Prelude
Before going to this expedition, I didn't have much experience of survival in extreme conditions. I've been in mountains, almost till 16,000 feet altitude & experienced hazards. However, simply I don't have enough words to describe my experience of this hiking expedition. 'We were some guys from school' who took a chance to push ourselves beyond the limit in extreme Canadian winter conditions by hiking through dense forest for a few days. This can be better classified as a "horribly beautiful" experience... some of the finest days I have ever spent in my life & at the same time some of the scariest nights I have ever experienced. Probably if you never get crazy, you can never get close to the wild nature...
It was the outdoor club of the University to organize the snow-shoeing hiking adventure trip. Actually I was waiting crazily for this trip for long. It was not just a "trip", rather a test of physical & mental fitness. In fact, before registering, the club cautioned all the members: "this will not be an usual trip. If you think that you are physically fit enough & can challenge winter, then only join, otherwise please DON'T. We expect the temperature at night to be below -25 degrees & will be staying in tents in the forest & will be exposed to this kind of temperature..."
Nevertheless to mention, if it's gonna be a challenge, I will definitely be there :)
Although Algonquin is a popular destination for camping during fall colour changes, hiking for a few days in extreme winter is nothing but madness...
We were 7 people together: Reggie, Sean, me, Alex1, Alex2, Holly & Emili. Usually there are lot of people who shows up for typical outdoor club trips, but in this case, people hardly showed interest.
We were divided into 2 food & tent groups. The most important thing was proper clothing. Following are the itineraries for garments & food that we carried.
Itineraries(garments): I carried 3/4 layers: a thermal inner, one tight woollen garment, one thick shirt, a hoody & a typical heavy winter jacket; special woollen shocks('heat jammer'), snow boot, 3 lower layers: thermal inner, hiking pant & snow trouser, good quality gloves(2 layers), woollen cap, balaclava, sun-glass(to avoid snow blindness), sleeping bag (below -20 degrees) along with an inner layer of extra protection.
Food: It was shared within group members. We carried lot of dry foods (including almonds, chocolate etc.), apples, boiled eggs, pasta & sauce (for dinner), bread, cheese, ham, burger, hot chocolate, etc. etc.
Finally my backpack became almost 15 Kg!
Day 1: 7th February, 2014:
10.30 AM: I packed my backpack last night. In the morning only put some foods that I had kept in the fridge. 4 of us will be in a car: me with Sean, Emili & Katie. We will meet rest of our group after reaching there. Before leaving, had my breakfast with sandwich, boiled egg & milk. We decided to stop somewhere for lunch on our way. Sean told that he will be in University Rec. center around 10.30 & we will pick up the girls from their home on our way. Sean came a bit late & told that Katie is not coming as she is sick. So we drove to Emili's home & from there in a few minutes we merged in 401 highway. Now it's straight drive of 5-6 hours...
Algonquin Provincial Park, 5.30 PM: We have reached a bit earlier, Reggie's group should come in a while. Had typical Canadian style lunch on our way with burger, fry & coke. Right now we've parked the car on a little flat ground, beside of which the trail starts. Only ice everywhere, a lake just beside us has frozen completely. It's started snowing also. The temperature sensor of our car is telling it's -15 degrees (with wind chill of <-20). We started preparing by putting on the layers, snow boot, etc. because we will start soon. In biting cold it seems that the fingers are already numb & can't feel anything. If this is the condition right now, how we will survive in next 3 days! I don't know...
Reggie & others came after a while. So now we are 7 in the group..
Everybody got dressed up & put on the snowshoes, which are most important to walk on fresh snow. Also they have crampons at the bottom, which will help us to climb hilly areas. After parking the car in a side, we started preparing to move forward. The Sun has just set in & we have to hike almost 6-7 Km. So we expect to hike in the absence of Sunlight & that's why kept our head torches ready. Around 5.45 we entered in the forest & started walking. Initially the way was pretty much good, but as we were entering in the dense areas, snow condition became extremely hard to walk with loads on back & extreme coldness. Gradually Sunlight for the day bid adieu & extreme darkness covered the whole forest. Right now, only we 7 are there, with head torch, typical crunching sound of walking on the snow... the way is sometimes steep, sometimes downhill... & we are entering in more & more dense areas of the forest...
Camp-1, 11 PM: After 5-6 hours of restless hiking, finally we've reached camp 1. Most of the time we have hiked in the dark. In our way, some people fall on the slope areas, including me. The main problem was to stand up again, because there is no support to stand up & we are carrying huge load on our back. I was really struggling to get up sometimes. I never realized that walking on fresh snow can be so hard!
At some point we had to stop for a while because Sean was detached from the group. I can't express the feelings of standing in a dense snowy forest in extreme darkness of night. A strange calmness covered the whole area, only we were the mechanical entities there. I haven't seen heaven, but to me this is the heaven right now! Everywhere, there is cold bite of death only... if you can't struggle, you will slide into the crevasse of death...
After reaching to our campsite, our foremost important job was to set up the tents & lit fire. However, to gather dry woods in the snowy forest is extremely hard & we could manage a small amount of woods, which will serve our purpose for the time being. To set the tent, a flat ground was chosen. We prepared the ground by removing the snow & flattening with our snowshoe. 2 tents were set up finally. We were having hard times to tie the rope of the tents by taking off the gloves in this extreme cold... it was almost a frost-bite condition! Also, because of deep snow, we couldn't pitch the tents well. To resist the wind, we built up a kind of snow wall beside the tents. To do all these things, it became almost 11.30 PM.
Somehow Reggie managed to lit the fire (in spite of continuous snowfall!) & Alex is trying to preserve it. I reminded a word of Bear Grylls, if you can lit fire in extreme survival situation, you solve many problems. Damn true! We warmed ourselves a bit beside the fire. But by that time it was fire inside our stomach too! Although we've taken some light snacks on our way, but that's not sufficient to replenish the huge amount of calories we've spent so far. Also, water was very much needed to prevent dehydration. In spite of having some water in the bottle, it was completely frozen & I couldn't even open it! We had to fix it by placing the bottle beside fire for a while. We had two cooking pans. One is being used for cooking dinner (sauce) & another one to melt snow & making water. Once the water started boiling, everyone filled in their bottle & kept it with body contact to avoid freezing. It's snowing continuously & it's getting hard to keep the fire on. Quickly finished our dinner. A 'bear-hang' was made to keep the foods hanging on top of tree so that any wild animal can't reach it. When all these are done, slid myself inside the sleeping bag & became asleep in no time...
Day 2: 8th February, 2014:
Around 8 AM: I woke up earlier than others. However, it was extremely hard to come outside the sleeping bag!
After getting dressed up properly I came out of the tent & became simply mesmerized. I've never experienced such a beautiful morning in my life. Last night because of extreme darkness couldn't realize anything about the scenery, but now it's clear. Our tent is in the midst of pine & maple forest, leaves of which are bent down like an old man with the weight of snow & the lake just beside our camp has completely frozen... the morning golden rays of Sun has made an astounding effect of the whole atmosphere... with the sign of eternal piece everywhere around. I was feeling like king of the world at that time. I tried to figure out the trail through which we came last night... it's a narrow path through the forest...
It's a snowy world everywhere...
Our temporary 'kitchen' was buried under the snowfall of whole night...
Good thing is that I carried 3 spare batteries, otherwise in this extreme cold my camera batteries are getting discharged very quickly.
After sometime everybody woke up & we put snow on pan to make some water...
In breakfast we had oatmeal, boiled eggs (literally turned into stone), almonds, sausage, apple, hot chocolate, etc. A heavy breakfast was needed because it was the longest hike day of almost 9-10 Km. Today also it's started snowing from morning...
One problem in the daytime I realized is that the sweating problem. Although it's about -15 in the daytime, but due to heavy workout & Sunshine, we were sweating but couldn't take off warm garments, otherwise we might get caught by cold. Kept some almonds, energy bars in pocket to keep active during the hike. I put two water bottles in two pockets of my hoodie to avoid freezing. Along with the heavy backpack, it was really hard to trek several kilometers on uneven terrain. I didn't miss any chance to capture the heavenly beauty to our way... Gradually the intensity of snowfall increased & we turned totally white. Still we didn't stop...
After 5-6 hours, we became very tired & were having some food by resting in a place. My ham & burgers totally froze & eating those was a struggle. I took extra time, by which I got detached from the group. It was one of the tiresome time I had experienced... the Sun was setting down, body is fully exhausted & I am alone for the time being... I was feeling extremely home sick... probably mother's lap is the warmest place in the world...
I joined others in half an hour & by that time it became evening. But still we had substantial amount of distance to go. So we decided to go through the frozen lake to save time, although it's risky. It was an amazing & scary experience to walk over the frozen lake...
Around 6 PM, camp 2: Finally reached camp 2 in the evening. This time the tents were set a bit far from each other because of spot constraints. Like before, we started immediately making water & food. Due to excessive snowfall, we couldn't make enough fire today. Everybody was so tired that pitching the tent was also a hard job at that time. Had our dinner earlier & came under the tent as soon as possible. We couldn't flatten the ground well today, while lying down it could be felt. Doesn't matter... just need to get a place to sleep...
Day 2: 9th February, 2014:
9 AM: Switched on my cell phone today after waking up, it's 9. Again same kind of struggle to come out of the sleeping bag. I faced another challenge: my snow boot froze! I had to spend about 20 minutes to wear that... it totally turned to like a stone! However, fortunately I slept with the water bottles today, & that's why it didn't freeze & I could drink water in the morning before melting the snow.
Today everybody woke up early because we had to return to our starting point. I tried to eat banana & boiled eggs that I bought, but I had to throw these away because there were no longer eatable as these were completely frozen like stone. Finished my breakfast with sandwich & hot chocolate only. Although I bought toothbrush, but never dared to use that. We got ready in an hour...
Today we have to cover 6-7 Km. In last 3 days it never stopped snowing, even now also. After folding the tents & everything, we started to hike. At some point we reached at 'fork location' where the road is divided into two. Reggie knew there is a nice viewpoint at the end of one road & that's why keeping our bags there we climbed downhill to the other road. After 10 minutes we reached to an awesome place. It was a hill top & the whole lake area was visible from there. Totally heaven! Snapped some group photos there...
Spent almost 15 minutes there & again started hiking. Near to our destination we crossed a wooden bridge, having a frozen river beneath it. In a particular location of the river, a chunk of ice somehow melted & water was coming out in huge force. It was an amazing scene...
Finally we reached to the place from where we had started. We've made it! It was celebrated with a little bottle of scotch bought by Reggie. 3 days have passed like a dream.
To capture the whole team I placed the camera in automatic mode to get a group photo...
Everybody will get back to his/her own life, but the memories of these 3 days will last forever... I will miss everyone, will miss each & every moments of these 3 days, will miss the cold, the warmth, everything... probably some day I will tell that "those were the best days of my life"...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The whole video of the venture is available here:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P.S.- The Bengali version of this article is published in a travel magazine, you can read from here.
 |
| Just beside our tent... one of the finest mornings I have ever seen in my life... |
It was the outdoor club of the University to organize the snow-shoeing hiking adventure trip. Actually I was waiting crazily for this trip for long. It was not just a "trip", rather a test of physical & mental fitness. In fact, before registering, the club cautioned all the members: "this will not be an usual trip. If you think that you are physically fit enough & can challenge winter, then only join, otherwise please DON'T. We expect the temperature at night to be below -25 degrees & will be staying in tents in the forest & will be exposed to this kind of temperature..."
Nevertheless to mention, if it's gonna be a challenge, I will definitely be there :)
Although Algonquin is a popular destination for camping during fall colour changes, hiking for a few days in extreme winter is nothing but madness...
 |
| From a viewpoint on top of a hill |
We were 7 people together: Reggie, Sean, me, Alex1, Alex2, Holly & Emili. Usually there are lot of people who shows up for typical outdoor club trips, but in this case, people hardly showed interest.
We were divided into 2 food & tent groups. The most important thing was proper clothing. Following are the itineraries for garments & food that we carried.
Itineraries(garments): I carried 3/4 layers: a thermal inner, one tight woollen garment, one thick shirt, a hoody & a typical heavy winter jacket; special woollen shocks('heat jammer'), snow boot, 3 lower layers: thermal inner, hiking pant & snow trouser, good quality gloves(2 layers), woollen cap, balaclava, sun-glass(to avoid snow blindness), sleeping bag (below -20 degrees) along with an inner layer of extra protection.
Food: It was shared within group members. We carried lot of dry foods (including almonds, chocolate etc.), apples, boiled eggs, pasta & sauce (for dinner), bread, cheese, ham, burger, hot chocolate, etc. etc.
Finally my backpack became almost 15 Kg!
Day 1: 7th February, 2014:
10.30 AM: I packed my backpack last night. In the morning only put some foods that I had kept in the fridge. 4 of us will be in a car: me with Sean, Emili & Katie. We will meet rest of our group after reaching there. Before leaving, had my breakfast with sandwich, boiled egg & milk. We decided to stop somewhere for lunch on our way. Sean told that he will be in University Rec. center around 10.30 & we will pick up the girls from their home on our way. Sean came a bit late & told that Katie is not coming as she is sick. So we drove to Emili's home & from there in a few minutes we merged in 401 highway. Now it's straight drive of 5-6 hours...
Algonquin Provincial Park, 5.30 PM: We have reached a bit earlier, Reggie's group should come in a while. Had typical Canadian style lunch on our way with burger, fry & coke. Right now we've parked the car on a little flat ground, beside of which the trail starts. Only ice everywhere, a lake just beside us has frozen completely. It's started snowing also. The temperature sensor of our car is telling it's -15 degrees (with wind chill of <-20). We started preparing by putting on the layers, snow boot, etc. because we will start soon. In biting cold it seems that the fingers are already numb & can't feel anything. If this is the condition right now, how we will survive in next 3 days! I don't know...
Reggie & others came after a while. So now we are 7 in the group..
 |
| Everybody is getting ready... |
Everybody got dressed up & put on the snowshoes, which are most important to walk on fresh snow. Also they have crampons at the bottom, which will help us to climb hilly areas. After parking the car in a side, we started preparing to move forward. The Sun has just set in & we have to hike almost 6-7 Km. So we expect to hike in the absence of Sunlight & that's why kept our head torches ready. Around 5.45 we entered in the forest & started walking. Initially the way was pretty much good, but as we were entering in the dense areas, snow condition became extremely hard to walk with loads on back & extreme coldness. Gradually Sunlight for the day bid adieu & extreme darkness covered the whole forest. Right now, only we 7 are there, with head torch, typical crunching sound of walking on the snow... the way is sometimes steep, sometimes downhill... & we are entering in more & more dense areas of the forest...
Camp-1, 11 PM: After 5-6 hours of restless hiking, finally we've reached camp 1. Most of the time we have hiked in the dark. In our way, some people fall on the slope areas, including me. The main problem was to stand up again, because there is no support to stand up & we are carrying huge load on our back. I was really struggling to get up sometimes. I never realized that walking on fresh snow can be so hard!
At some point we had to stop for a while because Sean was detached from the group. I can't express the feelings of standing in a dense snowy forest in extreme darkness of night. A strange calmness covered the whole area, only we were the mechanical entities there. I haven't seen heaven, but to me this is the heaven right now! Everywhere, there is cold bite of death only... if you can't struggle, you will slide into the crevasse of death...
After reaching to our campsite, our foremost important job was to set up the tents & lit fire. However, to gather dry woods in the snowy forest is extremely hard & we could manage a small amount of woods, which will serve our purpose for the time being. To set the tent, a flat ground was chosen. We prepared the ground by removing the snow & flattening with our snowshoe. 2 tents were set up finally. We were having hard times to tie the rope of the tents by taking off the gloves in this extreme cold... it was almost a frost-bite condition! Also, because of deep snow, we couldn't pitch the tents well. To resist the wind, we built up a kind of snow wall beside the tents. To do all these things, it became almost 11.30 PM.
Somehow Reggie managed to lit the fire (in spite of continuous snowfall!) & Alex is trying to preserve it. I reminded a word of Bear Grylls, if you can lit fire in extreme survival situation, you solve many problems. Damn true! We warmed ourselves a bit beside the fire. But by that time it was fire inside our stomach too! Although we've taken some light snacks on our way, but that's not sufficient to replenish the huge amount of calories we've spent so far. Also, water was very much needed to prevent dehydration. In spite of having some water in the bottle, it was completely frozen & I couldn't even open it! We had to fix it by placing the bottle beside fire for a while. We had two cooking pans. One is being used for cooking dinner (sauce) & another one to melt snow & making water. Once the water started boiling, everyone filled in their bottle & kept it with body contact to avoid freezing. It's snowing continuously & it's getting hard to keep the fire on. Quickly finished our dinner. A 'bear-hang' was made to keep the foods hanging on top of tree so that any wild animal can't reach it. When all these are done, slid myself inside the sleeping bag & became asleep in no time...
Day 2: 8th February, 2014:
Around 8 AM: I woke up earlier than others. However, it was extremely hard to come outside the sleeping bag!
 |
| our tent in next morning |
After getting dressed up properly I came out of the tent & became simply mesmerized. I've never experienced such a beautiful morning in my life. Last night because of extreme darkness couldn't realize anything about the scenery, but now it's clear. Our tent is in the midst of pine & maple forest, leaves of which are bent down like an old man with the weight of snow & the lake just beside our camp has completely frozen... the morning golden rays of Sun has made an astounding effect of the whole atmosphere... with the sign of eternal piece everywhere around. I was feeling like king of the world at that time. I tried to figure out the trail through which we came last night... it's a narrow path through the forest...
It's a snowy world everywhere...
Our temporary 'kitchen' was buried under the snowfall of whole night...
 |
| Our temporary kitchen |
Good thing is that I carried 3 spare batteries, otherwise in this extreme cold my camera batteries are getting discharged very quickly.
 |
| a pair of snowshoe deep under the snow |
After sometime everybody woke up & we put snow on pan to make some water...
 |
| Kitchen area |
In breakfast we had oatmeal, boiled eggs (literally turned into stone), almonds, sausage, apple, hot chocolate, etc. A heavy breakfast was needed because it was the longest hike day of almost 9-10 Km. Today also it's started snowing from morning...
 |
| on the frozen lake, before leaving camp 1... Sean took the photo |
One problem in the daytime I realized is that the sweating problem. Although it's about -15 in the daytime, but due to heavy workout & Sunshine, we were sweating but couldn't take off warm garments, otherwise we might get caught by cold. Kept some almonds, energy bars in pocket to keep active during the hike. I put two water bottles in two pockets of my hoodie to avoid freezing. Along with the heavy backpack, it was really hard to trek several kilometers on uneven terrain. I didn't miss any chance to capture the heavenly beauty to our way... Gradually the intensity of snowfall increased & we turned totally white. Still we didn't stop...
After 5-6 hours, we became very tired & were having some food by resting in a place. My ham & burgers totally froze & eating those was a struggle. I took extra time, by which I got detached from the group. It was one of the tiresome time I had experienced... the Sun was setting down, body is fully exhausted & I am alone for the time being... I was feeling extremely home sick... probably mother's lap is the warmest place in the world...
I joined others in half an hour & by that time it became evening. But still we had substantial amount of distance to go. So we decided to go through the frozen lake to save time, although it's risky. It was an amazing & scary experience to walk over the frozen lake...
Around 6 PM, camp 2: Finally reached camp 2 in the evening. This time the tents were set a bit far from each other because of spot constraints. Like before, we started immediately making water & food. Due to excessive snowfall, we couldn't make enough fire today. Everybody was so tired that pitching the tent was also a hard job at that time. Had our dinner earlier & came under the tent as soon as possible. We couldn't flatten the ground well today, while lying down it could be felt. Doesn't matter... just need to get a place to sleep...
Day 2: 9th February, 2014:
9 AM: Switched on my cell phone today after waking up, it's 9. Again same kind of struggle to come out of the sleeping bag. I faced another challenge: my snow boot froze! I had to spend about 20 minutes to wear that... it totally turned to like a stone! However, fortunately I slept with the water bottles today, & that's why it didn't freeze & I could drink water in the morning before melting the snow.
Today everybody woke up early because we had to return to our starting point. I tried to eat banana & boiled eggs that I bought, but I had to throw these away because there were no longer eatable as these were completely frozen like stone. Finished my breakfast with sandwich & hot chocolate only. Although I bought toothbrush, but never dared to use that. We got ready in an hour...
 |
| Before leaving camp-1 |
Today we have to cover 6-7 Km. In last 3 days it never stopped snowing, even now also. After folding the tents & everything, we started to hike. At some point we reached at 'fork location' where the road is divided into two. Reggie knew there is a nice viewpoint at the end of one road & that's why keeping our bags there we climbed downhill to the other road. After 10 minutes we reached to an awesome place. It was a hill top & the whole lake area was visible from there. Totally heaven! Snapped some group photos there...
 |
| On top of a viewpoint |
Spent almost 15 minutes there & again started hiking. Near to our destination we crossed a wooden bridge, having a frozen river beneath it. In a particular location of the river, a chunk of ice somehow melted & water was coming out in huge force. It was an amazing scene...
Finally we reached to the place from where we had started. We've made it! It was celebrated with a little bottle of scotch bought by Reggie. 3 days have passed like a dream.
 |
| a funny moment :) |
 |
| Reggie in deep snow! |
To capture the whole team I placed the camera in automatic mode to get a group photo...
 |
| Took this photo in automatic mode (everybody is in the picture) |
Everybody will get back to his/her own life, but the memories of these 3 days will last forever... I will miss everyone, will miss each & every moments of these 3 days, will miss the cold, the warmth, everything... probably some day I will tell that "those were the best days of my life"...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The whole video of the venture is available here:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P.S.- The Bengali version of this article is published in a travel magazine, you can read from here.
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