Chapter 657 Frozen River
With a stick, survival is half done!
This is of course a joke from the netizens.
But a straight tree stick is definitely a surprise for Bifang, and a walking stick in the snow is of great help.
It protects joints, maintains balance, and saves energy when walking uphill, effectively increasing average speed.
Studies have shown that a long pole of appropriate length can reduce the impact force on the knee joint by more than 40%, especially when going downhill.
With the strength of Bifang's joints, it is naturally not afraid of impact force, but it can help maintain balance and increase forward speed, which is really good.
In particular, the stick itself is not so dry that it breaks easily when bent. On the contrary, it still retains a considerable degree of toughness and can be used as a walking stick.
And given its original length, it can barely serve as a long weapon.
The reason why it is a stretch is that the Arctic is indeed too dry. Although the tree sticks are still tough, they are still somewhat improvisational when used as spears.
As for moving weeds to alert the enemy, and to clear away thorny vines and spider webs on the road, these functions are useless in the Arctic.
There were no trees nearby. It was obvious that it was broken off from a tree and blown here by the wind, with many branches still on it.
Bifang selected a section of length and straightness as indicated, and cut off all the excess parts with a knife. The larger branches were collected to weave snowshoes, and the smaller and useless ones were used as fuel. Not a single bit wasted.
"This is not the first time I have made snowshoes. Sometimes, in difficult environments with steep terrain and snow, you will find that your boots always sink into the snow. In this case, snowshoes are very necessary."
"Getting stuck in the snow is like getting stuck in mud when transplanting rice in the south. It consumes more energy when walking, and energy is precious. We must save it. Homemade snowshoes can distribute your weight over a large area, making it easier to walk on the snow."
"This branch is from a pine tree, which is also the most common tree in the polar regions. Although it has no leaves, its branches are dense and are very good material."
Bifang cuts down 5 to 10 large branches about half a meter long and ties the bases of the branches together, loosely gathering the trunks together along a midpoint. Next, she uses a strap to tie her feet to the front 1/3 of the branch snowshoes.
"If you have more time, you can make a more complex trail snowshoe out of saplings and string, but we didn't need to do that. Greenland is still quite spacious."
Greenland is essentially a region of towering mountains, massive blue-green icebergs, stunning fjords, and barren, bare rock.
But from the air it looked like a vast empty wilderness, dotted with jagged black peaks, punctuated by the occasional blinding white expanse of ice .
Greenland as a whole is an island of great differences: in summer, meadows near the coast bloom with purple saxifrage and yellow poppies, as well as shrubby mountain ash and birch trees.
However, the central and northern parts of Greenland are enclosed by a huge ice sheet. There is neither a piece of grass nor a flower within hundreds of kilometers. It is so vast and looks like a white desert.
"If you're not going to be walking on flat ground with your snowshoes, but are going uphill, downhill or across a hill, then you need your snowshoes to have some ground traction, so your snowshoes should have cleats, hooks, and other things on the toe, heel, and sides to keep your snowshoes attached to the ground."
After briefly introducing the other situations, Bifang continued to move forward.
With the help of snowshoes, Bifang's walking speed was significantly increased.
I looked at the sun above my head. The weather today was quite good. The sunlight was very scorching. The surface of the snow had melted and turned into ice, making a rustling sound when I stepped on it.
Not only that, in autumn and winter, temperate cyclones often invade Greenland, causing the temperature in Greenland to fluctuate dramatically, sometimes to -50℃, sometimes to -30℃.
Bifang suspected that the temperature today might be only about twenty degrees below zero, far less scorching than the past few days.
The whistling winds were like ice knives, trying to slow someone to death. The meat that was cut off might be even better than the icy fresh sea bream sliced by Beichen Tianlang's blade.
With unrealistic fantasies roaming in his mind, Bifang felt that he might be too hungry and his thoughts began to drift.
Under normal circumstances, I am a person with a strong sense of purpose, which is why I can build stable living conditions in the wilderness step by step without letting my mind wander and doing things haphazardly.
Bifang felt that this was caused by the lack of energy in his brain, and his willpower was constantly being eroded in this harsh environment.
Most people think that willpower is a psychological topic, but they don’t realize that it should actually be classified as physiological.
This thing is a consumable. Every time it fights against instinct, it causes internal friction. It is also the main factor supporting efficient work.
When willpower is insufficient, it is easy to fantasize, or be distracted.
"call!"
Bifang pulled open the noodles that covered his mouth and nose, rubbed his face to the cold wind, took a deep breath, and increased his blood oxygen content as much as possible. Only then did he feel refreshed.
We need to speed up.
The unprecedented hunger made Bifang unleash his potential. With the help of snowshoes, he ran even faster than when he first arrived in Greenland.
Bifang squatted down, broke a piece of light blue ice with rounded corners, and stuffed it into the dry kettle.
"The older the sea ice is, the less salt it contains. When old sea ice is broken, its edges are rounded and its surface is often bumpy. Its underwater part will appear light blue. Fresh sea ice is milky white like milk, and its broken shape is angular."
What is the reason for this?
"It's the microstructure that's different. It's different from one ice to another."
Bifang pointed to the ice surface under his feet, and next to it was a thick layer of snow that had been dug up and piled up.
After a snowstorm
"The first sea ice formed by primary ice is small ice crystals in the shape of needles or flakes; a large number of ice crystals condense and aggregate to form sticky or spongy ice. Snowfall on the sea surface with a temperature close to freezing point can directly form sticky ice without melting."
"Ice skin is formed by the direct freezing of calm sea surface, or the sea ice layer formed by the continued freezing of primary ice. It is about 5 cm thick and relatively brittle. It can be easily broken by sea wind or sea current and turned into thin rectangular ice blocks."
"If the new ice continues to grow and freezes into a thin, elastic ice layer about 10 cm thick, it will be easily bent and broken into rectangular ice cubes under the action of external forces. The thin ice flakes of the broken cake-shaped ice will collide and squeeze each other under the action of external forces, and the edges will rise."
"It eventually formed into a circular ice disk with a diameter of 30cm to 3m and a thickness of about 10cm. This level of ice is old ice. New ice will not freeze like this. It seems that the river section under our feet has been frozen for a long time."
The netizens were still listening to Bifang’s popular science talk, but when they heard the last sentence, they were stunned for a moment, and finally they suddenly reacted.
river?
Found the river! ?
