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.

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#24173 - 03/02/04 08:39 AM Re: Erth's. Wldst. Plcs. / The Srvl. Aspects.-COLD
ScottRezaLogan Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 723
Loc: Pttsbg SWestern Pa USA N-Amer....
Norway's JAN MAYEN ISLAND - Heading Back Southwest toward Iceland now, about Halfway in Fact, -We Come to Norway's Small, Isolated, Mid-Sea, Jan Mayen Island.

It is one of the Many Isolated World Islands, to be Covered in some Depth Later. But we're Covering Jan Mayen here, in that it is such an Earth's Wildest Place,-COLD.

It too is Lonely, Isolated, Small, Bleak, Bare, Barren, Cold, Foggy, Ruff, Rocky, Sea Bashed, Horrendously Weathered, and All the Rest! As we've by now Become somewhat Well Familiar with!, in Such High Arctic or Antarctic Latitudes.

But with One Major Twist and Difference! -It is Volcanic! And Often Actively so! This Isn't Totally New! We've met it in Iceland, Alaska and the Aleutians, and Kamchatka and the Kuriles, for example. But Spitzbergen and a Good Number of Other Places we've "Been To" Lately, are Not Volcanic. So Jan Mayen with it's Active Volcano "Beerenberg", are something of a Standout! When you Think of Norway, You Don't Think of Volcanos! But in so far as Jan Mayen, like Spitsbergen is a Part of Norway, and Not a Possession, Colony, or something, then Here Norway actually has a Volcano! It is the Only Such Volcano, anywhere in Norway. Beerenberg is some 7,000 to 7,500 Feet High!

Beerenberg has Many Glaciers, Five of them Reaching the Sea. This will Present both it's Problems and Oppurtunities, in a Survival Sense. For Instance, It would be a Ready Fresh Water Source! There are No Lakes, apart from Two Seawater Lagoons. And the Only Streams are Meltwater Ones from the Glaciers. Again, a Great and Ready Freshwater Source!

Jan Mayen and it's Volcano are maybe some 600 Miles West of Norway Itself. So it's Not like it's Way Off in some Other Part of the World! Jan is actually Closer to Greenland and Iceland, than it is to Norway. 2/3 of the Way over towards Greenland, in Fact. And it's Still Several Hundreds of Miles North of the Arctic Circle! At 71 Degrees North.

It is in Fact a Part of the Same Mid-Atlantic Geologic and Tectonic Formation, as Iceland is. Right to the Same Northeast / Southwest Orientation, of Iceland's Central, Formative, Fault.

Besides the Beerenberg Volcano with it's Lava Flows, the Place has Not Much More, than a Tiny Airstrip and a Weather Shack!

Some Excellent Reference Sources for Jan Mayen and Beerenberg, (As Well as for Most Other Isolated World Islands, if in a Different Guide in a Given Source / Series.), Are Lonely Planet's "Norway" Guide, Bradt's "Guide to Spitsbergen", and Older National Geographic Maps Going Back to the 50s or 60s!

(Lonely Planet's "Antarctica" Guide, Very Well and Comprehensively Covers the Majority!, of Most Other Isolated World Islands! You Like Can't Get This Anywhere Else! But a Small Weakness with Lonely Planet. It's as if Back in School, -your Geography or Social Studies Book Covered 40 of our States so Comprehensively Well!, but Not All 50! Lonely Planet even mentions some Mysterious, Mythical, Legendary Ones once Thot to Exist by some, but that have since been Canned! Such as Trulsklippen! there's Additionally Something I just Like and Love about that Name "Trulsklippen"!, and Had to briefly Make Mention of it here so! Ones such as That are Great Sea Lore!, if Nothing Else! But Back to the Real Ones. Lonely Planet Completely and Comprehensively Covers Most!, if Not All of Them, -So Well! )

Jan Mayen and it's Beerenberg happens to be in their Excellent Norway Guide. Bradt Covers it Very Well too! And if you can Come Across the Appropriate and Excellent National Geographic Maps, -You can See Excellent, Detailed Maps, of All of These so Obscure, Isolated World Islands! Jan Mayen Included. Access and Avail Yourself, of these Excellent Reference Sources!, if you Can!

Now as to Survival On, and Rescue or Extrication From!, -Jan Mayen and it's Beerenberg Volcanic Lava Flows!

First, You're Dealing with Cold Survival, Sea and Coast Survival, Atrocious Seas and Weather, Bare Treelessness, Much 24 Hour Mid-Winter Darkness, and Other Such High Arctic Samesort, as we've Met Many Places Already! It's also Awash Amidst the Cold Greenlandic Ocean Current. That of course Makes For a Colder Land!

Jan Mayen is Pretty Bare of Plant Life, but it's Surprisingly Present in More Sheltered Areas, for an Arctic Land! it is a Little Further South, and thus a Little Warmer! Still it is Not Enuf to Support any kind of Animal Grazing.

You're on Quite a Small Island Too. It's Only some 30 Miles Long, by 8 or so Miles Wide! (My Quick Estimation from Kilometer Dimensions given in the Bradt Guide, which are 56 .3 Km by 15 .8 Km.) This Doesn't Give you a Lot of Maneauvering Room to Try to Survive In! Let Alone on a Place so Bare!

It has something of a Dumbell Shape, one End Larger, the Other Smaller.

The Best Landfalls, are in the Pinched Off Middle. Tides are only some 2 and 1/2 Feet in Range.

And then of course there's the Whole Vital Matter of Volcanic Awareness and Survival !, on Jan Mayen! Volcanos can be Something Else!, Like No Other!

Food,-Get that from the Beach and Sea! Aside from perhaps the Quite Occassional Plant, -You Can't Get that from Land! Unless you can Nab a Bird!, or perhaps even Bird's Eggs.

Water,-Again, you shud Have a Perfectly Adequate to Abundant Source!, from the Glaciers and Meltwater. The Volcanic Soil is Quite Porous, however, a Lot of Water Drains Right In! Try to Prevent a Lot of that, with Collecters, Spread Plastic, Etc.

Fuel or Firewood, -Maybe some of the Meager Plant Materials in a Poor Man's "Grassland Survival", at Best! Occassional Small Woody Plants Do Grow every Here and There!, though.

You Can also Make Use of some Volcanic Steam Pits and Other Volcanic Heat and Warmth Sources!, for Some of your Warmth, Cooking, and Other Needs.

Shelter,-Some Natural Rock Shelters Scattered About, Plus what Rocks and Volcanic Soil as you can Arrange for a Shelter, -May be Pretty Much your Only Option and Best Bet!
You might be Able to Scrap Up enuf of those relatively Rare Woody Plants too, for Shelter Uses!

Air Signaling is a Sim Hope with a Dim Chance! For Jan is Usually Socked In by Fog and Cloud Cover! However, at least an Occassional Sea Vessel Arrives or Passes By! At least an Occassional Aircraft Makes Use of Jan Mayen's Air Strip. Be Ready to Contact and Make Use of Them!

You'll have to Work yourself to What Settlement or Installation on Jan Mayen there is. Small Weather Station, Volcano Observatory, Etc. Being such a Small Island, This Shudn't be Too Long or Difficult! Except that the Volcanic Landscape, can Provide some Really Tuff and Dangerous Going! There are Cliffs, in a Number of Places on Jan Mayen, as well ! Once you Do Make some Human Contact, You shud be Pretty Allright, and Sooner or Later on your Way Out of there!

This is Cold, Mid-Atlantic, Volcanic Jan Mayen Island! And This is Survival On!, and Extrication From!, this Cold, Mid-Atlantic, Volcanic, Jan Mayen Island! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]
_________________________
"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.

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#24174 - 03/02/04 08:47 PM Re: Erth's. Wldst. Plcs. / The Srvl. Aspects.-COLD
ScottRezaLogan Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 723
Loc: Pttsbg SWestern Pa USA N-Amer....
SCANDANAVIA And KARELIA - Heading East over to Norway Itself, We Arrive at our Next Wild Place Destination, -Scandanavia.

While some of it, Primarily the Southernmost Parts, are Not Purely one of the World's Wildest Places, -So Much of the Rest of it is! The Great Majority of it!, as a Matter of Fact, is! It's a Large, Colder, Ruffer, More Obscure, "Sidewing" of Europe! Its Far More Open and Wild!, than Most of More Typical Europe. Typical Europe is of course Not Known for Things such as the Great Spacious, Clean, Unspoiled, Outdoors or Wilderness! As such, Europe for the Very Most Part, is Not considered one of the World's Great Wild Places! And Greater Europe is so Not being Covered here.

But Some Atypical Parts of Europe certainly Are! Are to be Counted Among the World's Great Wild Areas! The Alps, Pyreenes, and Scandanavia!, are Chief among them! Though Small when Stacked Next to Greater Europe as a Whole, -Some, -Scandanavia being a Perfect Example, are Themself Quite Large! The Swiss and Austrian Alps will be covered Later under MOUNTAINS. The Great Scandanavian Outdoor Wilds!, will be covered here under COLD. Even Europe!, Still has some Wild and Untouched Areas! Of All Places! In Europe, it's Precisely *Because* Scandanavia is COLD, that it has Remained WILD!

Greater Europe was Once a Magnificent Wilderness!, Thru and Thru! I Understand that Western Man and Civilization had to Live, Grow, and Develop there! We Had to Tap and Tame that Wilderness, Make Use of It. If it could have been Done with Less Carelessness and Disregard, It could Now be at least a Little Wilder, than it Now Is. A Better Outdoors Place! But I Know that this is Monday Morning Quarterbacking, and it's Easy to Monday Morning Quarterback After the Fact! Europe couldn't Avoid Becoming what it Very Much now is!, -Nor could even my Own American East! But in Both Cases, -We Could have Retained at least a Little More Wild, Clean, Outdoors!, -than we Did! At least Much of that is Water Over the Dam now. The Question now is Mostly, -"What Do we Do Towards Best Stewarding and Preserveing the *Rest* of our Remaining Wild Areas?" And we Still Have Plenty!, -Worldwide! The World is Still a Very Wild and Empty Place! Lets Keep it that Way! Lets Enjoy, Safeguard, Value, and Appreciate!, -What we Still Have Yet Much Got!

With the Exception of the "Europeanish" Southernmost Regions, Quite Few People Live up in Scandanavia! Of those that Do, Many have a Very Frontiersish, Feel and Flavor! Both in They, and in their Vast, Wild, Scandanavian Land! They are "Europe's Canada"! Or "Great American West"! They are "Canadish", Right Down to the Midnight Sun *and* Mid-Noon Darkness, of the Scandanavian North! Of course there are Cultural and Other Differences with Scandanavians and Canucks, -But so Much Between the Two of them, is Very Much the Same! (Hockey, BTW, is a Little to No Difference Similarity! -for a Little Bit of Lite Comic Relief.) Scandanavia is Europe's Northern Frontier Backwater! May it's Coldness and General Ruffness continue to Discourage All but the Few and Most Hardy, from Coming here! Let Scandanavia Remain Scandanavia!

While even All of Scandanavia may Not be Fully Undeveloped and Wild!, the Countries of Scandanavia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Russian Karelia area just East of Finland, -are nonetheless Very Empty, Natural, Free, Unspoiled, Spacious, and Wild! It so Deserves at least a Very High Honorable Mention here! But Absent the Stockholms, Oslos, and Helsinkis of it's Far South, Scandanavia as a Whole, would Rank on the Honor Roll !, with Any of the Others!, on This Roll of Earth's Wildest Places! Scandanavia has a Few Cities and such, and European Ones at that. But Otherwise, We'd be Very Remiss, to leave it Off the List, just over the Likes of that!, on it's Southernmost End! We will Not be covering areas like Stockholm here! A Fine City!, but we're Talking of the World's Greatest Wild Paces here!, Not the World's Greatest Civilized Areas or Cities. We just Can't Leave that Greater, Far Wilder!, Portion of Scandanavia Out! And so This Addressing This, in this Post. Lets now Talk About Scandanavia!, and Scandanavian Survival!

Scandanavia's Upper Portions go Well Above the Arctic Circle! Scandanavia as a Whole, is at an Alaskan Latitude! It certainly Qualifies as a Northern, COLD Place!

Norway is the Westernmost of these Scandanavian Lands. It is Mountainous!, almost Alone among Scandanavian Countries. And Heavily Forested!, as are the Other Scandanavian Countries too! Norway Alone Faces, the Angry Atlantic!, in Scandanavia's West. Via it's Steep, Rocky, Forested Mountains, Cliffedges, and Fiord Filled Seacoast!

Cold Survival, Mountain Survival, Forest Survival, and Sea Type Survivals, -Apply here!

Next Door Sweden, the Middle Portion of Scandanavia, -is Very Much the Same, Minus Norway's Fiords and Mountains. ( With the exception of those Swedish Mountains in Sweden's Western Parts, which form the Border with Norway.)

Sweden also has a Long Seacoast. But it is "Inland" to the East, in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. And it is Far Smoother!, with essentially None of the Norway type Inlets and Fiords! So Sea Survival would Apply here in Sweden, and Nearby Finland just over the Interveneing, North Running, Gulf of Bothnia. Sea Survivals come into Play in these Two Eastern Scandanavian Areas, as well! If you're in Scandanavia, even well "Inland", -You Can't get away from the Sea! Thats just a Scandanavian Fact of Life! The Sea is so Much a Part of the Overall Scandanavian Way! The Finns and Karelians in Scandanavia's Far East, are Least so this way of All. But Never the Swedes, Danes, or Norweigans! Never the Icelanders!

Finland and the Finns are Not Culturally Scandanavia. But Geographically they are! They are as Much a Part of the Scandanavian Wilds!, as Any Other! In Fact, They and Their Vast Lakes and Forests!, are an Exemplary Topmost Part of Such! And Iceland, while Many Mid-Ocean Miles Off the Scandanavian Tableland (Norway / Sweden / Finland-Karelia), is as Fully Scandanavian!, as the Pope is Catholic! It's been Settled by Viking Norse Scandanavians, Thats as Scandanavian as they Come! Similar to Hawaiians being for the Most Part Indistinguishable from Continental North Americans, -So Too are the Icelandics, from their Close Scandanavian Brethern! Iceland Greatly Merits it's Own Mention, as One of the World's Greatest Wild Areas! And So has been Covered, previously. The Scandanavian World / Sphere extends as Far West as Greenland, -Almost to North America! In that Greenland is a Danish Possession, and Aside from Inuit Eskimo and Other Natives Already and Still There, it's been First Settled by Scandanavian Vikings. Now Denmark, How Does it Figure into the Scandanavian Picture? It is 100 % Scandanavian, but this Small Area, is *in* that Southernmost, "Europized" Area. And thus Not a Part of the Great Scandanavian Wild Areas. It's Not even on the Scandanavian Tableland, but a Bit South. Just South of Norway and Sweden, Across the Straits, on the North European Mainland Itself. It is Scandanavian, and of the Sea! But it is Not Part of the Great Scandanavian Wilds! Clean, Tidy Scandanavian Farms and All, Yes! Environmentally Friendly and Conscious, Yes! A Part of the Great Scandanavian Wilds?, -No! And It will Not be so covered here.

While Norway is it's Mountains, Sweden and Finland are Scandanavia's Great Flatlands! Sweden's Western Portion, while certainly Heavily Forested, have some Cleared Areas as well. Some level of "Grasslands Survival" can Come Into Play here. Finland's Eastern Portion of This, is even More Untouched Forest! Most of it is Still There, Untouched and Uncleared. Though a Good Logging and Lumber Industry certainly Does Exist in Finland. But it is Even More Forested, than is Sweden. (Itself Well Forested!)

The Main thing interfereing with Finnish Forests, is it's Many, Many Lakes! It's an Equal to Canada or Minnessota's 10,000 !, in this Regard! As in the Canadian Shield, the Glaciers have Scoured these Out of the Bedrock, -Leaving Oodles of Freshwater Lakes in their Wake! Forest, Fishing, and Lakes Survival, -Comes so Much into Play!, here and Thruout Scandanavia's Wilds. ( Mountainous Norway still has so Much of This, as well! )

Glaciers once Thickly Covered All of Scandanavia! The entire Tableland is yet Measurably Rebounding from This! It Continues to Rise Upward!, from the Removal of All that Onetime Overburden!

Norway Calls For Cold, Mountain, Forest, and Seacoast Survival !

Sweden Calls For Cold, Forest, and Seacoast Survival !, with maybe some Grasslands Survival thrown in as well !

And Finland Calls For Cold, Forest, and Seacoast Survival ! But also with the New Addition of SWAMP Survival ! Not Only Streams and Lakes!, but Bogs and Swamps Galore!, Abound in Finland!

As well as in it's Karelian Cousin just to it's East! This is an Area that was actually a Part of Finland Itself, Before the Soviet Rushans Took it as their Own. It is about as Big as Finland is now. Karelia's North is a Semicircular Arctic Peninsula known as the Kola. Some Mountains Exist in the Kola. It is Best Known for Rusha's Two Major Arctic Ports, Murmansk and Archangel. (The 2nd I Think's Not on the Kola, but Still in Karelia.) But Other than that, Karelia is just Overwhelmingly the Bleak Karelian Wastes! BTW, Anything that can be said for Finnish Conditions and Survival, Can also be said for Karelian Survival and Conditions! Their Lakes, Forests, and Landscapes are so Similar!

Further East from Scandanavia and Karelia, is Bleak, Siberia Like, European Arctic Russia. Which Meet Up with the Northern Urals and Siberia Itself, in it's East. We've Come some Full Cicle, among Earth's Wildest Places, COLD. Meeting the Urals once more.

On Swamp Survival again, Most to All Things Commonly Known, from the Better Known, World of Tropical and Subtropical Swamp Survival, also Apply up here! But with a Coldland Twist! Swamps can also Provide you with a Food, Fish, Water, Fuel, and Shelter Materials Source.

Finland's and Sweden's Many Freshwater Lakes and Streams are Filled with Fish! So Do certainly Know and Practice Fishing!

The Scandanavian Forests are also Filled with Game! Avail Yourself of these Techniques and Skills as well. They are Full of Fire and Shelter Materials too!

Survival in the Real Scandanavian Wilds, would essentially entail, First and Foremost, Cold Survival! -Keeping Warm, Keeping Dry, Keeping a Fire Going, Making and Keeping your Shelter Sealed and Up, Food, Etc.

Food is Reasonably Plentiful, and can be both Land and Sea Based. Fresh Water is Plentiful as well.

Skiing, particularly Cross Country, as well as How to Use Snowshoes, would be Very Good and Useful Things to Know!

If One Seeks Rescue and Wishes to Extricate themself from the Scandanavian Wilds!, then one shud generally Work their Way South, but also Often Eastward or Westward toward the Nearest Coast, -Within such general North to South Trends.

Sweden has Many Eastward Flowing Rivers. They are Great Fresh Water and Transportation Resources! They Lead you Directly East to the Coast!, and they often Provide you with a "Conveyor Belt Path" Right Over to there!

These can be Both a Helpful Advantage, and a Hindering Drawback! They can Lead you East, toward the Bothnian Coast! Beware of Rocks, Rapids, and Shallows, though! Once on the Swedish Coast, then you may Want to Continue Working your Way Southward.

But Herein Comes the Rub of the Hindering Disadvantage! There Comes the Matter of Having to Ford or Otherwise Cross these Many, now perpendicular Rivers. And this is Usually Worst along a River's Mouth. Which is exactly what you've got!, there along the Coast! You'll just Have to Ford, if Shallow and Slow Enuf, or Cross by Boat or Other Floatcraft. Know How and Where to Best Ford, Pole Walk Across, and Etc. Sometimes there may be a Handy Bridge or Ferry Nearby, Other Times Not! You can even Have similar Crossing or Fording Problems Further Upstream, though this Holds Better Prospects than at a River's Mouth.

If you Alternatively Forgoe the Coast to Avoid this sort of Problem, Then you Don't Have the Advantage of the Coast's Guiding Effect South. Nor Better Food Sources or Rescue Prospects there! You'd just Have to Make Sure you're Heading South, by some Other Means! In Sweden, thats Not as Sure or Easy as Following South along the Coast!

Thoughtful Judgement Calls, are of course a Major Part of the Survival Process.

Rivers and Coasts are also where the Outposts and Settlements are! This Bodes Better for your Rescue or Extrication. Settlements also Tend to be along Lakeshores, especially in Finland and Karelia.

Scandanavian Countries also have Many Hiking Cabins!, as well as Well Marked Trails, and the Like! Use these to Best Advantage!, if you shud Come Across Any!

In Norway, Get Down Out of the Mountains! And Head toward one of the West Coast Ports or Fishing Centers. Or Head Down their Eastern Side, to Sweden! Beware of Cliffs and Other Dropoffs while Doing so! Generally Work your Way South here too. Do this Anywhere you may be, on the Main Scandanavian Tableland!

It may Take you something of a While, to Get to an Outpost or Settlement. But Once you Do!, Scandanavian SAR ans Such is Good to Very Good! At this Point, your Survival Worries shud Begin to be Over!

Until Then, -You're of course Gonna Have to Survive! This has been Generally How you would Have to Go About Doing That!, Here in the Great Scandanavian and Karelian Outdoors and Wilds! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]


Edited by ScottRezaLogan (03/03/04 03:49 AM)
_________________________
"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.

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