Winter Survival Course

Last week, we had a Winter Survival course with an ex-military guy. Like any training, part of it was theoretical but we had been told that there would be a practical part... I know that a few years ago, some guides had to jump in the local river... So we were all wondering what kind of surprise we would be facing on that practical training.

The theoretical part was mainly about hypothermia and froze bites, things that can happen to us but also to our guests, especially when the temperatures drop to -30 degree Celcius in February. Our instructor had been in the army with our boss. They were both in the mountain regiment, (the French equivalent would be "les chasseurs alpins"). It was quite fascinating to hear their stories when they gave us real life examples. The training was very much orientated on how to take care of our guests in cold conditions.

Then, we all met at the kennel, where we were asked to jump in our Volkswagen 8 seater car and we were driven to the end of the country road, by the river. We were asked to get off and to follow our instructor, along with our boss, on the frozen river. At this stage, we still didn't know what to expect... The river is still not totally frozen at this time of the year but you can walk on the sides without any danger. The ground is probably frozen up to 1 meter down and the ice is covered by 10 cm of powdery snow. It was -7 degrees celcius that evening (warm!).

Then, our instructor asked us to line up side by side in front of him, army style ;-)
He asked us to knee down and to remove our right glove if we were right-handed or left if we were left-handed. The following game was to plunge your hand under the snow and to leave it as long as possible, but to remove it before the hurting feeling would go away, then to warm it up under your own armpit, skin to skin. Although some pain was felt, we didn't think that we were asked to do something very difficult.

THEN, came a slightly bigger challenge. We were 5 guides on that course. The instructor picked 3 guides and asked them to follow him. However, before leaving, he told the 2 other guides (me and another female guide) to take off one shoe and socks, put our foot in the snow and wait for his signal to walk up to him and to the other guides. The distance would be approximately 100 meters. So we executed ourselves...

Snow is cold... Especially to the foot, centre of a lot of nerves... Ouch... I still feel cold just thinking about it! We stood with one foot in the snow for maybe 1 or 2 minutes, then walked to the instructor. Our boss had stayed with us and told us to walk at a normal pace. At first, it wasn't too bad, then a burning pain captured my entire foot. Each step was like throwing my foot against a very hard surface. When we reached the instructor and the 3 other guides, we were told to sit down on the clothes they had put down on the snow for us, and to "hand" our foot, each to a different guide, who would be responsible for warming up our foot under his/her armpit, skin to skin. For those who might think that the situation would be too intimate for them, I would say that when you live in such cold weather conditions, intimacy, shyness or any physical repulse totally disappear because you know this can be a real life threatening situation, so you do what you have to do and you forget all about the "codes" that you've been brought up with in Southern Europe.
I was so surprised to feel such heat from my colleague's armpit! ;-) After about 7 minutes, my foot was warm and I was allowed to boot it up again.

Then, we exchanged roles and my female colleague and I had to warm up 3 feet! I was assigned two feet... Is it for my larger body size??? Probably... Anyway, I took off my overall on which the two guides sat and, in my long johns and jumper, one foot under each armpit, I waited for them to feel warm. :-))

Pictures of this winter survival experience are available on this blog. :-)
Enjoy ;-)