Scouting, Volume 78, Number 5, October 1990 Page: 46
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several Canadian provinces have come
here to learn arctic-type camping. In ad-
dition, it is a training site for U.S. Army
Aviation units and serves as an outdoor
testing laboratory for winter camping
equipment.
But for the Scouts of Troop 332 camped
on the shore of remote Wind Lake, the
primary concern was getting a warm
night's sleep after a tough ski-in. Each
camper selected his own night's shelter
from a selection suggested by the Okpik
staff. Keith's consisted of a trench shov-
elled to bare ground under the partial
protection of a fir tree's thick boughs. His
skis, anchored in the snow on the wind-
ward side, were covered with a sheet of
plastic, an additional shield.
Other members of the troop had con-
structed military-type "thermal shelters"
—low pole-and-bough A-frames, plastic
covered, and sealed with snow. Or they
simply pitched a tent on a site shovelled to
bare ground.
The Scouts had learned that contact
with bare, though frozen, ground would
yield a small but steady radiation of heat
from the earth. Shelters pitched on top of
packed snow, they knew, were effectively
insulated from that heat source. This was
just one detail of dozens provided at the
pretrip briefing which was aimed at fur-
nishing a safe, exciting adventure under
the severe, arctic-type conditions.
"This is not a winter survival course,"
Program Director Tom Lutyens had ex-
plained the night before as Scouts and
leaders assembled in the warmth of the
base dining hall. " 'Survival' indicates
somebody got into trouble and we are not
seeking trouble. Okpik is based on the
pure enjoyment of winter, that same feel-
ing of confidence and environmental
compatibility enjoyed by Native Indians
and Eskimos over centuries of living in a
cold climate."
A retired Air Force Tech Sergeant,
Lutyens spent the last eight of his 20-year
military hitch as a survival instructor in
Alaska, training air crews how to protect
themselves if they crashed in the arctic.
Prior to his Air Force enlistment, he
worked summers as a canoe guide at the
Scout base.
During the Friday night briefing,
Lutyens introduced the nine-member
winter staff which included Swedish
Scout Rick Swenson, one of a number of
experienced Scandinavians who annually
serve with knowledgeable dedication. In
addition to Troop 332, there were Scouts
from Troop 120, Minneapolis, led by
Scoutmaster Dave Hite and Webelos
Scout Coordinator Jeff Gau. They would
be joined at breakfast by Scouts and vol-
unteers from Troop 328, Le Sueur, Minn.
In all, 26 Scouts and adults would be on
the snow-packed trails Saturday, a small
segment of the 500 or more who would
experience the program from December
1 to its conclusion, March 18.
"You all know the Boy Scout buddy
system," Lutyens continued. "Here we
go one step further—we go in units of
three. Three is safer than two and it
allows more frequent checks for signs of
frostbite or indications of hypothermia.
"Dehydration is your enemy in the
winter. Each of you will carry a plastic,
cloth-covered water bottle on a thong
around your neck. Taking a drink every
half hour or so will prevent dehydration."
Lutyens eyed the group carefully.
"After you take each drink, refill the bot-
tle from your group water supply or stuff
it full of snow. Carried inside your shirt,
next to your underwear, the bottle holds a
continuous, nonfreezable drinking
source."
"And don't forget to take the bottle into
your sleeping bag at night," added
Equipment Specialist Bill Quinn. "If you
leave it out, it will freeze solid. And that
goes for your sox and boot liners, too."
After a hot supper, the campers
watched films on the Scout program and
native life in the arctic. Then the group
trooped off to simple but comfortable
bunks in heated, rustic cabins.
Twenty-six such six-person shelters
are situated near a new toilet, shower, and
sauna building on the 100-acre high-ad-
venture property. Also linked by winding
trails are an equipment storage building,
repair shop, log lodge for summer canoe
programs, and a well-equipped office,
along with the dining hall and trading
post. The buildings are all painted brown,
trimmed in deep red, colors of the Hud-
son Bay Company's northern fur posts.
Keeping the operation both serviceable
and historically compatible is the concept
of base director Clyde "Sandy" Bridges
who originated Okpik in 1971. Bridges,
author of the recently-published Boy
Scout Okpik Manual (available through
Scout equipment distributors or the na-
tional BSA Supply Division), is ranked by
his peers as one of the best-informed
cold-weather camping specialists in
North America.
Bridges first came to the northland as
an Eagle Scout from Little Rock, Ark.,
and served a number of years as a canoe
guide and assistant under former director
Cliff Hanson. With Hanson's retirement
in 1970, Bridges took over the reins.
Based on knowledge gained from
winters on the trap line, where tempera-
tures have hit 45 below and colder,
Bridges began to piece together a cold-
weather Scout program. He devoured ev-
erything available in print concerning
native people of the far north and had
fashioned and tested parkas, mukluks,
Ojibwa, and Creek snowshoes.
On vacation, he visited Sweden, Nor-
way, and Finland where he studied winter
skills of the Lapps and Scandinavian ski
troops. In Boston he toured the Natick
Laboratory at the U.S. Army Research
and Development Center and contacted
American manufacturers specializing in
cold-weather clothing and equipment.
Many of the items first tested in the
Okpik program are in current public use.
"Cold weather is the key to the Okpik
program," Bridges points out. "In north-
ern Minnesota we have subfreezing
weather from December through March.
The Ely area is consistently cold, snow-
covered, and yet accessible by good
roads."
The director also notes that it is no
accident that famed arctic explorer Will
Steger has his training base at Ely. Steger
and key members of his staff have shared
information with Bridges concerning
subzero travel, equipment, and food. An
Okpik alumnus, Bob Mantell, was a
member of the Steger North Pole Expedi-
tion in 1986. Arctic explorer and author
Paul Schurke, another Ely neighbor, oc-
casionally visits with the staff to trade
ideas and swap yarns about skiing, snow-
shoeing, and sled dog travel.
Food used in the Okpik system is being
continually tested and upgraded, Bridges
notes. "It takes 6,000 calories per day to
maintain body comfort in extreme cold.
Nutrition is a high priority in the winter
program, along with compactness, light
weight, ease of preparation, and flavor."
At the Wind Lake campsite, Macomb
Scoutmaster DuWayne Furman pulled his
cardboard food box from the duffel. Like
the rest of the crew, his meals were indi-
vidually packed, his name on the box.
Furman fingered through the contents,
removed a ready-to-eat "retort" foil
pouch meal unit which required only
thawing and heating.
The Scouts had two Coleman Peak 1
stoves hissing in the frigid twilight, a pot
of steaming water on each. Along with
the others, Furman dropped his meal
pouch into the pot used for heating and
dipped a cupful of hot water from the
other to make hot chocolate.
Among the main supper meals were
entrees such as tuna casserole, beans and
tomato sauce, beef and rice, and spaghetti
and meatballs. Other foil pouches con-
tained open-and-eat applesauce, cherry
nut cake, orange or pineapple cake,
squeeze cheese, and squeeze peanut but-
ter. Each food box also held a supply of
pilot biscuits, instant (continued on page 60)
46
October 1990 Scouting
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 78, Number 5, October 1990, periodical, October 1990; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353666/m1/46/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.