Water in winter

What you need

• A pot and a stove or a fire
• A bottle you can keep inside your coat
• An axe or an auger if you are going through ice
• A cup of liquid water saved back to start the pot

How

1. Take water from under the ice if you can reach it at all. Melting snow burns three times the fuel for the same cup.
2. Cut through at the edge of moving water where the ice is thinnest, and test every step ahead of you before you put weight on it.
3. If you have to melt snow, put an inch of water in the pot before the snow goes in, or the pot scorches and the water tastes burnt.
4. Add snow a handful at a time and keep the bottom of the pot wet.
5. Boil what came out of a pond or a brook. Clean snow off a drift does not need boiling, but it needs to be snow you would eat.
6. Fill your bottle before bed and sleep with it in the bag, so the morning starts with water and not with ice.

Watch for

Notes

Cold hides thirst. You lose water with every breath you take out there and you will not feel like drinking any of it back. Pick a time and drink on it whether you want it or not.