Solo Camping on a Frozen Lake in the Arctic
(sled scraping) (Eva grunting) - Tonight is gonna be freezing. (Eva grunts) Freezing. So, I've been in this cottage for a couple of weeks now, really focused on writing my book. And I've been training hard with that sled, which is why it's so heavy. 'cause it's currently filled with so much firewood.
This is what I've been lugging around. Literally just a whole bunch of firewood. ♪ Ta-da ♪ Firewood.
So, because I've been so cooped up in my little cottage, I feel like I need to get out there for a little bit, even if it's just for one night. So, what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna repack this entire sled and then head out for a little overnight camping trip on a nearby island. (relaxing guitar music) Tent, sleeping pad, Vilk's sleeping bag, first aid kit.
I'm hoping to cook on the fire tonight, but I will bring a stove, just in case. Now, I haven't used this in about 10 months, so I just wanna make sure that it works. Yes! A lot of spare warm things. Like a baklava. Balaclava? Baklava? I swear one of those is a Turkish pastry. (laughs)
Booties, an extra jumper, long johns, bare thick socks. Fire stuff. Pots and a spork, and a light, and some food. My sleeping bag, which is somewhere inside there inside the rooftop tent, which is obviously folded right now, so we need to get it out. (Eva grunting) Oh my God. What's wrong with it? Oh, okay.
Yeah, there's a ton of snow on the roof, which means that I can't open it, 'cause it's too heavy. I'm gonna have to get rid of the snow. (lively country music) Yes! Yes! (Eva grunts) Ah.
Sleeping bag. (lively country music continues) (lively country music continues) (lively country music continues) You ready? Let's go. (calm music) (calm music continues) Oh! There's a little hill.
(Eva laughing) (Eva grunts) (Eva yelps) I knew this would happen. (laughs) I knew this would happen. (Eva grunting) Skiing with a sled attached to you, is a whole other ball game. Ah! Skiing downhill with a sled attached to you is a little what the heck? (Eva yelps) Okay, we're doing this, we're doing this! ♪ Ta-da! ♪ Okay.
Made it down the hill. Let's keep going. (laughs) (bright music) So, in Scandinavia, they have this really neat thing for people who love the outdoors.
It's called the every man's right. It's like allemansratten? Something like that. Correct me if I'm wrong, I probably am. Basically what it is is like this universal right that everybody has to access nature. So, you can basically hike through any private land, you can camp on any private land, as long as you're, like, some distance away from the house, I guess. Basically, it's everyone's right to access the outdoors and be in the outdoors.
So, it's not like, you know, in the US where someone could, theoretically, I guess, shoot you if you're kind of trespassing on their land. Here, it's everyone's right, which is so beautiful. It's so simple, because it's true.
This world belongs to all of us. We should all be able to enjoy it. (calm guitar music) It's been a few very calm weeks in the cottage.
I spent most of my time either training like this with Vilk or in front of my laptop writing my book. This is easy for you, isn't it? A lot easier for you than it is for me. Maybe you should pull the sled.
You just have a little light backpack. Yeah. I reckon you should pull the sled. What do you think? It turns out that writing a book is something that really takes up all of your focus and all of your attention. You have to be able to let go of distractions and find a space within you that's quiet and calm.
You know, to be honest, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to write it because I feel like with my crazy job and schedule and social media, my attention span is totally fried. And I'll admit that it can be a struggle on some days, but, you know, it's going, and it's good to know that the human brain can bounce back. I'm kinda looking around and realizing that there's a lot of tiny little islets around here, like just small little itsy bitsy islets. And you know what? It looks so much more fun to be camped out on one of these tiny islands than on just some really big island. Because on a tiny little island, I can feel like the whole island belongs to me, like I'm in my own little island kingdom. (chuckles)
So, I've decided to go to a tiny island and go set up camp there. I'm super excited because I have never camped on a tiny island before. Yay! (calm guitar music) (calm guitar music continues) Well, here it is, our island. It's so cute! Okay, so you've got the island. Now I need to go and pick out a place to camp.
Hmm, so I think I'm gonna leave the sled here. I might leave the skis here too and just have a little walk around and see if I can find a good spot. (ethereal music) Oh.
The snow is pretty deep. Oh, you don't feel that so much when you're on skis because, obviously, the skis lift you above the snow and that's the whole idea, but it is serious out here. (ethereal music continues) (ethereal music continues) (ethereal music continues) How's this? (ethereal music continues) (ethereal music continues) (ethereal music continues) (Eva grunts) (ethereal music continues) So, before I get to work setting up the tent for tonight, I just wanted to say a quick thank you to the sponsor of today's video, bottlebottle. These bottles have traveled with me to four different continents over the last couple of years. In fact, you can probably see, because this one is pretty banged up. I've been using it a lot.
It adds a bit of charm, you know. I stopped using plastic bottles a little while back, even the so-called outdoorsy ones that all of us know. Nowadays, I only use stainless steel. I mean, it's a much more durable material, it's super rugged.
You can throw this bottle around and not worry about it. That was so much fun. (chuckles) It also retains heat or cold so much better, and that means I can have my hot tea right now after a two-hour trek in the freezing cold.
Mm. This is the 3-in-1 design and it's called the 3-in-1 because one, two, and three. This basically means that you can share your tea with a friend if you're that way inclined. You want some? Yeah? Okay, here you go.
(Eva laughs) Is this what they call arctic madness? (upbeat music) The bottlebottle have tons of different shapes, designs, colors, and sizes. Just head over to their website and you can use my special discount code to get a little discount. More information is in the description box below.
Thank you, bottlebottle for sponsoring this video. It was starting to get a little dark, so I really needed to get this campsite set up. And every time I start setting up the tent, Vilk always observes me very closely because the second the tent is up, he is ready to jump inside.
Excuse me. We have only one problem tonight. This is a single-person tent and there's two of us. (Eva laughs) I hope we can make this work, Vilk.
I mean, I don't mind, but I know you love your personal space. It's getting cold here, huh? It's getting a little cold. Yeah, good boy. All right, let's see if we can find some firewood to make a nice cozy fire, 'cause it is getting really, really cold out here very, very quickly. No surprises, honestly. And here we go, look! Hello, fallen tree.
Hey, Bubi, take this. Yeah. Go place. Go place. Drop it. Drop it.
Yes, come! Come! Yes, good boy! Now we have to teach you to help you with the firewood. Okay, go place. Go place. Drop it. Drop it.
Okay, come. Yes, good boy. Go place. Go place. Drop it. Drop it. Okay, come.
Yeah, get it. You go place. (bright guitar music) Good boy.
Look at all the firewood that Vilk has brought over. Amazing! Such a good boy. Dig. Vilk still had some work to do before getting his dinner.
He dug us a very nice fire pit. Yes, good boy! Here, wipe. Here. Boy! Yes, okay. Good boy! In the end, I used some firewood that I'd brought along as a plan B, because the sticks we collected weren't quite fit for the job. You know, not so long ago, I used to be so scared of camping alone.
I was afraid of the darkness and strange creatures in the woods and getting lost or hypothermic, the list goes on, but I also really wanted to overcome that fear because I really loved being outside. It took time and a few initial sleepless nights in a tent, of course, but eventually, it got less scary and more, yeah, I guess I can say this is fun. (chuckles) It got more fun.
(serene music) (serene music continues) You know, I love the fact that Vilk is so alert, and if he hears a sound or smells something unusual, he will get up and check it out. And I love that because, obviously, it makes me feel a lot safer, but at the same time, sometimes he'll get up and start barking at nothing or maybe there's like a jack rabbit somewhere here, or maybe some animal passing by in the distance and he'll start, you know, his guarding thing and then I'll be like, "Oh my God, (laughs) I gotta jump up." And I'm like, "Oh my God, is someone coming?" But I still love camping with him, because if you wanna feel safe, honestly, there's no substitute for a good and alert guard dog. Okay.
I think it's time to go inside the tent. I have no idea how we're gonna manage with one tall human and one very large dog in a single-person tent, but we'll have to make do. Wait, can you get off? Yes. Okay, Boo-boo. That's a good boy.
Yes! Well done. Okay, so, we both made it inside, which is very good. Now, we just need to figure out our arrangements. I think I'm gonna have to get inside my sleeping bag first and then Vilk's just gonna have to lay around me somewhere, because there really isn't much space in this tent.
Good boy, buddy. We are both in. I actually have no way to know exactly how cold it is, but I've kind of learned to gauge the cold recently.
Basically, it definitely not, like, minus 15 or minus 20, because then the nostrils, the hairs in my nostrils, would've been freezing up. So, it's not that cold. But it's also so cold that I feel uncomfortable without a hat and without gloves. And my toes are cold, so it's definitely colder than than minus five. So, I think it's about minus 10. That's what I would estimate.
It's quite cold. (laughs) It's quite cold. (calm ethereal music) (calm ethereal music continues) Good morning. Hey, buddy. (Eva chuckles) How did you sleep? Well, we slept pretty well. Pretty squashed, but we made it through the night.
It was really nice and cozy in here. I mean, I've got my jacket, I've got my sleeping bag, I've got Vilk to warm me up. Oh. Oh my God, I think it's snowing out. (Eva yawns) Mm, I don't wanna get outta my sleeping bag.
It's so cozy in here. Hi. (calm ethereal music) (Eva chuckles) (calm ethereal music continues) (calm ethereal music continues) Good morning. (calm ethereal music continues) You know, I didn't grow up in an outdoorsy family, and this was actually a really big insecurity of mine for a really long time. I mean, my family and I, we traveled, but it was always to, like, hotels, you know, and on planes or by car.
We never went camping, we never went hiking together as a family. Like, nobody ever taught me how to make a fire in my family. And so, for the longest time, I didn't even know that those things were, like, available to us as, like, things that you can do, like hobbies. So, my first hike that I ever did, and my first actual hike that I ever did was when I was 26 years old. (chuckles) And the first time I ever, like, wild camped was when I was 28, I think.
So, all these things came relatively late. Like I didn't grow up doing these things. I wasn't in the scouts, you know. I didn't do any of the outdoorsy things that a lot of kids do, and so (chuckles) I didn't know what gear to get, I didn't know what skills to, like, improve on. I didn't even know where to start, to be completely honest with you. And so, whenever I went to, like, a gear store, it just used to fill me with such dread, because I felt like all the people, all the, like, shop assistants there, like, knew everything.
And they saw right through me and they were like, "This girl knows nothing." I didn't know. I couldn't tell you the difference between a hard shell or a soft shell or this type of sweater or that type of sweater, or, like, Merino or... Like, I just didn't know. And then I just kinda started learning. As intimidating as it was, I started watching videos on YouTube, I started signing up for trips and excursions and things like that.
I started doing hiking on my own and camping on my own. And eventually, eventually, I got better. And, you know, for the longest time, this feeling of being like an imposter or even an intruder, yes, an intruder, into the outdoors niche wouldn't leave me alone. Like I was making content about the outdoors, but I wasn't an expert.
I'm still not an expert. Probably never will be an expert. But I was learning and I was so passionate about it, because I love being outside. I loved nature and I just wanted to spend all my time outside, even in a weather like this. (chuckles) Maybe especially a weather like this.
Anyway, the point is, I was just thinking about this the other day and it really struck me that, like, your family doesn't have to have a tradition of anything for you to be able to build that legacy for yourself. Like even if you come from the least outdoorsy family out there, even if you come from the least artistic family out there, you can still be an adventurer, you can still be an artist, you can still be all those things. I know it's gonna be harder and you're probably gonna have a steeper learning curve, but you can do it.
And in a way, doing it all by yourself is even better. Like it feels even more rewarding, you know? So, yeah, don't let your own family define where you end up going, 'cause you get to blaze your own trails. This is like half frozen. It's not very good.
(Eva chuckles) But it is calories, so I should keep eating. (chuckles) Let's look at the cameras. Oh, no! No! No! Good. Good. (playful music) (playful music continues) (playful music continues) No.
(playful music continues) (playful music ends)
2025-03-06 08:08
