3. Overnight without a tent

Improvised summer shelters for a rest or overnight stay can be built from scrap materials. An improvised tent can be made from plastic film thrown over a cord stretched at a height of 1-1.5 m between trees, so as to form a gable roof. At the ends, the edges of the film are overlapped and reinforced. A shelter in the form of an awning, single or double slope (depending on the size of the material, the height of the suspension, the number of people) can also be made from plastic film, calendered nylon, thin tarpaulin and other materials (Fig. 5). Using an awning you can also protect your fire from rain and wind.

Rice. 5. Summer improvised shelters

In the absence of material, people can take refuge under the dense branches of spruce, pine, birch, linden, and other trees, under random canopies and shelters of natural or artificial origin. Shelters can also be a canopy, a hut, or a dugout made by the participants of the hike, depending on the availability of “building materials,” abilities and skills.

If the route passes in a forest area in winter and the number of overnight stays and housing is small, then you can do without a tent and spend the night by the fire. For such an overnight stay, a fire made of three logs 1.5–2.5 m long is best suited (Fig. 6). However, setting up a campsite for the night is labor-intensive work. The main thing is felling, transporting and cutting sushi. It is better to make a fire on the ground, having cleared the snow, if it is not very deep. Then make a flooring using small dead wood and spruce branches (in distant areas). If you do not clear the snow to the ground, then the flooring must be made more durable. First, place damp and rotten dead wood across the future fire, and then along it. Without a covering, the fire will fall into the melted snow.

Rice. 6. Fires made of two or three logs and reflective barriers.

The thinner the logs, the longer they burn. For a group of 8-11 people, three logs with a thickness of 35 cm or more, six logs with a diameter of 25-30 cm, eight or nine with a diameter of 20 cm and about 15 logs with a thickness of 15 cm are enough. If the thickness of the logs at the butt is less than 15 cm, you need a lot of them, they burn out quickly. You need to fell one large tree or two medium ones, and if you sow smaller ones, then 3-4. It is desirable that the trunks are the same; In order for them to fit more closely to each other, they must be cleared of branches. Leave enough firewood for the morning. There should be a hot fire in the morning, otherwise getting ready will be unpleasant and long. Before leaving, the logs of the fire are extinguished by rolling them out in the snow. You can then stand them upright, leaning against each other or against stumps. Then others will be able to use the logs.

On the two lower logs, small brushwood is lit, laid across the entire length of the logs. It is good to make marks on these logs first, then they will light up better. The third log, the largest, is placed on burning brushwood. Dry resinous logs ignite quickly from the sides facing each other. As it burns, the top log lowers, automatically adjusting the intensity of the flame. The lower logs burn more slowly and must be moved from time to time. If the heat is too much, you can raise the top log on supports (put two damp branches across the bottom logs at their edges), and move the bottom ones apart. The larger the gap between the logs, the weaker the fire and the slower the fire burns. The top log, with its average thickness of 30 cm, lasts for 3-4 hours, then it is replaced with a new one. Lower logs burn slower.

It is more difficult to build a node - a fire made of two logs. Here one log lies on top of another, placed on a lining, and is held in place by four thick damp stakes. It is worth building a node if there is no third log for a fire of three logs.

Sleepers will be warm if they are illuminated by the rays of a fire - only they warm. Therefore, it is better to make the flooring for the night inclined towards the fire, and also deepen it so that the fire is higher. In this case, the rays of the fire will fall on the sleeping people more steeply and from above. Traditionally, spruce branches have always served as bed bedding. However, as already noted, due to the very widespread development of tourism, the harvesting of spruce branches causes damage to the forest. Therefore, it is advisable not to break the branches of coniferous trees, but to place plastic film on trampled snow, with foam mats and foam mats on top. This type of bedding for sleeping bags is quite sufficient. For protection from wind, snow and for some reflection of rays on those sleeping, it is advisable to pull out an awning made of light tarpaulin. Nylon is unsuitable for this: sparks will burn it. Sleeping bags can especially suffer from sparks, since spruce and pine logs shoot coals strongly. To protect sleeping bags from sparks, you can cover them with thin old linen.

Rice. 7. Winter shelters: a), b) near a tree trunk; c) snow dugout; d) a shelter with a frame of skis connected by a metal ring; e) horizontal snow cave-niche with a snow depth of about 1 m. 1. Film. 2. Branches. 3. Skis. 4. Snow blocks. 5. Slots for ski toes. 6. Ring connections. 7. Ring plates.

Using the terrain, you can sometimes make things even easier. Depressions in a steep river bank, cliffs or rocks are used as natural reflectors. They sleep between a fire and a cliff or rock.

Snow holes and caves can be dug most quickly in the presence of dense and thick snow cover and natural snow holes, slopes, and snowdrifts. A shelter can be dug at the foot of a large, dense spruce tree in deep snow (Fig. 7), deepening the depression around the trunk and covering the entire top with poles, branches, skis, and on top of this with film, warm tarpaulin, or other fabric. The edges are sprinkled with snow or rolled with soft blocks. The top can be completely covered with snow if the ceiling is strong enough. The bottom is lined with branches, spruce branches, and film.

In the winter taiga, where the snow is more than a meter thick, you can spend the night in a deep hole dug to the ground. In this pit you need to maintain a fire (preferably a node). From the side of the wind it is better to make a barrier of snow or branches.

Sometimes in the taiga they spend the night using the so-called hunting method: they light a fire over an area of ​​several square meters, warming the ground, then move it to the side, cover the warm ground with small branches and spruce branches, and place backpacks and other soft equipment on top of them. It’s warm to sleep in such a place, but it takes several hours to warm the ground, using quite a lot of firewood. Organizing such an overnight stay is labor-intensive and will take at least 1.5-2 hours even for experienced tourists who have saws and axes.

In treeless areas in winter, it is often necessary to build windbreaks when sleeping in tents or without them. To obtain snow bricks, you can use hacksaws, special shovels made of aluminum alloys, and long kitchen knives. Compacted crust is suitable for a brick quarry. Bricks with an upper edge measuring approximately 60 x 30 cm and a height of 30 cm are convenient. The bricks are placed with the upper edge on the bricks of the lower belt so that each of them rests on the two lower ones, overlapping the joint. This is a condition for the strength of the wall.

If you have time and suitable snow (hard crust), you can build a snow hut for the night - an igloo. In the first row of bricks, cut in the same way as for windproof walls, and installed along a pre-defined circle, adjacent bricks are cut in a spiral. The wall of the hut is built up along this spiral (Fig. 8 a, b). Already the first row of bricks is placed obliquely. The next rows are placed with an increasing slope, chosen so that the diameter of the upper opening of the hut is about half a meter. This hole is closed with a closing slab resting at one corner on the last brick.

Rice. 8. Winter and mountain overnight accommodations without tents: a), 6) igloo snow hut; c) a snow bowl on a slope with a snow depth of at least 2 m; c) a cave-half-hut on a slope with a snow depth of less than 2 m; e) a niche for spending the night while sitting (built when the snow is very thick or when there is not enough time).	Rice. 9. Individual emergency winter shelters: a) shelter in dense crusted snow; b) canopy over the upper body 1. A notch in the crust. 2. Snow blocks. 3. Polyethylene film. 4. Rods bent in an arc

The larger the hut, the lower the slope of the first row of bricks and the higher the conical part of the building. Each brick is wedged when laid next to it, so the dome of the hut becomes stable. The cracks are filled with broken bricks. If a full igloo is not possible, you can cover the ceiling with skis and poles, covering them with plastic wrap and covering them with smaller snow bricks. Building an igloo requires good skill. They are built with a capacity of no more than 3 people (it is difficult to do more), and such Construction takes several hours. Therefore, you have to “start an igloo” if the thickness of the snow does not allow you to dig a deep hole (on the ice of large reservoirs, on sunny and windward slopes with little snow) and make a simpler shelter.

If you have a suitable slope, a blowout, or a large snowdrift, you can spend the night in a snow cave, which can be easier to build than an igloo. You first need to probe the slope with a stick to make sure there is enough snow. The cave is made for no more than 4-5 people. In a dense slope, snow is cut out with a hacksaw, removed with pots, bowls, and skis. The walls are leveled with a shovel. The main volume of the cave is made dome-shaped with a height in the center of about 1.5 m. The floor of the cave is made sloping, above the entrance level, so that carbon dioxide does not accumulate! After construction is completed, the entrance is filled to a minimum size. The temperature in a hut or cave usually does not drop below zero. Film and polyethylene foam mats are placed on the floor, and sleeping bags and other equipment are placed on top.

At high altitudes, at low temperatures, bad weather, strong water, and also when planning to spend two or more nights in one place, it is also rays to build a snow hut or dig a cave, which will provide a more comfortable overnight stay and safety of equipment. The snow cave or hut can accommodate 4-6 people. With a large group, you can build 2-3 caves, connecting them with a manhole.

In an improvised cold shelter, if there are no sleeping bags, you need to put on all your warm clothes, put the remaining things under you and isolate yourself from the snow if possible. Place the hood of the storm jacket over your head and press close to each other. Legs can be placed in a backpack.

If a tourist gets lost or lags behind the group, then if there is hard crust, you can quickly make an individual shelter (Fig. 9) using a hacksaw or shovel. The gaps between the blocks are sealed from the outside or inside with snow, and the entrance is closed with snow bricks.

If the snow is deep and loose, in extreme cases of frost, you can bury yourself deeper in it, wrapping yourself in any clothes or equipment, covering your head, pulling your knees to your chest, moving your arms and legs. The main difficulty with this is not falling asleep.