Reaction & Commentary
32 degrees and below for our winter combat setups so you have to understand when we talk about just temperate setups anywhere from 33 degrees all the way to you know the max temperature somewhere on the earth at like 124 somewhere around right around there a little bit hotter you think about that giant
Temperature range and the differences in clothing that you’re going to wear in those different environments we talk about winter setups you have to understand that we’re talking about 32 degrees down to around negative 80. so think about that huge variation in temperature very similar from 33 to 124.
So there’s a lot of different setups that we’re going to be talking about now to help me with today’s video I have Adam from spear to systems Adam thank you for coming on to the channel today thanks for having me once again I appreciate you man so uh for me my
Experience in my background is as a survival evasion resistance and Escape instructor for the United States Air Force spent a lot of time teaching the winner as well as Arctic survival spending time in the Arctic Circle quite a bit of time too much time for Adam he
Was a NATO desk Squad member blue helmets all the way so when we’re talking I’m going to be speaking more to the survival the post uh fall of civilization aspect to how you would conduct yourself in a frigid temperature and Adam will be talking more to what so
I’m going to talk more about uh basic skills for winter Warfare from like the infantrymen perspective essentially awesome so it’s going to be a good time so understand that what we’re teaching here we can’t possibly teach you guys enough in this you know 30 hopefully 40 minute
Video right Micah something like that so we’re not gonna be able to teach you everything here this is something that you need to get out that you need to actually do even with a month with two months out in the winter you’re still not going to be an expert at this so
This is going to be something that’s going to be that you need to continually do to keep your skills refreshed keep your gear constantly up to date making sure that you’re making smart choices based on your environment get in the comments make this a place of learned men like
Put good comments in there if you have a lot of experience in these winter conditions please I’d love to hear all your tips and tricks because we only know what we know what our experiences have been so hopefully the comments are awesome like they have been in the other
Wrecking series of videos and I’m excited to see what happens yeah me too so it should be a good time so we’re gonna go ahead and we’re gonna get into it now before we get started we do have to thank the sponsors of this channel uh the Sonoran Desert Institute if you’re
Looking to get your start in Gunsmithing they are awesome we can’t thank them enough for sponsoring this channel a big thank you to them we of course have what Micah primary arms and their Optics work in the snow they actually do yeah they’ve done the other person’s actually a good choice
Um a big thank you to them for sponsoring the channel and unlike the phone that you’re watching this on the camera that we’re film filming this on AAC ammunition is made in America go and give them your support we can’t thank them enough for sponsoring the ammo for
This particular Channel not as much shooting on this particular video but they are mega mega based is that the let’s go let’s get into it yeah yeah jump jump to start this one ready hey welcome back so getting into it um they’re a lot [ __ ] dumb so getting into it there
Are a lot of things that we can talk about we’re gonna be talking about three main topics today the first one is going to be clothing then we’re going to be talking about combat setups which is going to include anything from the kit we’re wearing to the rifles that we have
On us and finally we’ll talk a little bit about sustainment again this is a very large broad topic we’ll try to get as much of it as we can now going straight into it let’s talk about clothing it’s gonna go boom boom darling clothing We’re gonna go ahead we’re gonna broach the most is it is it uh controversial topic yeah I would say no camouflage I would say it’s the most controversial all right let’s talk about it so to start off with snow camouflage what do you want to say about it yeah so
Uh there’s a lot of arguments for you know how to camouflage in the in a winter Warfare environment and defining uh winter Warfare as we did it could maybe it could potentially not have any snow right it could just it could just be open terrain still just very cold so
Tell me not to you look like a Yeti just completely yeah avoid uh we want to avoid being well camouflage principles are the same regardless of the environment sure so we want to avoid being solid uh with any color right we want variation uh when we’re when we’re
Talking about like Target detection uh metrics we’re looking for uh human the humans are you know mind is conditioned to look for the human humanoid shape right so anything we can do to break that up snow very pure white snow is the is maybe one of the only exceptions
Where it is acceptable to start having more of a solid color palette on your on your kit but generally generally we don’t find that environment right the one guy living in the north yeah it was like well Adam I do yeah well an Arctic right and we get into the Arctic regions
Uh we’re we’re looking at the the traditional over white you know overweight pants uh bunny boots or even white uh over white top helmet cover face mask everything can be white but anywhere below that regen is gonna be mixed in with some kind of uh different camouflage variation and admittedly over
Whites that have slight color variations still are preferable to solid white agreed solid white such as this one this is I brought this one along which you guys commented it is brand new it looks like a science lab coat uh one of the things I’ll say about all of your over
Whites is that they actually they don’t work better when they start to get soiled so a misconception something I hear thrown around a lot is you know just let it get dirty you actually want to try to preserve the the crisp white on there but a good this is I think it’s
The M51 designation uh it’s nylon so it’s not very heavy it has its own little stuff pouch this is military issue you can find these at surplus stores uh most troops in Alaska probably still get issued these uh Fort Drum is going to get is these you can take like
Green spray paint and some grass and just hit this with paint that’s why I prefer just the solid white for me is because I can take this they’re relatively cheap and if I know I’m going to a different region like say here in Idaho where there’s a lot of brown grass
I could take Browns and add that in if I’m going somewhere there’s a lot of evergreen trees then I can add green into it just using a little bit of paint it’s very easy to go dark on a white surface so can’t go back from there you can never
Go back there are a ton of camouflage patterns when it comes to snow it’s going to be situationally dependent environmentally dependent I see a lot of arguments right now especially in terms of do you wear the overwhite top you wear the over white bottoms and it’s
Going to be it depends in a forest environment you’re going to want to do probably bottoms and now an environment like this where it’s splotchy against hillsides with rocks it really doesn’t matter yeah so again it’s going to depend on your environment so the first
Thing we want we want to do is ensure that we’re not a casualty of just trying to purely live so we’re going to start the very bottom of our bodies right here with our feet which is Adam’s favorite part and talk about what’s the most important ways to keep ourselves from
Dying so we’re going to talk for the record these are my least favorite part of the discussion so when we talk about feet the most important thing is going to be keeping them as dry as possible here’s where it gets weird I can say what I believe what
I do for my feet you can have a guy in my in the very same unit that I was in be like that it’s [ __ ] I never did that that’s incorrect everybody’s bodies are a little bit different some people are super sweaty like Adam some people
Aren’t as sweaty so you’re going to have different things that you need to do with your socks whether it be how often you rotate them out Etc but keep your feet as dry as possible so Merino wool socks is pretty much the go-to whether it be smart wool darn tough though those
Are the two brands that we were mostly issued it’s what I’ve used anywhere from you know Washington to the Arctic Circle and they’ve all worked very well for me same for your socks yeah I agree and I think that you know we’re we’re constantly combating just like I know on
The whole winter Warfare thing you’re you’re really it’s different than any other environment sure is in in terms of you know how we fight Wars or how a traditionally Western countries fight Wars uh we’re very good at you know in an infantry unit being like we’re gonna
Occupy this area there’s gonna be no lights there’s going to be no sounds you’re gonna lay in a hole somewhere and you’re just going to accept the environment for what it is that’s that can’t happen in the winter Warfare environment you you cannot ignore it anymore right yeah you cannot and I made
That mistake when I was in the Arctic Circle um I I didn’t have the correct Footwear on which we’ll talk about in just a moment and my toes are going numb and I’ve dealt with it before in less cold environments sure uh you know like 10
Degrees I was like oh it’s fine the warm-up but it was negative uh 60 on that day and uh sure enough I got frost snip on my on my feet because I wasn’t handling it correctly and I felt really dumb because I was uh I was an experienced guy that really shouldn’t
Have happened but I let it lapse for for an hour and that was all it took so big thing is going to be it sounds so stupid changing your socks right keep making sure that you keep dry socks on the typical way of handling it is
The U socks the wet socks tuck them in your waistband As you move your body heat will help dry them out or when you sleep at night put them under your lower back or underneath your knees that will help them drought as well throughout the night that goes for all of your clothes
As well under the knees is what I typically did if I had a sleeping bag if I was sleeping in absolutely from your socks uh by the way don’t double sock it that’s too much pressure so right here we have lows which are really good boots down to around 10 degrees these are
Gore-Tex they’ll keep a lot of the water out however what I found is that continuous movement not just for a day because I have I hear a lot of people argue that oh I use these boots for hunting and they’re fine and we’re not talking about just like a day or two of
Being out in this environment we’re talking months we’re talking possibly a year of living an environment and what boots do best typically full grain leather yep agreed um what we were issued were the kenattract mountain Hunter 400s I’ve had mine since 2014 when they were first issued and long as you treat that
Leather with snow seal or some type of wax sealant they’re going to last you a very long time if you get any gaps fill those in with shugu or some type of super glue that’s going to keep them operational for a long period of time what was your kind of go-to boot for
These environments yeah so I mean I used a mixture of I’ve actually just got the counter tracks on your recommendation I’ve been using them now for exactly one day great so far the babies first to the counter tracks but uh I used a full Leather Oslo boots for a long time same
Principle they’re not a they don’t have as tall of yeah yeah we were issue those as well yeah yeah they’re awesome yeah and they’re in their leather they have synthetic versions as well I prefer the leather same reasons they can be treated they can be field repaired there’s a lot
Of nuance to leather but you can maintain it longer and it uh the synthetics once they become permeable once water has soaked through it you’re done for the duration hello frostbite yeah you’re going to get frostbite it’s going to be over so to heat to treat them uh what you’re going
To do is your takes in my case snow seal smother that wax on hit it with a heat gun that’s going to permeate and soak into the leather and you’re going to keep doing that until it no longer soaks in those treatments will typically last you on heavy movements around five to seven
Days depending on temperature and then you’ll need to retreat those so if you’re not heating that leather up and getting that that wax into the leather it’s not going to last very long at all so you need to make sure that you do heat those boots up yeah um go ahead and
I mean generally a leather boot I would use and uh you know that sub Alpine terrain where I don’t need any kind of cramp on or anything like that uh if we’re you know so we’re kind of framing this in that environment if you I just
Want to put out for all the Alpine guys we know there’s a different boot style a two-piece boot we’re going to wear when we go above the snow line of course up there or the Alpine line and we start trekking around with with crampons on
And uh in a wet environment so if you’re in somewhere like Fort Drum right in that region where you have a lot of low land a lot of swamp actually and it’s uh cold very cold um we’re going to switch over to the actually the military-issued bunny boots
Yep right there Vapor boots that have you know the other air layer but they are 100 percent non-permeable so you can trudge through a swamp or you can have a lot of mud and your feet are never going to get they just can’t get wet but they
Will sweat more you’ll have more you know you’ll lock in moisture so the same principles with socks you have to be changing your socks out constantly to keep the you know the inside of the boot dry and that’s that’s how I got frost stamp on my toes I should have been
Wearing bunny boots that day sure um again the kind of tracks will work down to around negative 20 negative 30 below that put muck Lux over them and then when you get down to about honestly negative 40 I’ll probably move over to about it that’s enough on boots
Um kind of in conjunction with those you should wear Gators that’s kind of a go-to Gators are like my like best friend from 50 all the way to like almost negative 80. like they they work in every environment they’re going to keep a lot of that moisture from getting
Into your sock highly recommended uh there’s a lot of good companies I generally would say Auto gear is kind of one of my favorites right now that I use quite a bit are you with the uh The Outdoor Research I have that’s what I currently have yeah both are really good
Find one that works for you we were issued the black ones back in the day but now the technology is good works can be multicam coyote probably don’t buy the multi-game Alpine unless you’re always in the store but again Gators uh going up to pants this gets pretty
Nuanced as well yeah do you want to speak to this yeah so so for tactical movement I’m all the layers right so I’m not wearing anything uh I’m gonna be well I’m wearing something you guys are going to edit that into something it’s something bad yeah for tactical movement
I’m not wearing a lot of layers I’m going to wear just my uh uniform layer maybe maybe a base layer under that if it’s depending on how dry the snow is I may opt for like a soft shell pack part of the ecwick systems that the Army
Issues has a soft shell layer so I may wear a very extreme cold I’ll wear a base layer with that over the top of it when we start getting into you know with with war fighting we’re often in a transitional environment where you’re carrying heavy loads because it’s snow
We have to carry a lot more stuff double everything uh and so we’re gonna be carrying all that weight you’re just going to sweat it’s you know I’ve tried everything every 25 mile road March that I did I would like try different things what I always came back to is that
Preserving my my hands and my feet and my ears and my face are really the only things that I can manage the rest of my body is just going to be soaked and you know I’m going to manage the body heat issue when I stop right I’m going to
Take wet layers off I’m going to put on different layers and then go static and then when I start moving again I’m gonna put that wet shitty stuff back on yeah and then start going when we talk to the survival side of things it’s going to be
A little bit different a big thing for us is what we the big Mantra if you for my sear guys are going to know or people have been to Syria it’s ration sweat not water what we mean by that is drink water you need to drink the water but
Sweat is if it can be avoided avoided uh we say a lot in survival be as lazy as you can and that certainly applies in a more survival more society’s broken that environment like what I’m going to be speaking to so generally what we say is start cold I’m
Sure that’s something you’ve been told as well and the military is easy because if somebody didn’t want to be cold you could order them to be cold yeah it’d have to take off layers take that layer off um you know on your own you have to be a
Little bit more disciplined make sure that you start cold because the last thing that you want to be doing is sweating because especially as we get into those frigid environments zero to you know negative 50 and Below you start sweating and you stop that sweat’s gonna freeze and you’re looking at some very
Serious complications from that so the last thing that we want to do in those very cold environments is sweat so you need to make sure that you are using layers to ensure that you’re not getting to that point and so just like Adam said typically just combat pants or if it’s
Really wet maybe some type of soft shell Gore-Tex is kind of my last resort because Gore-Tex is loud and it could possibly Telegraph your position sure in certain situations so again find what’s going to work depending on how cold it is and go from there but generally pants
Don’t need insulation as far as I’m concerned until you get into negative yeah until you’re static highly sad and that’s all the caveats everything is if you’re posting you know winter Warfare again we’re gonna a tactical movement is going to consist of maybe a platoon-sized element or a company size
Element moving uh in Echelon or whatever to get to a location and it’s not the same as you know traditionally most infantry men recognize setting up a patrol base you know you kick out your security you know the command center goes in this you know start priorities
Of work and you just kind of dig in and suffer but it’s not really suffering because it’s pretty warm and you’re fine maybe you’re sweating actually because it’s just like it’s a jungle so you’re not you’re not doing things the same in the winter Warfare environment we’re selecting a location where you know
We’re doing a really really big dog leg and we’re setting in like an ambush line to cover you know our tracks that we just walked through and then we’re uh we’re setting up an Arctic tent you know we’re in priorities of work are very different we have a lot of static
Positioning we have guys going out on security who might be there for a few few hours and so then we started that’s when we start having you know heavier layers and even pants right uh to where you have a guy you’re asking a guy to
Lay in the snow in the prone static for an hour plus uh in negative temperatures he’s got to have Loft layers and things like that but for movement yeah you’re just you just can’t afford to have the layers on you’re going to start cold you’re going to end wet and then you’re
Going to have to transition that clothing off because your layers are really there to keep you dry and being dry is what keeps you warm so we’re going to go to the most important thing which is going to be the Torso so the Torso gets hot quick there’s a lot of
Blood flow there so the most important rule is cotton kills stay away from cotton as much as possible use a athletic Performance Tee some type of inner wool layer right here I have the first spear wool t-shirt on that works really well no cotton t-shirt so bad yes never got
Um from there there’s a this is going to be completely dependent on the temperature at which you’re at but in general you want a wicking layer an insulating layer in a weather layer now those can be stacked in a lot of different ways generally how I would
Typically run it down to any temperature is obviously the wool undershirt I would almost always use the waffle top that’s like a given for almost every environment because it’s so versatile sure and it works so well and then depending I would either use an arcterics atom LT now I’d probably go to
Audi because I don’t like Chinese companies yeah synthetic something synthetic exactly to keep you really warm and then typically it’s going to be my camouflage layer over that so in this case I have an overwhite over that this is from art kiss that works well if I
Don’t use that I’ll typically use a multicam wind shirt I’ve worn that tons of times and that’s what’s worked really well for me sure yeah so on the you know for me on the Tactical side uh again usually movement is you know either movement to a patrol base or movement to
Contact uh so we’re going to want to be able to rapidly shed layers and that’s kind of the name of the game for like how am I surviving I’m on my snowshoes and I’m kind of trudging along and then we make contact uh how am I ditching
That equipment uh and how you know making decisions on where that equipment is going to go if I’m ever going to be able to recover it again that we’re fighting you know people and an environment which is it changes how we react to things so you know this is kind
Of the bread and butter uh the you know the this is the level seven parka this is the Air Force cut issue one they were a little long it’s it’s it’s a linebacker size go Air Force so you know if you’re short like me it goes really
Really far down almost your ankles if you’re a little taller like you like a tiny bit taller then you’re not that short yeah I’m not that short yeah he’s not like completely average some would say big yeah big yeah for no I’m not but for you it would go a little bit you
Know maybe above the knee or right at the knee uh so that’s a layer though that I can put over pretty much everything that I’m wearing to stay warm and then if I need to I can rapidly just you know shed it you guys have seen in
The other video mine’s modified I do have clips that I just clip this into my carrier into my chest rig so that I can retain it if I pull my arms out of the sleeves I can still you know bound forward it’s a cloak yeah it’s definitely a cloak uh downside is that
When you’re wearing like a high Loft it’s it’s hard to camouflage it’s gray it’s you know it doesn’t blend in very well and it’s uh it’s kind of difficult to wear the over white top over it my overweight top is actually part of the layering system for me because there is
Like a minor amount of with this nylon version when cutting also a little bit of warmth from it especially when you’re moving quick quick drying material so I would use you know integrate that in there but the layering is pretty much the same what you described once we get to where
We’re going all right you got you’re going to take off like a lot of the sweaty stuff you’re going to put on I’m preserving a lot of my Waffle top or like something like this you know the synthetic fleece I’m preserving that and then I’m putting that on when I get
Somewhere after I’ve dried you know dried my torso off I’m going to start putting layers on to try to retain the heat that I’ve basically generated from moving agreed on all that and that kind of gets us to our hands right here so this is going to be really important
Because of Any area you’re going to get Frost sip it’s probably going to be your fingertips or your toes gloves uh you need to keep your hands warm and in many environments you 100 need them there are many options out there so one that I’ll
Speak to right off the bat is going to be an inner liner this is going to be important they can be something like this where it’s a simple synthetic very thin layer you can use the United States government issue wool those work really well actually and they’re super cheap to
Be clear you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get good kits um if you’re wearing a liner often for really cold environments so like in the Arctic whether it be using big old mitts again you know it’s this government issue and extremely effective
I’ve used this exact pair of gloves in the Arctic Circle and they did awesome in keeping my hands warm because when you keep your fingers together they stay a lot warmer so as cool as all these like very cool tactical gloves are if you’re in a very cold environment you
Need myths right here we have Surplus Swiss shooting gloves as you can see we have a little finger right there it looks awkward but you can still pull the trigger even with these knits on so these are generally what I use when I’m I’m in a really cold environment I’ll
Use a combination of the skd pig winter gloves along with the mitts and that tends to work really well until it gets incredibly cold and I need to move to big old fat it’s a sort of I don’t know anything that’s different for you yeah I mean same same principles again uh for
For you know kind of that winter Warfare we’re gonna we’re gonna always have our mittens on us uh kind of as an sop they’re gonna be worn like a child like a small child around your neck and you’re going to have have them you know if you don’t need them at the moment
They can be draped you can also clip them to your belt you know just keep them on hand uh we’re all on hand we’re gonna keep we’re gonna that was a joke dude I got it it was good you’re getting they’re gonna have we’re definitely gonna have that as far as liners right
Thumb is wearing off on you or wearing on to you fingers or those that looks weird fingers are so important to uh well I mean everyday life even if you’re not in a combat area but they’re they’re so critical that you know we would always carry multiple pairs of of the
Liners uh you need to be able again keep your hands dry and if you ever misplace one or drop a drop a glove somewhere or something you have a backup you have a spare set and I just brought you know I don’t carry every single pair of these
But there’s different options like full synthetics usually when it’s a little less cold and then we start getting into like heavier fleeces which all of these can be worn underneath like a big Mitten like this I’ve still found that these leather mittens these are very old uh issue they rock yeah they’re great
Mittens and I still haven’t really found anything that’s better as far as like 10 bucks yeah you get them off I mean you can get them at any surplus store they have you know they have a liner that does go in them uh you can buy extra
Liners you can swap them out and as far as keeping your hands warm for like Sentry Duty like duration stuff right again that guy who’s got to just be on the line uh he’s going to keep his hands inside of inside of these mittens your trigger guard on your weapon is actually
Designed if you have a you know standard like a stanag version uh not build it or something like that that trigger guard has a pen that you can you know swing your trigger guard down that’s why it’s actually a mitten access for for your carbine so you can drop that and I’m
Just saying if you have a full Mitten like this you can still use your firearm with the Mitten on which it does get cold enough on the planet so where you could be sustaining a combat operation and wearing a high Loft top and mittens it’s possible yeah fairly recently yeah
It’s possible so it’s very possible knowing those those techniques the the Army does make an issued set of trigger mittens as well I found them to not be anywhere near as good as yourself I agree I would stray away from those these those mittens are also good
Find the ones that work for you again it’s gonna be environmentally dependent and also depending on you on how much you sweat if you’re a very sweaty man uh finally moving over to the Head there’s a lot of talk here because typically if you’re at uh danger of
Being shot at you’re going to have a helmet on so a lot of people get pretty um I guess confused heated unsure of how to integrate head warming along with the helmet and the best way to describe it is if it’s cold enough to where you need
Some type of Beanie something to keep your head warm otherwise you’re going to go hypothermic then you’re going to have to accept the fact that it’s going to lift the helmet off of your head a little bit more uh again if without that if you’re going to die then clearly you
Have to accept that that kind of um trade-off there’s nothing’s free in Water World right Micah and water works but there are a lot of different companies who make um liners are specific four helmets to be worn in helmets typically I’ve just used the the old issued Polar Tech this
Pullovers the police they’re cheap they’re like five bucks and you can just get them from a surplus store you don’t need to spend a bunch of money on them and especially when this video comes out it’s kind of getting to the tail in the winter get all those deals get all the
Deals for sure I’m here for you I’m a man of the people I would uh I would caution people against uh buying any in in this category the issued Polar Tech fleece hat great option you can find them at surplus stores especially in like the ACU palette like ACU Army Combat Uniform
The ugly one uh you can find a lot in that uh you can find you know this is smart wool this is a wool one this is just more of a liner and these work great for movement when you’re when you’re moving and it’s still cold enough
To where your ears are gonna maybe get frostnep this will uh you’ll sweat on the top but the sides will save relatively dry they’re very nice so this will fit on your helmet really well impressive something thicker like this I don’t know why you said that to me it’s
So weird you’re just a thick boy dude so uh something like this is going to be when we go static we’re gonna we’re gonna pull that out again uh this is something that gloves hat gloves and some kind of uh non-permeable layer or something that always go on patrol with
Me no matter what so I’m gonna have a hat of some sort um I think that the Army issued the thing I want to caution you about the Army issued watch cap which is in like an acrylic oh yeah just don’t buy those uh you find a true
Wool blend like a Merino wool like the beanie that we sell right that one is a true it’s not going to make your head itchy if you buy an acrylic or a polyester blend uh beanie that’s where you’re going to get that weird like headache yeah yeah you can just feel
Like the you don’t want that and especially none of those versions are going to work under I can’t get like a little shiver when you scratch it though it feels good no I don’t like it I like it at all kind of addicted to it at this point
Um so we’ve talked a lot about clothing the point is the reason why we spent so much time on it is you don’t want to die simply from the elements now we’ve talked all about the clothing we’re going to get into the combat sustainment But the funny the funniest thing about this is the first thing we’re going to talk about when it comes to combat sustainment is going to be water because you can’t fight without water and obviously in in you know when it’s getting closer to 32 it’s really not
That difficult to get water you can get it from frozen rivers and streams in that case just use iodine tablets they take a lot longer to work in those environments make sure you wait about double the time for it in that case don’t forget to turn your canteen upside
Down unthread the cap a little bit let that iodine run into the thread gaps because if you don’t get those thread craps you can still get Giardia from those from the edges of it but where it gets a little bit crazier as we get into the truly cold Arctic temperature so
That’s what I’m going to speak to mostly um in those environments the only way to keep water from freezing is to actually have it within your layers and for people who haven’t been in those Arctic conditions it might seem a little bit odd to because you’ve always heard I
Know back in the day they’re like never get water in your layers because then it’s going to you know blow up and then you’re gonna freeze to death but the only way to keep water from freezing is to have it on your body usually I keep
It just over my fleece you can see a picture right here from me in the Arctic Circle you see that little red string that I have on and that’s a little bag of water and then as I’m moving as I’m doing combat movement or as I’m in my case surviving or thriving
Survive when you can Thrive sure um I’m feeding it with snow not you’re not packing it into it but you’re feeding it as you’re drinking to make sure that it’s melting because again if you if you feed too much you’re going to really sap your body heat it’s definitely a balance um
The fact of the matter is is that being in those environments is just really tough in the human body and there’s not a whole lot you can do besides a little bit of suffering true that’s very true I have one I want I have a mole again
Here with with clothing now hit me I want to talk about the booty I want to talk about the booty version okay talk about that um so for the Alpine guys they’re going to recognize uh looks a lot like an inner boot for a hard shell mountaineering boot these are
I wouldn’t even I wouldn’t say that they’re critical but what I found is that when we get into patrol-based activities in Winter Warfare there’s a lot of things that we’re keeping outside yeah we’re keeping our weapons outside yeah which is unfamiliar to most people uh but we’re also keeping our boots if
Especially if they’re a shelled boot we’re keeping that outside but you can wear those inner boots you know as kind of a booty inside your sleeping bag to keep your feet you know generally your feet get cold uh very quickly a lot of like hard for circulation you get down
There so you can wear those but if if you’re wearing something like a counter track and you know these are very light they don’t there’s not a big penalty but they’re great for those patrol-based activities yes right getting boots dry if you’re using uh some kind of stove
And everybody is is putting their boots in to get them dry which happens you guys get stoves you gotta carry it man or else you’re gonna die yeah so we uh you know you can put all your boots somewhere to dry and then you can still have Footwear that if something did
Happen I mean you can censor these up still get out outside of the tent grab your weapon go to a fighting position so something uh something worth looking into even if you’re just uh you know camping but they’re nice so from water moving into food um one thing I learned in these truly
Cold conditions is that literally everything freezes um whether it be your boots leather every single thing that you own will freeze solid so that goes food um water you can’t of course let freeze solid because you will die very quickly you can go three days without water but
I will tell you from experience that after about 48 Hours you are basically useless and you were just waiting to die at that point when it comes to food your fat asses can go much longer without food your food no matter what you do is going to freeze solid there is not a
Damn thing you can do about it so you need to make sure that you have food that can survive being frozen and then when you’re ready to eat put that [ __ ] in your pocket about an hour to two hours depending on how cold it is before you’re ready to eat and just munch
Typically I’d use granola bars a little like those those like bars we’d make with like peanut butter and protein and all that kind of stuff the best thing that I can recommend and is fat fat is going to warm you up in an Arctic condition so much faster than anything else
Protein especially is really going to mess you up it pulls a lot of water a lot of calories so you got to eat like a fat body carbs and fat is what’s going to keep you warm it’s immediate energy and you can literally feel like the warmth like moving through you I can
Think of like being in the Arctic and like getting like a piece of fat from like an animal and eating it and just like yeah you can feel it like immediately well and also fats are uh you pay the least amount of weight penalty you do for fat so when you look
At energy energy density and and food uh you know a bottle of olive oil although you would think that is very heavy don’t just bring a bottle of olive oil yeah just an example but you think it’s very heavy it’s actually for per calorie density is it’s the lightest thing that
You could bring is literally a bottle of liquid so you know think when you’re planning your meals or thinking about it if you have the luxury on your own you should be looking at a lot of fats you’re going to need double rations is for combat sustainment is what the Army
Would tell you the Army does issue you two MRE variations for cold weather it’s still free solid they do they do but they uh but they’re going to carry you uh in that you know getting below 30 degrees uh if you’re in that range you know zero 30 or whatever you’re gonna
Have a better chance at preparing those meals and eating them they also come there’s a cold weather MRE I think the cold weather they do yeah they all freeze but they uh they’re freeze-dried and whereas they do normally a normal MRE is solid it’s just gonna it has a
Lot of liquid content it’s going to free solid the cold weather MREs have uh double the rations in them so double snacks double main meals all that so you have more energy density there whatever food you choose make sure that you try the diet for a couple days to a week
Before you yes just have it with you because before you do that the last thing you want to be doing is [ __ ] your brains out and dying exactly that’s a great that’s a great dumb way to die dumb ways yeah dumb ways of time that’s it
Michael can you put that in all right it doesn’t like it’s like I’m not gonna put that in yeah that’s really funny guys um so from water and food we go into our basic combat loadouts here we’re going to speak pretty generally there’s a lot to be said So going to our rifle setups here pretty basic but you don’t want your rifle just to be a straight black blob you want to make sure that it is on its own camouflage again there’s a lot of variation even in Arctic environments or cold environments and then if you really
Want to break up your rifle a little bit more you don’t need to go crazy no add a little bit of co-band a little bit of white tape and it’s going to do a lot to break up the outline of your gun I see a lot of people Going Hammer they’re like
Completely spray painting their guns white and unless you’re in a truly Arctic environment I generally don’t recommend that I don’t recommend it either now going to Optics and Lube as well are going to be the kind of two main considerations for me when it comes to my rifle so first off Optics
Especially anything that’s battery powered and this is going to kind of carry over into a couple other things but your batteries are going to die really really fast unless you have that really special AimPoint optic that’s made for the Arctic anything else is going to die quickly because once the
Battery gets cold and it’s turned on it drains it super quick I generally recommend in some type of prism or some type of well-built low-powered variable optic or something like that in this case we have an attacker from Nightforce so those work really well elk inspectors
Acogs they tend to survive a lot of the Optics that aren’t rated for those environments they will break teeth on the ratcheting mechanisms and they’ll fail so find something that’s robust and that’s going to work and again try it in the environment before you actually just
Rely on it wholly a big thing is going to be scope caps in this case we have the scope caps from 100 Concepts which is one of my favorite new scope caps I really love them have you seen those yeah I use them as well oh really yeah I
Do we’re best friends there we go they’re super cool um you need to have scope caps if you don’t have scope caps you’re going to get water on your lens or you’re going to get so in your lens and it’s going to freeze and then you’re going to go to
Bring your weapon up to shoot whoever you need to shoot an armed polar bear and uh you’re just going to see ice and you’re going to die yep just immediate death yeah we we talk a lot about this uh Optics batteries you know keeping your batteries close to your body yes like
You do actually if you’re a military and you have a pbs31 issued the battery pack is actually the designation is a cold weather battery pack right so you know wear the battery pack in the cold weather because or else your knobs are going to die in an hour or something
Like that uh sooner yeah it’s like very very short what’s that Meme at JBLM it’s like it’s like raining and cold and you turn off your PD you turn on your pds31s it’s like immediate flashlights because that means it’s about to die the battery is dead you just scream at the sky and
Uh I mean the Optics are you know preserving your Optics is critical it’s uh it’s really crucial I like setups that have dual like Duality like this something quality of man a duality of Optics so yeah you have you have something that is uh just magnified and
Is is not battery operated you know you also have something on the top that you can rapidly use if you need to we’ll die within a couple days that’s going to be dead in a couple days yeah so you’re going to be Point shooting after that but um another consideration with rifles is
That you actually you know supersonic ammunition being fired out of a rifle in a cold weather environment is actually going to uh create a uh a fog of it’s a vapor stream it’s vapor go as it cuts through the air everybody’s seat well not erasing bullet Trace some people say
They’ve seen it and they’ve never seen it but it seems obviously but yeah totally personal uh you’re gonna you’re gonna see that uh when you’re shooting long range but it’s happening every time you shoot you’re cutting through it was a vapor trail and then that vapor trail
Turns to ice if it’s cold enough very very rapidly uh so if you’re in a fighting position you’ll be firing and that Vapor will be coming back that ice layer will be coming back towards your weapon uh getting into your optic lenses they’re going to start freezing up your
Eye Pro if you’re wearing it it’s gonna start having those issues so in cold weather you know if you’re if you’re holding a position you’re always building every position actually has two positions and the shooter is going to transition between the two positions because that Vapor line is actually
Going to be dry exactly in your line of sight yeah uh so yeah weapon considerations lubricants snacks yep lubricants have a cold weather lubricant there’s tons out there you need to completely completely degrease your weapon yes before you put that Lube in because any of that any bit of that lube
That’s not rated for that environment will freeze absolutely [ __ ] solid and you’re just you’re it’s over at that point um another consideration is not bringing your weapon in you talked about it do you want to explain that to people I’m sure it’s very confusing yeah so generally you’re going to have some kind
Of uh you know military side you have some kind of Arctic tent you’re gonna you’re gonna set this thing up it’s very quick when you are trained to do it you’re going to set it up you’re going to start warming the tent you’re going to be rotating centuries in and out of
The tent and there’s going to be a massive guys who are trying to sleep in the tent at any given time all those people who are in the tent their weapons are actually going to be staged normally you’ll dig uh some kind of weapons rack out of snow and then you’re just going
To Stage the weapons when you bring a cold you know cold item into a hot environment it starts to condensate that condensation will freeze the minute you get back outside if it’s really condensated the um you know again your bolt carrier group and that will freeze
Just shut yeah I mean you could cause your weapon to like actually explode lots of issues so uh you want to keep them out weapons maintenance is still has to be conducted especially on the machine guns you know who’s a great resource for this is if you have any
Canadian Army friends they are very familiar with what lubricants work at what temperature variations hit them up for sure one of the guys who knows a lot about this is wardol oh yeah in Canada he can tell you like specific temperature variations and you say like use this kind of lubricant that’s what
The you know he learned in his his time in the Canadian military yeah condensation is bad if you’re bringing a machine gun in you’re going to let it reach the temperature of the tent you’re going to completely clean it complete disassembly clean everything get it back into service re-lubricate it put it back
Out in the out in the field so take care of your weapons this is going to be the big thing so from our weapons we’re going to be talking a little bit about our combat loadouts and our sustainments so we’ll go ahead and put that on obviously here on Grantham we have
Banned Spirit assistance because it’s just so bad right Micah really good yeah I appreciate it appreciate it just kidding we love Spirit assistant skit we use a bunch of it so talking about combat loadouts obviously uh R2 combat loadouts our kits are going to be different based on what
We’re doing so I’m talking more to a survival aspect of it so for me my chest rig is simply to hold ammunition we have the Reiki rig for my company of course I got to wrap my own stuff yeah it’s good um thank you your rig is really nice
Yeah thank you yeah no problem so we have the Ricky rig right here so I can hold quite a bit of mags I also have some general purpose pouches one not released and of course I do have a security assistance pouch right here so I can add either magazines I can add
Extra gear equipment whatever I need to have on me but the point is this is for a quick for a react to contact putting a mass amount of fire out as I need it right there now I also do have integration with my pack itself so on my
Pack I also do have magazine pouches again Spirits magazine pouches good job um because you never know what you’re going to need in this case in our Sabrina spouses right here we have our typical surprise AIDS is actually incendiary it’s pretty cool yeah that’s awesome yeah perfect you want to pop it
Yeah yeah so whatever you may need in there on the opposite side in more temperate environments I carry a lot of bug juice on me because I don’t want to die um typically in these environments I’ll have some type of Rangefinder or some type of small pair of binoculars or
Something like that I might switch the pouch out because you need to be able to ID and especially in an Arctic like a truly Arctic environment it’s really hard to tell distance so I like those small things that help you out just a little bit if you want to talk to your
Kid your kid’s a little bit more full feature than what I have on yeah so again it gets like very personal yeah and your job role is going to change uh you know based on whatever unit you’re in and what kind of actions you’re taking I still prefer to have some kind
Of split rig on the front in the Arctic Warfare piece of this I like to be able to adjust my you know my rig for prone right so I like to be able to just basically unclip and push this to the side so that I can be in the prone I I
Also can buckle this behind my back while I’m manipulating my ski poles things like that so I like to get it kind of out of the way when I’m doing that more of like a kind of like a backpack on there but really the principles are the same like you know
Prioritizing ammo storage on the front uh I carry big GPU pouches and they’re in this it’s variable is what they might hold if it’s getting cold enough I might be taking all my batteries out of my GPU where they normally are and I might be putting them inside of my you know my
Layers absolutely inside of my hand warmer where my you know like where I can keep them close to my body and a little bit more a little more heat on them so they’re not dying immediately when I put them back in my PBS 30 ones uh so yeah I mean
That’s that’s essentially it it’s not really changing much from you know my combat load in any other environment absolutely right yeah so a little bit different again mine’s more for pack integration for moving over long distances is much more for whether it be skeeple manipulation or getting into
Fighting positions yeah sure it’s going to depend on what you’re doing exactly it’s very personal No One’s Gonna No One’s Gonna Make fun of you but what I would say though is that multicam we’re both wearing multicam and this is uh this is something that is somebody in
The comments will talk about how this should be Alpine and we’ve actually we’ve actually sold quite a few Alpine rigs to some of the mountain Warfare centers in the U.S sure for guys let’s say somebody in California some people in California as well uh but people who are working in a Alpine environment
Constantly who are like we’re always in the snow right that it makes a lot of sense to to have one I would still argue that color variation this is adding a lot of variation to to wearing it over the overweight you have a lot of color
Variation on the front is going to just help him blend in better he’s not going to look like a white blob anymore so your kid is fine abominable snowman abominable snowman it’s like it’s it’s breaking up your it’s breaking up your image and it’s it’s the right answer so
Don’t fret having you know multi-cam or air or whatever that word fret yeah I don’t think it’s good yeah don’t be sad just wear it over the top of your over white and you’ll be fine and that’s a whole argument right there about putting over whites over your kid
Or not sure it just depends on where you are I mean again if you’re in a completely white environment what I like to do is I look at the Horizon and that making a decision almost maybe multiple times a day of if we’re going to remove
Over white tops we’re going to put them back on you might just throw it over because like Hey we’re passing through a lot of hilly terrain that’s open and we’re going to throw our tops back on uh I like to look at the Horizon and if it
You know if there’s a lot of white above then I’m putting my overwhite top on if there’s a lot of white below and a lot of green above I’m going to just adjust based on that you don’t really have to think too much about it and that brings
Us right to Pax actually because um with your pack you should have some type of cover you should be making sure that’s camouflage so when I used to teach survival back in the day of course when we were in a forest environment we’d break off little fronds and stuff
And you tuck them in your pack and you make yourself a little bit more camouflage a little bit of vegetation and then because people are lazy because students are lazy in general uh you know you’d move a couple clicks and then you’re going to come completely different environment with bushes on you
That make zero [ __ ] yeah they’re not in there so you need to make sure that you’re changing your camouflage based on your environment and if you’re TR if you’re traversing terrain 100 you will be switching layers you will be switching camouflages it’s just part of the game you’ll be updating your face
Camo your hand camo everything will be constantly updating so you’re not just going to hop out into the environment and be like I am good until especially in a winter Warfare yeah it’s going to change if not daily if not multiple times 100 right there so before we
Finish up with combat sustainment I want to talk about helmets and the biggest thing is not going blind uh going blind in the snow is a very real thing snow blindness essentially you’re getting a sunburn on your eyelids it is the most unbearably painful thing to get have you
Gotten it before I’ve I’ve never had it fully but I’ve started to feel the itchiness it’s horrible it’s like sand in your eyes it feels so terrible and if you get it it is a long recovery you can actually go temporary temporal yeah absolutely temporarily blind you can
Actually go temporarily blind for a little bit so make sure that we keep that from happening as you can see we both have goggles on so you don’t want to speak a little bit to how you have that mounted on your helmet yeah so for me goggles we’re gonna we’re gonna keep
The goggles off our helmet unless we are uh you know we we think that there’s the potential for us to begin uh skiing essentially right or the weather is going to turn and start blowing in our faces so we’re going to take the goggles on and off the helmet as needed we’re
Going to store them in the like the little pouch that the goggles come with just to prevent the lenses from getting scratched uh we would modify ours with you know we basically just cut the strap down and so have velcro sewn on the straps very high speed and just so that
You can easily switch them from the back to the front and you can tighten them up you know and wear them with your helmet still right another variation which I think you have your setup I sure do you have them underneath the ear Pro so that
When you pull the goggle down it’s in the correct position if you have your pressure one time I jumped out of a plane with just sit over my helmet that that uh Air Pro is somewhere in Washington right now yeah she gone so make sure that you do have it mounted
Under So Hear Me Grantham coming out from the Battle of Hoth is that what you’re saying is that what you want me to say are you trying to make fun of me yeah that was really [ __ ] that was really stupid whatever the the Hoth Troopers actually
Had good kit first off yeah yeah a lot of uh a lot of uh weird I don’t know vests yeah yeah and they had those cool a lot of quilting yeah anyhow uh if you have the goggles on your helmet highly recommended to have some type of cover on there it’s also
Going to protect them from getting scratched up and that type of thing if they’re living on your helmet or even not they should have a home that they go to to make sure because the scratch goggle sucks um that kind of gets us to the end of
Our eye Pro right there to ensure that we’re not going to die finally is going to be sustainment so generally you’re going to have a pack on you yes there are many packs out there and the coolest thing about every pack is that a simple Alice Ruck is perfectly
Acceptable and probably one of the better options actually they rock you can go prone you can look up and they are awesome they’re not the most comfortable but um they’re they’re extremely capable and they’re extremely cheap so you know as cool as Hill People Gear is and you know
Stone Glacier these packs are awesome but you can get by with much cheaper stuff and I hope you guys understand that from watching this video as a whole but getting into it obviously camouflage your pack have some type of pack cover on at all times in general I keep my
Pack covers somewhere near the top so I can get to them most packs aren’t waterproof now the sun Glacier that you have right there is that’s actually a really awesome pack so depending what you have make sure you have some type of pack cover or to camouflage it obviously
As far as what you want in your pack it’s going to depend on what you’re doing so when it comes to what I’m doing with more of the survival stuff I have a lot of kit for holding up so I have like an actual sleeping bag with an
Inflatable mat or I could just use one of the old United States government maps maps that work really well just cut them down the length because you don’t need all nine feet of them sure and that’s because I’m actually going to be sleeping a little bit more because I’m
Planning on I’m living this out I’m actually out there for months for years now in combat operations you might be doing a lot less sleeping you might simply be sleeping in your static layers that you have on you your big high Loft layers and that type of stuff beyond the
Clothing that you have and that’s typically going to be towards the bottom especially your sleeping stuff other things I’m going to be recommending for a you know more survival type situations is going to be an ax I almost always recommend them you can do a lot with an
Ax you can rebuild civilization with an axle I almost always have one on me I typically measure it up against my pack I cut it to size it’s not as capable but it is much easier to travel with yeah so military guys uh who are you
Know not on the Seer side don’t really have a choice about what they’re going to care you’re going to carry a lot of stuff you know I had recommendations like the booties things that can help you you have a lot of grenades a lot of ammunition uh but as far as sleep kick
Goes regardless of the mission uh if I’m in a winter Warfare environment I will at least have a uh something like this this is a kaffaru or kefiru or kiffaru kaiferu or however you want to say it tiffaru this is their wooby and it’s a it’s a synthetic clima Shield filled
Blanket essentially minimum you know minimum is what I’m going to bring we want to avoid uh you know the stuff we would use in the civilian Market down feather sleeping bags High Loft they’re great they are not they’re not going to work in the military environment the minute
That they get wet they’re going to lose all that um insulation value it’s the death yeah it’s it’s not a good time uh ask me how I know but the you know the same thing you’re saying uh getting yourself up off the ground this is an inflatable mat
Good and bad they’re good and bad it’s there’s a lot of arguments about our value there’s a lot of arguments about uh a lot of stuff on the internet I will tell you that an inflatable mat works better and it does yes in a cold weather environment I don’t care what anybody
Says it works better but I would usually pair this up with a foam mat as well but I have a foam mat on the bottom I’d have this on the top but at a minimum I’m I’m bringing you know this this wooby and this in my kit even if
The mission does not call for an overnight because almost every Mission I’ve ever been on you get stuck right you get stuck somewhere and I’m not going to uh not carry this you know it’s very lightweight sure and uh and have the ability to use this in different
Positions I can pull this out it’s a blanket you just put it over me and I can also use that inflatable mat I cannot inflate it and just use it as a ground cover and then and then get on it there so it gives me a little adaptability but you know we’re going
All the way up to full three-piece military sleeping bags for Arctic conditions you might have all of it you might be sleeping on top of the sleeping system and just have like using the sleeping bag as a blanket yeah or if you’re somewhere that’s pretty safe you
Might you know get completely down to your base layers and be comfortable inside the sleep and a lot of people come out there and be like well you can take bows off off a tree and you can make a bow bed yes however that is a huge footprint footprint and a lot of
Energy exactly so try to be smart with it of course there are more natural means to do a lot of this stuff but it might not be uh you might not have the time normally you have the energy sure depending on what is happening and how much fighting you’re doing which is why
If we can make our lives a little bit easier because traveling and building about I’ve done it I had to do it for a series of instructor it sucked bowel bed at every new location it was like the I can’t say the word on YouTube it was the
Stupidest thing I could have possibly done I hate it um now beyond that obviously food we want to keep that about mid-pack it’s going to free solid and then water generally don’t have it in my pack uh 10 degrees to 20 to 32 it’ll be fine and then any other accoutrement or anything
Else that you want in their speed balls ammunition grenades all that kind of stuff is it going to fit in there point is take the essentials what I found with packs and I’ve talked about this in the past go out with your pack the first time I
Went out as a new trip with my pack I had like every damn thing I was issued in there and it sucked and then over the years over five ten years of doing this I’ve paired it down to a very minimalistic set of things that I carry if you want
To learn more about packs and setting that up watch our earlier reki videos we go pretty in depth into it that’s not the purpose of this video but use your [ __ ] it’s gonna be the big thing and that brings us to the end of kind of our winter combat survival there’s a there’s
A lot more about the survival aspect to it because the Arctic and the cold conditions are so brutal which is why we wanted to make sure that we talked about them so much before we kind of finish up is there anything else you want to add that we haven’t talked about yet
Just that uh you know it’s really this is just a primer yeah to to get your your kind of like just kind of get your mind in the right spot your juices like hey what considerations do I actually you know need to look at like what what
Am I going to be battling against it’s not just you know get it’s not just get an over white top and you’re good it’s really considering temperature ranges yes uh you know Kevin over there you can’t see him but he’s off camera he’s here he has a very good layering series
That’s coming out that talks about uh basically his layering kit he spent a lot of time in the mountains you know experimenting with different he has a really good flavor of things so you just have to you really have to get out there and wear your stuff and you should be
Recording you know it’s not hard to just have a Kestrel and go out and be like what temperature is it what’s the wind speed how do I feel right now you know then you know like hey this fleece isn’t going to help me when it’s you know
Below 15 and then the wind’s blowing exactly yeah you need to know that information experience it the the first time I experience negative 50 and Below was a real eye-opener to what my body was capable of what my clothing was capable of and what my equipment was
Capable of and it was a very humbling time for me and I I still have injuries from it to this day you know the frost nip never really goes away you’re very much so susceptible to it so make smart choices get out there actually do it that’s what life’s about and uh thank
You guys so much for watching get in there comment with some of your own stuff that you’ve used and make it a good comment section and with all that said guys we’ve got nothing else for you you know what’s next what that advice oh God yeah yeah God give me your dad
Advice Micah how did he forget I forgot you didn’t forget he knew he’s ready no I’m not ready I don’t have I got nothing you can’t have nothing yeah life advice you want to give these people oh you’re gonna do man yeah so yeah I get some life advice for this oh they’re
Lost what should I what should I give life advice you can’t do don’t talk don’t tell me Kevin don’t don’t tell Kevin Kevin’s up oh no sorry Kevin yes sir you’re next dude what life advice would you like to give Dad advice yeah Dad advice oh see it’s hard it’s a
Step what about stepdad advice yeah step dad advice I need help give me some help oh no dad advice he’s with Breck coming from how many people are here
US Dollar LOST 86% Of Its Value & Continues To Lose Its Global Hegemony To Chinese Yuan
