Brass beads. That's what we used to call them.

I also have a few Klondike Derby patches.

Whoever wrote that article must have frozen brains.

Well, winter camping really is a different skill than summer camping. You have to always be aware of keeping dry, not sweating, finding firewood is difficult, setting up camp is more difficult.

But the way they're doing it seems pretty silly. Better to teach them real winter camping skills...not living in boxes.

Bill Clinton must have this with oak leaf clusters.

Bill Clinton must have this with oak leaf clusters.
Countdown to Iran war mention... 3... 2...


wtf?

stebain

Um, he sleeps with Hillary, okay?

ah.

/

They're trying to make atheists find God. You! Go sleep in the cold!

This is a good thing.

There are few more important skills than knowing how to survive in a variety of conditions. Cold weather camping is a difficult skill, but once learned, adds to an individuals confidence.

So STFU whiners.

I just bribed Guamanians with shiny buttons and such to do it for me.

I love winter backpacking. I have done a lot of it in the Boundary Waters of MN (using either snowshoes or XC skis). It's awesome to reach places you couldn't in the summer due to the frozen lakes/rivers. It really isn't that hard or dangerous if you are properly prepared. And the best thing? No mosquitoes or black flies.

Haven't they always had some kind of badge for sleeping in cold temperatures? I forget what they called it when I was a scout wayyyy back when, but I remember recieving some kind of badge because it was freezing during our overnight campout.

But really you can get soooooo many more freaking badges these days, even ones from the MPAA
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061020-8044.html

TrentSteel68
I think it was "Wilderness Survival"...I got mine back in the early 70's (but we mostly went camping in the winter anyway)-the only reason I was a scout is we went camping every 3-4 weeks when schoolm was in session.

Sleeping in -16F temperatures in a sleeping bag only rated for 0 degrees is fun. There was lots of man-on-man action to stay warm that night.

Weaver95: Oh, right. Because the scouts think letting gay men go on camping trips with young boys is somehow wrong.


I knew my prediction about the next BSA thread would prove true.

Someone's getting mighty defensive about what it took to get his Eagle Scout badges.

stebain: I thought it silly to have one specifically for supercold temperature

Really...?

...Do you know anything about subzero temperatures and just how fast they can affect the body?

idiot

R.O.P.: I love winter backpacking. I have done a lot of it in the Boundary Waters of MN (using either snowshoes or XC skis). It's awesome to reach places you couldn't in the summer due to the frozen lakes/rivers. It really isn't that hard or dangerous if you are properly prepared. And the best thing? No mosquitoes or black flies.

As a person who has spent long stretches of the summer not far from Leech Lake, AMEN to that last bit!!!!!!

what was that gathering called in february each year... i think it was the polar bear jamboree and it was titties man. fiuck'n cold as balls but nothing quite like it.

camping out with your friends, doing shiat and smoking weed. some of the best times of my life.

We went winter camping in Girl Scouts every year (Adirondacks), but we didn't need to have a badge for it. Boy Scouts are so weird.

"Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!"

Slept in a quanzi hut when i was a scout, think my folks have the badge still the attic.

/-40c or colder. been there, didn't like it, but used to it

Used to live in a 1930s house with single pane windows..

You know it's cold when the cat climbs under the blankets with you.. EVERY MORNING..

God, I don't miss that place.

/Got it condemned when I moved out. Duplex--Half Condemned...
//Half of it was already condemned.. I just got the other half condemned.
///Yeah, $335 a month rent rocked, tho...

I spent a very warm evening in an improvised wood-framed and snow-insulated shelter during my last Snowbound weekend. You just have to know what you're doing, is all.

robmilmel: TrentSteel68
I think it was "Wilderness Survival"...I got mine back in the early 70's (but we mostly went camping in the winter anyway)-the only reason I was a scout is we went camping every 3-4 weeks when schoolm was in session.

-At least when I was involved with the BSA, Wilderness Survival was a merit badge that simply involved spending a night outdoors without normal shelter (and an assortment of smaller tasks and lessons, of course). I got mine after a rainy night stuck on an island in the middle of the Delaware.

Writing skills evidently aren't in great demand at North Dakota TV stations.

When I was in scouts, I got a badge for winter camping.

Because I was in the snow.
In a tent.
It hit -40C that night.

Nothing quite like waking up, wearing long underwear, a jogging suit, a toque, two pairs of socks, curled up in a ball in the middle of a winter weight mummy-style sleeping bag and being slightly cold.

/Beating your jeans against your knee to get them flexible enough to wear again is kinda fun
//Unfortunately, you can't do the same thing for the liner to your winter boots

Oh, yeah..

If you want some real fun, ride a motorcycle in 28 degree weather.

/30 degrees, plus 60 MPH equals 5 degrees or so.
//Yeah, I do it. I rock.
///Or I'm nuts... One of the two....

I've only ever been on one camping trip with scouts that it snowed. That was the trip where I discovered that butane doesn't light when it gets really cold out, but matched and the propane-butane mix stove I had do.

Oh, and then there was the wilderness survival experience:

1. Find tree with a low fork in it.
2. Find heavy stick/branch.
3. Find _lots_ of smaller sticks and leaves
4. Assemble
5. Don't forget congestion relief product

Again, mistakes were made, the most notable of which was camping in a fire ban area. And sleeping in a space blanket.

/Eagle Scout
//Would go back for more in a heartbeat

The Boy Scouts are a criminal organization.

Went on a trip a few years ago with a friend of mine. -10 degrees and a foot and a half of snow outside. We had a hatchet, book of matches, two sleeping bags, and a can of beef stew. no tent, just under the stars like its meant to be done.

Didn't get a fire going until 2am since the trees were frozen solid and impossible to chop.

Sounds like they're in training for a future in hoboism.

What's the picture on that badge?

Luthiel

Critical analysis skills arn't in great demand at your station. Its pretty obvious that the 'article' is a tv transcript. Didn't "{Sound}" tip you off? Then the transcript is probably formatted for the web by a script from the original data format (xml maybe?)

At any rate, attacking the 'writing skills' of this 'article' is retarded. Who the hell writes, in an article, "I'm Julie Cronin."? Read it again as a transcript, and you'll see its just an innocuous fluff piece for the local news, and you'd never have thought twice about it had you seen it on tv. Talk about quick to judge.

Eh, its just some local council or unit doing giving out these "zero hero" patch things. There's nothing like this on a national level that I'm aware of.

Oh, and State_College_Arsonist, I say it's about time for a State College Fark Party. If there's any bars in the area that is...they're so hard to find around here...

/Oh, and keep going with the "Boy Scouts are teh ghay" jokes, they're ever so clever and original

And Knowing Is Half The Battle!

Eggman18: Oh, and State_College_Arsonist, I say it's about time for a State College Fark Party. If there's any bars in the area that is...they're so hard to find around here...

-Heh, guess I should update my profile, seeing as I've graduated and moved back to Allentown. A PSU Fark party would have been interesting, though.

My 14 year old nephew got that badge last year. The recorded temperature where he spent the night was -14 degrees F, or -27 with the wind chill. He showed me how it's done. Pretty cool, really (no pun intended).

Most of you think "survival" means losing Pizza Hut's number. Or, more realistically, you think it means mom kicking your ass out of the basement.

State College Arsonist

Eh, no worries. I still think there should be a PSU Fark Party though.

A merit badge for sleeping... uh...

In scouts I learned early on that curling up with the troop leader in cold weather is an essential survival skill. Why are you all making fun of that? I'll laugh over your grave, frozen nancy boys!

The More You Know: The Boy Scouts have a badge for sleeping with Farah Fawcett...

Don't try to read the article all the way through, you'll get dizzy and throw up.

OMG, WORST GRAMMER EVAR!

We didn't get a patch, we got a black bead instead.

In all actuality I've seen this knowledge keep people alive. Much of whats in scouting is in special forces training.

Ive had to use this trick before as well, had a tent zipper fail and I got soaked in 34°F weather, slipped into my extra bag and we threw a tarp up around us. You needn't strip naked and spoon in most situations where you have shelter but getting rid of the wet clothes and doubling up in your thermal barriers (emergency blankets whatnot) can easily save your life.

I've slept with a respirator mask pulling air from inside my bundled sleeping bags with a thermal mask. Properly redressed you can sleep in temperatures down to -45°F EXPOSED (outside) without much risk on your own. There's a fun idea, eh? Still, you have to have some alarm clocks and do two hour tissue checks and buddy up if neccessary.

Mock the boy scouts too much and some old man will remember it and leave you out to die.

The Boy Scouts of America is a bigoted organization. Don't support them any longer until they change their policies.

This isn't anything new. I received a cold-weather camping badge when I was in the boy scouts. Felt like a bit of a cop out though; it was only around 40o when we did the campout for the badge.

Can't remember if that was the badge with the half-naked Indian or if that was from another trip...

/serious about the half-naked Indian

FatherG

I don't remember exactly how cold it was when I got mine, but when we woke up there was a thin layer of ice around the whole tent. It wasn't bad though. But it's colder right now... just got done loading my PA system and staging into the truck, in -12(F) degree air, with -26(F) windchill. That was unpleasant. I can't wait until summer when it's a humid 96 degrees and I'm doing the same thing AND getting sunburned.