2016 elk

[Malamute]

Yes, the dry makes a huge difference in how it feels. The sun does also. I was raised in the Midwest and go back visiting. 20 feels ugly, 10 feels brutal back there. In the west, Ive sat on my porch in slippers, long johns and heavy shirt in the morning sun drinking coffee when it was 20 or 25 and it felt glorious. Things were melting in the sunshine, even though the ambient temp showed below freezing. Once the sun goes behind the mountain in the afternoon though it feels like somebody opened the freezer door. Time to go in and enjoy the fire in the woodstove.

Ive worked outside in winter in the upper 40s and low 50s in a dark t-shirt. The sun was shining and it felt great.

Great pics of the neighborhood and the critters.

[Lost River]

This sounds silly if you haven't really experiencednit, but dry cold is really very tolerable compared to humid cold. Parts of the West differ, but I think where LR is is fairly dry. Where I used to live, 0 degrees was about like 25 back on the east coast. Negative 40 was cold, but not intolerable. Negative 6 back east is tough on me.

100% spot on.

If the wind is not blowing, and the sun is out, it really is no big deal. In fact, nobody was even wearing jackets while we quartered up the elk. My daughter is scrawny and gets cold easily, but it was sunny out and we were just wearing sweaters or fleece pullovers. Plus it keeps our jackets cleaner, keeping them out of the blood.

[entropy]

Oh how true. Even in the far north midwest, I will take anything above 0F without a blink. An Underarmor heatgear, and a polar fleece or lined sweatshirt. The cold just doesnt stick. So right too on the sunset. As it gets tword the horizon, you can feel the change...its still dry but it bites.

Great thread!

[Lost River]

We just got back from round 2.

The kid got her cow (#2 for her).

A 155 Scenar from her .308 sealed the deal, and then the work began.



It ended up taking us about 8-9 hours to get it out. Naturally it was in a less than ideal spot for recovery, but that is just elk hunting.

In reference to our earlier topic of temperatures, and a dry cold. It ended up being a bit cooler, but not as bad as expected.

3 degrees was in the warm sun. Up the draw it was a bit cooler.




It was cold enough that while I was quartering, we ended up building a fire, to keep the kid warm. she is quite scrawny and at the temps we were working in, it is simply safer to make sure she is warm, and functioning.

[Lost River]

Scenery was terrible as usual:





About fires:

There was a good "teachable moment" with my daughter as she struggled to light a fire with numb fingers.

The interesting/important thing about building fires for non recreational purposes is that the worse the weather, the harder it is to build a fire, and the worse the weather, the more important a fire is.

I let her struggle for a bit before I reminded her that prior to deer season I had given her a "secret weapon" for fire building.

Trick candles.

When your fingers are numb, and matches keep failing to light the tinder, use a trick candle that relights itself after a person "blows it out".
The trick candle got the difficult to light tinder going, and a nice little fire was going in no time. Once her hands were warm, she was motivated to get more wood, and keep it going.

Fires are a great morale boost when you have a bunch of work in front of you. The ability to stop and take a break while warming hands is pretty nice.

I suppose I should mention the trick candle thing in the other thread about "life hacks". They weigh nothing and really work well for situations like the one above.

[entropy]

What wonderful gifts you are giving your daughter.

[PNWTO]

It ended up taking us about 8-9 hours to get it out. Naturally it was in a less than ideal spot for recovery, but that is just elk hunting.

How true. I like to think those elk that ever live long enough to expire naturally drop dead right next to a forest service road just to spite us.