Before you make plans to shoot video in the extreme cold you must know how to survive in these conditions.
The first chapter covers the challenges and consequences of just being in this element called COLD.
COLD
To explain what cold is, I first had to find my dictionary.
And I haven't seen that book for years.
So I went to a box of old collage stuff.
Found my Slide Rule but not the dictionary.
Haven't used the Slide Rule since college.
It still worked, but its a lot slower now.
Anyway. Went to the Computer and did the easy thing.
Found Merriam-Webster online and looked up the word COLD.
Here is what they say the meaning of the word COLD is:
Cold - Having a low or subnormal temperature....A weather condition marked by low temperatures.
I better look up the word Temperature.
Temperature - Degree of hotness or coldness measured on a definite scale
Now that sound like a thermometer. Better look that up.
Thermometer - A glass bulb attached to a fine tube of glass with a numbered scale and containing a liquid (as mercury or colored alcohol) that is sealed in and rises and falls with changes of temperature. The hotter it gets the higher the liquid level goes and the COLDER it gets the lower the liquid goes down.
So I thought, maybe I should write about what it takes to survive and shoot video when it gets COLD. I'm talking about when the thermometer looks like it has nothing in it.
We all think that we at sometime in our life have been somewhere COLD.
And one thing that we have in common is that we have all been cold. It's that degree of coldness that I writing about.
I have friends that work on Alaska's North Slope oil fields. During the winter it gets down to -50 below and colder, Carlile Truck drivers who drive the North Slope Haul Road year round say it gets down to -70F below during the winter in several of the low spots along this 414 mile drive.
I'm talking about -30F below and colder.
My coldest experience was Feb 1992 Deadhorse Alaska
-71F below with 30 mile per hour winds.
"If the COLD didn't kill you, then the Polar Bears will.
Here is some short story about the experiences that I have come upon during those travels in the COLD to just to get it on video tape.
Let's start 2 winters ago. Jan 2003 Driving the Alcan Highway, Anchorage to Seattle. This is a 2400 miles drive to get Broadcast video footage (Betacam) of the winter construction on the road between the Alaska Boarder and Whitehorse Canada, and between Teslin and Fort Nelson, Canada. This is what I had along for this trip.
The most important thing to have is a good car. That's our 1998 Subaru Outback S/W all wheel drive.
Also onboard with me was my wife Charlotte and our 2 Cats, Itzee and Stimpy
Plus two large Arctic sleeping bags (good to -60F below) and 2 full Alaska Pipeline Arctic coats & work suits. These work suits alone were all that we needed but the wife said
"I DON'T WANT TO GET COLD" so I took every thing with us.
The next most important thing to have is a GPS and a Satellite phone.
Try to get a SatPhone with good rates, because you will want to call somebody and tell then how beautiful Canada is. At Minus -50F below the air is so clear that it plays tricks on your eyes. You see things in the distance in color. If you live in Los Angeles. then you will have no idea what I'm talking about.
I knew it was going to be COLD when we left Anchorage, and it was minus -15F below zero. And it didn't get any warmer for the next 3 days.
We pulled into Tok Junction, 330 miles North of Anchorage and it was minus -47F below zero. After a great dinner at the Tok Lodge we hit the road again. Cleared Canada Customs at Beaver Creek, 115 miles East from Tok and it was now -66F . At these temperatures it was easy to notice that the Subaru wasn't getting 27 miles per gallon anymore. It's burning fuel at about 15 MPG now. 115 miles and the gas gauge now was at half a tank. Put in $20.00 Canadian of gas in the tank and off we went. Destruction Bay next to the Kluane lake is just another 100 miles. And we had a place to stay for the night at the Kluane Lake Lodge and the Subaru would gets to park inside their large heated shop +75F. This is a Great place to stay.
Park your car inside this big shop that is connected to their café and motel
It was -65F below outside and we didn't even have to put our coats on. Got up the next morning, had a good breakfast. We got into our warm car and pulled outside to top off the gas tank. I should have video taped the Radio Shack digital thermometer. In less then 90 seconds it went for +77F above to minus -65F below zero.
Next stop is Whitehorse 200 miles East. We didn't see many other cars on the road.
Followed an F-350 4X4 gas pickup. We both agreed that were glad we didn't have
his gas bill. Pulled into Whitehorse around noon. Minus -52 here. Checked it to the Westmark Hotel and it's off to get two interviews and some winter construction footage. Got back to the hotel around 7 PM. Covered the top of the cars engine with one of the Arctic sleeping bags and pulled the battery (Sears Diehard GOLD) out and checked it in at the hotels side counter. Get this, a hotel that checks in your car battery. Less chance of a chemical spill that way. You cover the top of you engine because heat rises. This alone keeps the temp in the motor. Our Subaru has 110Vac plug to keep the motor warm. At very low temps if you don't cover the motor them, don't plan on an easy start the next morning.
Got up the next morning. The TV said -58F below todayand -60F at Watson Lake. For thenext 7 hour were not going to expectany heat waves. The Satphone rang at noon. It was my Dad who was in Rarotonga, Cook Island where it was +89F there today.
It was hard to believe that the temp difference was about 150 degrees
between Rarotonga (South seas) and Watson Lake, Canada.
Watson Lake is one of the very few places your car radio works.
Watson Lake has this Radio BINGO game.
You buy that days BINGO card and you play at home or wherever you are.
If you win, then you call in by phone or call the radio station via CB radio to
give them you BINGO card number. The Watson Lake gas station across from all the milepost signs has the fastest gas pump that I have ever seen. A mile down the road was the Watson Lake lodge. You park you car inside a barbed wire lot next to the lodge and walk directly in to the lodge. The hard part of parking in this lot is opening a closing this 10 foot high Barbed wire gate. I covered the front of the car with one arctic bag and the other arctic bag was to cover the hood and front windshield. Leave the heater on LOW.
If you put it on HIGH then it will cool the motor too much and the temp gauge won't even come off the C mark. Even though I'll be leaving the car running during the night you still plug it in. The hotel has a person that goes outside every hour to check on all these running cars and trucks. Their most important job is to clear the tail pipe.
see photo #1. The moisture that comes out the tail pipe drops to the ground and instantly freezes. Over a period of a couple hours this will freeze into a pile that builds upward and will close off the tail pipe. (Photo coming soon.) I took pictures and video of this.
