Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

We did’t forget how to build a sleeping bag- we got overly clever and thought that we could improve on the two down bag system.

Turns out, we were wrong…

 

[MilEME09]

How much you wanna bet these were delivered at the min 7.3 clo and not higher

 

[Kirkhill]

At times I think we are waiting for Global Warming to solve all our problems.

...

Mon pays, ce n'est pas un pays c'est l'hiver....

Or the anglo version

9 months of winter and 3 months of hard sledding.

...

Most folks seem to be tolerating hanging around the northern vestibule, waiting for an invitation to the sunnier lands down south. Not many seem to be drawn to the beauty of cold, clear midwinter nights.

 

[KevinB]

I did a few Wintex's in Valcartier mid-winter in the old olive green uniforms. It was light recce force vs light recce force stuff. We hit -35C (which is where the scales match one another, for our American friends) and lower at night. We slept in survival caches we built for ourselves in the deep snow (usually under a canopy of evergreen). All the gear -mukluks, Extreme Cold Arctic Combat pants and jacket, mitts, tuques and double layered sleeping bag - was made in Canada and not only did we not get cold, but we were nice and toasty in the bags and, after only half a kilometer walking or snowshoeing, we had to strip the jacket open because we were too warm.

How can we, in Canada, forget how to produce gear like that?

The gear wasn’t actually that good.
The old two bag and flannel liner sleeping bag was okay, the only great thing really was the Mukluks - and then only if you got two sets of the felt booties and felt liners — as if they got soaked and you froze.
The rest was mediocre to poor, and the sweet freeze dry cycle was constantly at work. That gear was also quite bulky

Years ago one used to be able to chop trees and make all sorts of improvised shelters with heat reflectors and use pine boughs as insulation as well. Now in order to be environmentally friendly you can’t be doing that. I’ve slept on top of my sleeping bag bare ass in -30C weather in an improvised pine bough hootch (admittedly with a big ass white man fire and a heat reflector wall) but not really a tactical application— when we had to kill the fire, you definitely need the bags, and where glad for the pine boughs around you and your air mattress— and god help you if it had a leak.


Generally higher arctic has hard pack snow /ice and no tree cover so the winds are also an issue. I’ve no idea what the Ex situation was for the 3VP - but if you can’t make snow or ice improvements to a shelter it can be pretty fricken miserable regardless.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

You can build a snow cave or an igloo (an igloo is an artform- not recommended for noobies. A snowcave anyone can build, as long as you know how to tunnel) and inside you can get temperature to just below zero, without much effort.

 

[FJAG]

The gear wasn’t actually that good.

I'll disagree with that.

We used to do 3-4 week exercises in Pet with just helicopters in Pet in a wet cold and week-or-more-long winter indoc and bty exercise in Shilo in a dry cold and my gear worked well in both. (except that candle trick in an arctic tent - that never worked - Coleman was our friend until lights out) And two tours AvConDet in Rogers Pass - no sleeping out in the woods but more than my fair share of 24-72 hour stints firing at mountains in the middle of driving blizzards catnapping in the trucks.



With mukluks, my winter crew suit pants and clothing layers under a parka I could easily do hours sitting still in an OP. Once you started moving in winter you had to start opening up to ventilate to prevent sweating. My sleeping bag was always good - the air mattress at times a little iffy (cold shoulders and hips at the pressure points) - but generally good.

Yup. There are some things on the market these days that are probably better - but for the 60s, 70s and 80s that stuff was pretty good (I presume it was good for a few more decades after that. The thermals I got later were great. I agree with @Oldgateboatdriver; our kit was good. Not marginal, not below par, but pretty darn good.