Camping in Arctic Circle with No Tent (-26 Degrees)

Luke here with the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel and I'm 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle. I'm going to be exploring Alaska's frozen north, hunting tarmaggan and caribou, solo camping without a tent, visiting remote arctic communities, and exploring some of the most beautiful and inhospitable land in [Music] Alaska. Heat.

[Music] Heat. Heat. Heat.

[Music] Well, it took me about 14 hours to drive [Music] here. It's about -10° Fahrenheit out here, but the sun's shining and there's no wind and it just feels wonderful. I've never explored this part of Alaska before and I'm kind of excited to look around.

I'm going to try to get on top of that ridge about 2 and a half miles away, see what I can see. It is bright out here. This is all caribou tracks.

I heard a caribou was grazing on the lykan under the snow. You look right there. There's a grazing patch.

There's a grazing patch. Those tracks look kind of old, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for some caribou. I got my rifle with me.

Oh man. Tell you what, I'm starting to work up a sweat. Got to make sure to drink plenty of water before it freezes.

Well, let's keep going. Oh, there's some fox tracks. Those are fresh tracks.

Less than 8 hours old. Yeah, take a little snack break. I got into some loose snow and it's hard going.

The condition of the snow changes a lot depending on what side of these little hills you're on. One side could be hard packed and icy. The other side could be very deep full of powdery snow.

I'm trying to pick a path along the hard packed icy snow. But every once in a while I have to go in between two drifts and there's a whole bunch of boggy soft stuff in the bottom and it's a lot of work to get through. My skis are just sinking way down.

I found this old caribou trail. So I'm just skiing over their tracks so I don't sink down as much. It's definitely helping.

Well, I'm finally crusting the toe of this mountain and I can get a good view of the entire valley below me. I'm just going to poke my head over the edge and take a look with my binoculars. There's a hill on the other side of this valley and there's about 12 muskox on the top of that hill.

It's really cool. You see tons of caribou tracks up here. I'm going to follow this trail.

See where it leads. Normally the wind is howling here in the Arctic and so the wind will strip the snow off of one side of the hills and dump it on the other. You can see here how there's all this bare rock and grass sticking out.

When it's a nice day like today, the animals like to be on the side of the hill with very little snow because they can graze easier and find the grass. So that's where I'm going to be looking. See how the snow's dug out around this rock?

The wind hits the rock and it has to speed up to get around the rock and that scour the snow out. I think there's a fox right up there. There's a red fox right there.

He's just sitting down and watching me. I've got him pinned in this little valley, so he can't really go anywhere without coming past me. So, he's probably just sitting and waiting to see what I could do.

All right, I think this is where we're going to build my shelter for the night. Nice little valley. [Music] I'm curious how deep the snow is.

It's going to be interesting. I was hoping for hard pack snow so I could build like an igloo type shelter, but instead I'm finding layers of corn snow. This is corn snow.

It's just these big crystals. It's like sand. It just has no structural integrity.

Sure. I got to just keep digging. See what's down here.

All right. I've dug down to the ground. So, this is what we got.

We got fluffy stuff down to about here. And then this is pretty good right in here. Corn snow here.

It gets hard again. We got a big layer of garbage in the middle. big layer of garbage on top.

Well, I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work out, but I don't have a tent in my pack. So, I'm going to build a shelter one way or another. Going to try to cut as many blocks as we can.

What the hell? My gloves are frozen and my fingers with them. Got to get my fingers working again.

I do not like this snow. It is feeling super sketchy. I'm going to try to cut a snow cave into this pile.

We'll kind of go in a little bit and see how it goes. [Music] [Music] Well, there we go. Got it all cut out and it didn't collapse.

Snow tends to firm up once you expose it to the air like this. So, if it hasn't collapsed now, it probably won't. [Applause] [Music] I'm a little gunshy about putting my sleeping pad straight on the ground.

There's a lot of sticks and twigs poking up and if one of them stabs my sleeping pad, I'm going to be in trouble. I've had to repair this before. It's not bulletproof, but this uh emergency bivvie works as a good little protector.

I'm not working as hard as I was when I was digging and skiing. Starting to get a little bit cold. I think I'm going to put my coat on.

It is so pretty. It is so deceptively pretty. I got this coat from a gentleman in Sweden who handmakes Inuit Parkas from Reindeer Hide.

It's my first trip trying it out, but so far I really like it. All right. Well, it's about 6:00 p.

m. So, I think it's time to make some dinner. This parka has a little flap in the back.

You can sit down on the ice or snow and have a little insulation on your bump. Definitely take advantage of that. I got this liquid fuel stove I like to use in the winter time.

Propane and butane tends to freeze in real cold temperatures and this thing can run off of kerosene or diesel or unled gasoline doesn't want to start. It's so cold. There we go.

It's like that when it gets really cold. Even gasoline doesn't like to start. Oh, that feels good.

Going to melt some snow. I need to melt about 2 and 12 lers of water. That's going to take a lot of snow.

Try to soak up that last little bit of sunlight. While that boils, I got to go ahead and make sure everything's put away. I don't want anything laying in the snow.

If the wind picks up in the middle of the night, it can blow 2 threeft snow drifts right on top of all my gear. I'll never be able to find anything. All right, these boots are going to be really cold in the morning, so I'm going to pull the liners out and shove them in my sleeping bag to keep them warm.

It's going to get really cold tonight. So, if I want to keep my water liquid, I got to keep it in my sleeping bag. This 2 L bottle will stay warm for about 6 to 8 hours.

Just make sure it's not leaking. Get a little snack while I wait for dinner. All right.

Got a piece of gouda cheese and a date. Going to melt my cheese in a spoon. Oh, that is so good.

Oh, I got some figs in here, too. That's looking pretty good. These little dehydrated meals are great, but they're less than half the calories I need.

Always got to add something to them. So, I'm going to eat mine with pilot bread. If any of your pilot bread gets broken up in your backpack, just crunch that up.

Add it to your stoop. Going to add a little melted gouda into my chili. [Music] I got a little orange zest herbal tea with a lot of sugar in it.

Little sweet treat for myself after dinner. Man, that sun ducked behind the mountain and it's cold already. I would really like for it to not be below -20 though.

That would be a nice That would be nice. I don't I don't really want to dog -30 or anything stupid. If it gets really cold, it won't kill me or anything.

It'll just make me grouchy because I won't get a good night's rest. Let's get this place cleaned up a little. I'm going to keep my stove out and make sure I got flit and steel by my bed.

If it gets really crazy cold tonight, what I'll do is I'll pull out one of my hot water bottles and re boil it and put it back in the bag. There's so many tricks when you're cold. The problem isn't freezing to death.

The problem is getting sleep. I heard a little noise. Heard a little noise off this mountain over here.

Looks like there's two doll sheep up on those rocky outcrops on that mountain. You know, we got a little bit of sunlight left and got dinner in me. I think I might want to hop up on this hill and see what there is to see.

Oh, it sure is pretty. I think I'm going to just sit around and see what's going on in this valley. And it's so clear and the snow is so fresh.

Just if there's anything here, you're going to see it. Dang. Is that a tarmaggan?

What are you doing out here? There is a tarmaggan just out in the middle of the snow out there. way out there.

Give you an idea how far away he is. You can see my tracks. He is about twice as far as that hill.

Just right on the ridge. Just right up there. They're almost always around a patch of willows.

But this one's just sitting up on the ridge. Probably half a mile away. But if I hurry, I can get over there and back before the sun sets.

All right. Have to go get my skis on, though. All right.

About to set a record for the most work ever put in for one tournament. I'm about twice as fast and I don't sink down as much without that sled. I think I'll make some good time.

Ah, skiing in my old tracks is a lot easier than breaking trail. That tarmigan was right on that ridge and he just went down into the valley and I don't think he's seen me yet. So, I'm going to go down, try to sneak right up to the edge of that ravine.

Holy mackerel. They just disappeared. And I can't see them.

I can't see any tracks. I can't see nothing. That's frustrating.

Oh, I have no idea where that tarmaggan went. and a nice furry pillow. Well, it's about 10:00.

I think it's time to hit the sack. Let's get into bed. If I touch the walls at all, I'll knock snow into my sleeping bag.

All right, guys. It's my bedtime. I'm going to sleep.

I'll see you guys in the [Music] morning. Good morning. Oh, it's cold.

I'm going to get my stove fired up and start boiling some water. Got to retreat back into my bag. All right, this is the rough part.

It's time to get up and get dressed. Gloves are all dry now. All right, going to get warm.

Looks like it's going to be another lovely cold day. This is a beautiful spot, but there's just not any animals around. I think I want to go ahead and move spots.

So, I'm going to pack everything up, get it in the sled, see if we can't find some place better. Got to do a final look around. Make sure I didn't forget anything.

Make sure I didn't leave any trash. Oh, hello. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm going to try something out. These are traditional Inuit snow goggles.

On a sunny day like today out in the snow, your eyeballs can get sunburned. It's really painful and it can make you go temporarily blind. It's called snow blindness.

And so the Inuit would make these snow goggles to protect themselves. It's just a piece of bone with slits in it. Always wanted to try them out and see how they do.

They're actually a bit more comfortable than they look. The cool part though is that you've got a great field of view down. If you're looking down at your feet or doing something with your hands, you could see it clearly.

But if you're looking out over the horizon where the sun is, you got the protection. My biggest problem is I need a prescription pair. It's going to be hard to see Tarmagan without my glasses.

Yeah, there we go. I can see about eight or nine caribou sitting on that hill way over there. I got to think about that.

With all my gear, I'm going to be so slow. I don't think I want to chase after all of those. Oh, it's good to see the car.

I did six miles and it kicked my butt. I am so tired. I am sore from yesterday and honestly, I didn't sleep that well last night.

It's probably a real good thing I didn't go after those caribou I saw. That would have been an additional four miles of skiing. But this adventure isn't over.

I still want to go explore a few areas. Pulling into Cold Foot, Alaska to get some food and [Applause] gas, man. That snow is coming down pretty good.

Snow storms making the road conditions nasty, but it is warming things up. Often times when a snowstorm rolls in, the temperature goes up. So, right now it's 17° F.

So about 27 degrees warmer than yesterday. All right, guys. This is the road to Bettles, Alaska.

It's a 26mi ice road. It's only open for about a month each winter, and it's made out of ice. Check it out.

This is my first time on this road, so this is going to be a little bit of an adventure. This road does not get plowed very often. This snowstorm gets worse, I could end up getting stuck in beds.

There's a lot of bumps and the visibility is not great. Cold over. Oh, there was a tigan.

All this diffused light, they're really hard to see before they fly. Oh man, I'll have to keep an eye out. All right, just saw Tarmaggan way out there.

We're going to go give that a go. He was sitting up in one of these alders, but he's hopped down and I don't know where he went. Well, we'll keep driving.

See what happens. There's the post office, fire department. There's the ranger station for Gates of the Arctic National Park and Canudi National Wildlife Refuge.

Bettles is a popular jumping off point for both those. I believe that's the old school. They don't have enough school age kids anymore, so I think it's shut down now.

I think it's time to go see if we can find a place to stay the night. Just it it gets in your blood. I got to have And this is some fine craftsmanship.

Look at this. You've been busy. You've been busy.

I'm so busy. Oh my goodness. Oh man.

You did a great job with that. Yeah. Yeah.

The little Kia. No way, man. You drove out here in that.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's really cool. Look at me. Thank you.

All right. The rooms. Yeah.

Do you know which room I'm in? Right upstairs. All righty.

Grabbed a room here at the historic Bedles Lodge. I'm going to stay the night. Well, Bedles is an interesting little town.

There's only about 15 people who live here year round. This town was founded in the late 1800s, part of the Alaskan gold rush. And this lodge here, this historic lodge I'm staying in.

It's about 80 years old. I'm glad I got a chance to check this out. Good morning.

All right, let's see how much snow we got. Morning. Good morning.

Yeah, that's not too shabby. We can handle that. Wait, are you driving out of here?

Oh, yeah. This morning Oh, wipers are frozen. Oh, my wheels are froze to the ground.

Check out these trucks. Those three semi-truckss just came in on the ice road this morning. Crossing those frozen rivers in those semi-truckss must be interesting.

All right, let's get some breakfast. A little bit. Thank you very much.

What gorgeous day? We're going to get a little gasoline before we hit the road. Yeah, we say around here, the only time you have too much fuel is if you're on fire.

All right. Thank you very much. over here.

The fuel is about $15 a gallon. I can hear one of the tires thumping like it's flat. Might be that the tire just froze a little bit, but we got to check it out.

Yeah, we're looking good. Looks in good shape. I think it just froze out of round.

Get driving a little bit. The tires will warm up and it'll stop wamping. If all goes well, we'll make it back to the highway in about 2 hours.

Those semi-truckss beat down the fresh snow, but they made some nasty ruts. The car is bottoming out on the snow from time to time. I got to make sure I don't slow down too much or I could get stuck.

The ones are having trouble keeping. Oh man, look how gorgeous this is. Look at that.

There's a martin. It's a pine martin. They eat squirrels.

Oh, look at that guy. I haven't seen one of those in forever. Drving on dirt again.

Whole bunch of tarmaggan. Yeah, look at there's tarmaggan right there. I'd love to get a tarmaggan, but along this road it's bow and arrow only.

I am not good with a bow and arrow. It's a little too skittish. A lot of tar we get along this road.

I'll get another shot. The reason why there's so many tar we get along this road is because of the gravel. They need to eat gravel and have it in their crop to digest their food.

So early in the morning, the tarmaggan fly down to the road to eat gravel. And there's just hundreds of them along the road. But you can only hunt them with bows and arrows.

I'm going to need a stupid tarmaggan and a little bit of luck. Oh, that was close. All right, let's see if I can find my arrow.

Found it. The arrows I'm using have a blunt tip on them. This is a 35lb bow, and if I was using sharp points, it would just go straight through the tarmaggan.

The blunt tip will hit the tarmaggan and kill it without destroying all the meat. Oh, I can already see more. There's like a flock of tarmaggan every 100 yards.

Oh, they're up in the trees. Ah, those ones are a little too skittish. Well, that one's super chill.

snow shoe here right there. Well, look at that. Don't see a ton of those.

See the wing prints right there? See where they flew off. Oh, I stink at this.

But it sure is fun. There's a bunch more right here. You know what they say, even a blind pig can find an acorn every once in a while.

Burned a lot of gas. Lost a few arrows. But I got a tarmaggan for dinner.

Well, the sun's getting up and the tarmaggan are starting to move off the highway. I'm seeing fewer of them. Going to gut my tarmaggan real quick.

Just got my tarmaggan tied to the roof. I should keep it nice and cold on my drive home. That's the Trans Alaska pipeline.

Takes oil from Prudo Bay on the shores of the Arctic Ocean all the way to Valdis on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Oh, made it to Fairbanks. This is Fairbanks, the second largest city in Alaska.

It's got about 45,000 people who live here. I finished 8 hours of driving. Got six more to go.

Welcome to the town of Nanana, Alaska. Slightly over 500 people live here in Nana. Nanana is famous for the Nanana Ice Classic.

You can see there's a big metal stand out there on the frozen river and people buy raffle tickets and they try to guess the exact date and time that they think that tower is going to fall through the ice in the springtime. And once the river melts and the tower falls, it pulls this rope which goes to a bell and a stop clock in there. I heard last year the closest guest won $210,000.

Lot of old historic buildings here in Nana. I'm driving through Denali National Park. Oh, you're behind.

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