Ötzi's 3,300BCE Gear List

Ötzi's Gear Image Copyright of South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology - www.iceman.it

Something a little different for this gear list, but absolutely fascinating nonetheless.

Ötzi the Iceman was discovered in 1991 by hikers in the Ötztal Alps, on the border between Austria and Italy. He is the oldest naturally mummified human ever discovered. Believed to be 5300 years old, Ötzi and his equipment are incredibly well preserved perhaps due to, among other things, his body being almost immediately covered by snow which protected him from scavengers and the geography of the area he died in. His skin, teeth, personal items and contents of his internal organs were all found intact, and were able to provide a remarkably detailed background for the ancient mountain man.

Ötzi - Image Copyright of South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology – www.iceman.it

His equipment list also paints a fascinating and vivid picture about how he lived. It is believed that Ötzi was a herdsman, due to the large amount of animal fibers on his clothing. Items like his copper axe, bow and reed mat suggested that he was able to hunt and be self sufficient allowing him to stay in the mountains for extended periods of time with his herd. The list of items found with Ötzi is detailed below...

Ötzi's Axe Image Copyright of South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology - www.iceman.it

Clothing
Coat made from goat hide Goat leather loincloth, 33cm x 100cm fastened with a belt Bearskin cap with leather chin strap Calf to thigh leggings made from goat skin, loops at the top can be threaded through a belt, laces at the bottom are for threading onto shoes Double layer shoes, inners made of grass outers made of deerskin with bearskin soles Belt with pouch 4-5cm wide made from calfs leather

Equipment
Grass Cape used as a mat or possibly a backpack Backpack made form a large piece of bent hazel wood with larch wood slats and a hide sack attached Quiver made from chamois hide with yew support rod Copper bladed axe Flint bladed dagger with sheath 1.8m Yew bow 14 arrows Small tree-bast net Birch-bark containers stuffed with maple leaves with lit embers for starting fires

Tools and sundries
Antler multi-tool 2m Tree-bast string 2x Animal sinews Retoucheurs tool or pressure flaker (for refining flint items) 4 Arrow tips Flint scraping tool Flint drill Small fine flint flake Stag antler tips Bone awl Tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius) Stone disc

First-aid
2 Strips of hide threaded with fruiting body of the birch polypore fungus.

There is still uncertainty about how Ötzi died but the prevailing theory is that he was in fact murdered. He had an arrowhead embedded in his shoulder, the wound from which had not healed and there was a significant head wound. It is not clear if the head wound was caused in a fall, occurred postmortem or was inflicted by the his attacker as the final act of murder. However he died, it is remarkable to think that he has been up in the mountains, preserved in the ice, and has silently sat through the entire development of the modern world.

All the images are used with permission from South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology they own the copyright for all of these images please be considerate and seek permission if you wish to use any of them. Visit www.iceman.it for more details about this amazing story.

Tea Chronicles Pt.11 – Alan Hall

Alan Hall - Wild Food Trailguide, 1973

This may sound stupid to some more experienced foragers, but I've been hunting wintergreen for some time now - I'm not sure how it eluded me so readily but I never seemed to track any down. I have found a lot of reference to wintergreen in many books but I think "The Wild Food Trailguide" by Alan Hall was one of the best. The book was written in 1973 and is one of the classic guides for the North American forager. I particularly, and understandably, like the expansive wild teas section.

“WINTERGREEN Gaultheria procumbens

IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS: This tiny plant is actually a shrub with stems that creep along the surface of the ground or just below it. At interval along the stem, leaf-bearing branches that look like individual plants thrust upward. They are 3 - 6 in. high and have a distinct woody character. The shiny evergreen leaves are clustered at the top of the branches. The leaves are fleshy and tender, pale yellow-green with tinges of red or sometimes almost all red, and smell strongly of wintergreen when crushed; the older leaves are shiny, dark green with lighter undersides, have a tough leathery texture, and are less frangrent.”

— Alan Hall - Wild Food Trailguide, 1973

Wintergreen Tea

The really great thing is that wintergreen grows all year round, due to this I figured now would be as good a time as any to look for it as, there is little else in leaf in its size range right now. Doing a little hiking last weekend I made a point of hunting wintergreen and almost immediately I came across a little patch by the trail head. After that it seemed to be everywhere, maybe I got dialed in. The main thing I checked for was that the leaves actually smelt of wintergreen - the easiest way to make a clear identification.

Wintergreen Tea

So with the Trangia cranked and the water boiled I threw in a small handful of wintergreen leaves and steeped them for about ten minutes. The resulting brew was great; it had a pleasant but mild minty flavor with a foresty, leafy tang. Very refreshing. Next time I think I'll add a BIG handful and try and eek out some more flavor, but it was an impressive start.

The leaves can be dried but some of the flavor is lost so it's best to use them freshly picked. Hall also goes onto to describe a root beer like concoction which can be made similarly to tea. If I get a big harvest next time, I might give it a try.

"The Wild Food Trailguide" is an excellent book worth hunting out. Hall mentions 16 wild teas in its pages, so you may hear more from this very interesting read.

Clyde Ormond – Survival Fishing Kit

Clyde Ormond's Otudoorsman's Handbook

It's interesting when looking at VHD site stats, just how and where people come from to get here. For some reason the VHD picks up a lot of traffic from people searching for "Survival Fishing Kits," a subject that I've never gone into, until now. Now that winter has set in, and course fishing is largely out of season, it's time to make one, and where better to start than Clyde Ormond's survival fishing kit? It's no secret he is one of myoutdoors heroes and luckily his writings contain a lot about fishing.  His survival fishing kit from "The Outdoorsman's Handbook" is as follows.

“Dozen fly hooks 10-yard roll of mono filament fishing line Small bobbin of silk thread 6 Paper clips

The 12 hooks should be of assorted sizes, ranging from #12–#4. They should be of the wet-fly types, and of good quality. The majority of hooks should be of average size #6, #8, #10 ...

Half a dozen wooden matches, paraffin dipped to be waterproof, should be included to start a fire for cooking the fish. The entire kit will fit into a plastic envelope, which should be sealed tightly with plastic tape. If it is sewed into the pocket of your fishing jacket, you’ll be sure not to leave it behind when you venture into remote areas.”

— Clyde Ormond - The Outdoorsman's Handbook, 1975

Clyde Ormond's Survival Fishing Kit

At the time of writing, Ormond speaks confidently about using this minimal kit in the lesser travelled wilderness areas to easily catch fish. The included paper clips are for constructing make-shift rod guides, which can be lashed to a branch or pole, and the silk thread can be used to make flies–on the fly, so to speak. As well as Ormond's previously featured emergency clothes-pin lure, he also has instructions for tying emergency flies by hand, using equipment in this kit along with everyday scavenged items, everything from scraps of shirttail and aluminium foil, to his own chest hair and found eagle feathers. I'm hoping to try these out in the future.

Clyde Ormond's Survival Fishing Kit

So here we have it, I don't have a fishing jacket, as-such, but this can now live in my hiking and fishing ditty bag, just incase.

Paul Petzoldt

National Outdoot Leadership School History

Having read Paul Petzoldt's wonderful "Wilderness Handbook" I was familiar with his work with the National Outdoors Leadership School (NOLS), however I feel like I got a real insight into the great man from a set of videos filmed in the 1960s about NOLS. They give such a fascinating look into the roots of the school and into Petzholdt; his experience, passion and philosophy of the outdoors.

NOLS - Thirty Days to Survival

Petzoldt is a real hero, with a truly incredible resumé. In his youth he climbed extensively in the Grand Teton range and eventually founded the Petzoldt-Exum School of American Mountaineering in the 1930s. He spent time living in England which gave him the opportunity to climb in Europe, particularly in the Swiss Alps during the late 30s where he honed his skills and made a double traverse of the Matterhorn in one day with his climbing buddy Dan Bryant of New Zealand.

Petzoldt was selected to go on the first American expedition to K2, and during the Second World War he became a representative of the Department of Agriculture in Lend-Lease and then became a tutor to the troops of the U.S Army's 10th Mountain Division. After the war, he went on to teach thousands of youthful American's to love and thrive in the outdoors through the 'Outward Bound' program in Colorado in 1963, and then through the founding of NOLS in 1965. He was a true outdoors philosopher and pioneer, believing that youngsters should not be taught at, rather they should be involved in their own progression and learnings.

Sadly Petzoldt died in 1999, however his legacy lives in the people he inspired and through NOLS which still runs to this day. Thank you to NOLS for sharing these videos and for keeping his legacy alive.

Weston the Pedestrian

Edward Payson Weston

On 22 February 1861 Edward Payson Weston stood outside the State House in Boston, and with his sites set on Washington D.C., he strode forward on his first walk across America. This walk was undertaken as a result of a wager he placed on the 1860 presidential election. Weston lost by betting against Abraham Lincoln and as part of the terms of the bet he was to make an appearance at the swearing in of the new president. 10 days and 10 hours after setting off from Boston, having battled snow, rain and mud, he arrived in D.C. The media coverage his walk gained was the inspiration that led him to become one of the most famous pedestrians in American history.

Weston was born in Providence, Rhode Island on 15 March 1839. He served as a Union spy in the American civil war and, as the story goes, he developed his keenness for walking after having his horses shot from under him, forcing him to walk to deliver dispatches. This ability to walk paid dividends when he was employed as an office boy and eventually a reporter for the New York Herald - in a time before telephones and cars he was able to get to breaking stories before the competition.

Edward Payson Weston

Weston's second large walk was in 1867 from Portland, Maine to Chicago - a journey of 1200 miles which he covered in just 26 days. At this time he took part in many indoor and outdoor pedestrianism contests and even travelled internationally, spending 8 years in Europe challenging local walkers. In 1879 he defeated "Blower" Brown, the British champion, by walking a truly incredible 550 miles in 141 hours, 44 minutes in one of the "6 Day Races" at the Agricultural Hall, London, earning himself the famous Astley Belt. All the while he was spreading the word about the benefits of walking and cautioning people about the over use of the automobile and the perils of a sedentary life.

Over the following decades Weston achieved more super human walking feats. In April 1906 he walked  100 miles in less than 24 hours from Philadelphia to New York. In 1907 he repeated his walk from Portland, Maine to Chicago and shaved 24 hours off his original time. In 1909, at the age of 70, he walked the entire width of the United State; from New York to San Francisco a distance of 3,895 miles in 104 days 7 hours. He made the return journey the year after, covering 3,600 miles in 76 days, 23 hours and 10 minutes. His last big walk was in 1913 from New York to Minneapolis to lay a cornerstone of the Minneapolis Athletic Club, 1,546 miles which he covered in 51 days.

After so many high profile, incredible feats Weston slipped into obscurity. He became estranged from his wife and children and ended up in the care of his long time secretary Miss O'Hagen. In 1927, on the corner of 11th Street and 7th Avenue in New York City, he was struck by a taxi cab and never walked again. The motorcar, which he so vehemently rallied against in the promotion of a pedestrian lifestyle was the thing that eventually ruined him. It is said that he was rescued from poverty by the author Anne Nichols, who became his benefactress in his final years yielding him $150 per month to live on. He died of old age 2 years after the car accident.

So what makes Weston such a special character. To start with he was an incredibly accomplished athlete. He was one of the greatest walkers in the world and if he lived nowadays he would probably have sponsors and be on TV. Sadly, he has come to represent an obsolete ideal, a way of life that everyone has turned their back on. What he stood for seems almost quirky and twee, but at the time he was making a real stand and championing an alternate and legitimate lifestyle.

It would be hard now to repeat the routes that Weston took, sadly we now have to drive somewhere so that we can walk.

If you're interested in finding out more about Payson and the art of professional, long-distance walking,  "Weston, Weston, Rah-Rah-Rah!" and "King of the Peds" by Paul S. Marshall and "Man in a Hurry" by Marshall, Nick Harris and Helen Harris are all great places to start.

Tips from the Archive #007

Bradford Aniger - How To Stay Alive In The Woods, 1956

A tip from Bradford Angier, one of the godfathers of outdoor writing. This  is from "How to Stay Alive in the Woods" first written in 1956, it is common knowledge how to use a watch to find north, but if we reverse the principle it is also possible to set your watch by using a compass.

Tip 007 – Setting Your Watch Using A Compass.

“If we are in the United States or Canada and want to set a watch, let us ascertain by compass which way is due south. Then using the shadow to help us keep the hour hand of the watch pointed at the sun, let us turn the hour hand until south lies midway along the shorter arc between it and the numeral twelve. The watch will then be set within a few minutes of the correct local standard time.”

— Bradford Aniger - How To Stay Alive In The Woods, 1956

Vintage Campsite Brochures

Vintage Campsite Brochures

I was fortunate enough to be sent a collection of vintage American and Canadian campsite brochures from the 60s and 70s.

The collection was sent to me by Justin V. Clark who came across them while archiving the papers of Grady Clay. Clay, now in his 90s, is a veteran American landscape, architecture and urban planning journalist, he has led an extremely illustrious life. He is the author of many books, was a long-time editor of Landscape Architecture magazine and also the former Urban Affairs Editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal. Clark believes these brochures are from the many cross country trips which Grady took during his research. You can find out more about Clay here most of his books are still available from Amazon.

 You can view large versions of the entire collection here.

Shackleton and Scott's Huts

Shackleton's Cape Royd Hut

Just over a year ago I posted about a magnificent 360 degree view tour of Mawson's Hut at Cape Denison and just recently I came across a site with full interior views of Shackelton's base at Cape Royds and Scott's base at Cape Evans.

Shackelton's hut was erected in 1908 at Cape Royds, Antarctica; this is where he and nine of his men were left to winter before commencing their push for the pole. Unfortunately Shackleton was forced to turn back with just 97 miles to go, but he did travel further south than anyone before and he was was the first to summit the polar plateau. Other members of his expedition accomplished similar magnificent feats by being first to successfully climb Mount Erubus and also the first to reach the Magnetic South Pole.

Cape Royds Interior

You can navigate around the hut here. Someone once told me there were boxes of Kendel Mint Cake on the shelves somewhere within the hut but no matter how hard I look I haven't found them - let me know if you do.

Scott's Cape Evans Hut is in fact his second property on the antarctic, the first being Discovery Hut on Ross Island from the 1901 Discovery Expedition. The Cape Evans hut was constructed in 1911 as part of the Terra Nova Expedition where Scott set off from on his ill-fated journey to the pole. Cape Evans was named after Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell"Teddy" Evans, Scott's second in Command. He chose this location in the hopes that it would not ice over like the Discovery Hut, enabling his ship to come and go more reliably.

Scott's Cape Evans Hut

You can navigate through Scott's Cape Evans hut here. I'm not sure if it's just the sentimentality that comes with knowing the outcome of these huts, or something in the way that they we're photographed, but there seems an unmistakable somberness to Scott's Cape Evan's hut - a sadness that doesn't come through in Shackleton's. These huts are magnificently preserved thanks largely to the efforts of the United Kingdom and New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trusts they are both incredibly moving time capsules from the Golden Age of Exploration.

Safe Travels

Christmas Day in the Antarctic Circle - B.A.N.Z. Antarctic Research Expedition 1929-31 Frank Hurley

Thanks to everyone for reading this year. We've had a blast over here at the VHD. Hope everyone enjoys the festive season and everyone can get some time on a trail or in the outdoors somewhere. Thanks again for reading, there's much more to come in the New Year.

This magnificent picture is from the Australian National Archives it was taken by the great Frank Hurley during one of the British, Australian, New Zealand Antarctic Research Expeditions led by non other than Douglas Mawson. It looks to be onboard the RSS Discovery. I love the Yalumba wine (or more likely port) on the tables.

Tea Chronicles Pt.10 – Calvin Rutstrum

The New Way of the Wilderness

This tea quotation comes from the "The New Way of the Wilderness" written by Calvin Rutstrum in 1958. Rutstrum is a "wilderness voyager" - a man who spent most of his life in the wilderness. Like lots of outdoorsmen Rustrum is a coffee fan but in the wilderness tea wins out...

“Despite the fact that I am a coffee drinker, in the woods I prefer tea. This is common with many coffee drinkers. Tea is easier on the digestion and is a quick bracer. Coffee, of course, has no equal for breakfast. Caffeine-free coffees have been much improved in flavor, and come in all forms. Both regular coffee and the “instant” should be carried in air-tight or friction top cans.

Tea can be had in “instant” and tablet form, and in tea bags, but my choice is bulk tea.”

— Calvin Rutstrum - The New Way of the Wilderness, 1958

He then goes on to pragmatically describe how he makes his tea in the bush.

“Into a pail of boiling water add tea according to strength desired; one level teaspoon of tea to one quart of boiling water makes mild tea. Do not boil tea. remove it from the fire at once. Let it steep 5 minutes.

Drop tea bag into a cup pour on boiling water and take out the tea bag when the color tells you the tea is the desired strength if lemon is desired in tea, add a pinch of lemon powder.”

— Calvin Rutstrum

"The New Way of the Wilderness" is a classic read; there will be more to come from within its pages.