[ANON POST] Medieval Winter Travel

[orange_fell]

Part of the plot in my story revolves around the fact that my characters really need to travel to a specific place - but they live in a very snowy, northern climate, and when the story opens winter is already closing in. To make matters worse, there's a mountain range between them and their intended destination, which they can theoretically travel

Comments

[stickmaker]

Your setting is effectively during the Medieval Warm Period (from about AD 950 to AD 1250). However, you're also in Northern Europe in the mountains. Also, even during the Warm Period there could be bad Winters.

Depending on the requirements of your plot you could have an unusually mild period and they simply walk a mostly snow- and ice-free path. If you need them to have more difficulty the Winter could be much worse than usual and they're struggling along through hip-deep drifts, maybe using snowshoes. Those go back over 6000 years in Asia. Not sure about northern Europe.

[stickmaker]

It's actually a fantasy setting, so the Medieval Warm Period is not in play. I say the High Middle Ages for a ballpark of the technology available at the time.

I am actually hoping to delay the journey till spring, but I want to make sure that my instinct for the difficulties of winter travel (based mostly on experience of winter backpacking) is not inaccurate because of some sort of infrastructure that we no longer use.

[anonymous]

Here's a skiijor blog with a lot of 'this is what it looks like when you skijor (crosscountry skiing with a dog-powered assist :D) over VERY patchy snow :D http://skijor-breck.blogspot.com/ - don't know if that's helpful at all, but it's interesting video!

(Hope this posts, LJ is being cranky and won't log me in.) -xianghua

[samtyr]

Just throwing out some ideas:
You might check assorted info on last year's polar vortex, though that is probably a bit too modern. Still, there might be something of use there.

The book "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder could be helpful; it is supposed to be one of the more historically accurate books in the series.

You should also check for histories (and biographies) of famous historical blizzards, as well as polar expeditions.

Hope this helps some.

[nuranar]

Good idea about the Long Winter. There are specific details about traveling with horses and sledges in deep snow. IIRC at a certain depth, the people had to trample down the snow ahead of the horses so that they could proceed.

I've also read some 1900s/1910s fiction on Project Gutenberg, set in northern Canada and occasionally Alaska. (Author James Oliver Curwood.) They are very much outdoors-type stories. In most cases travel is by dogsled, but there's times when that is not available. Sometimes not snowshoes, either.

[samtyr]

It's been ages since I read The Long Winter, but now I can't believe I didn't think of that. Thanks!

[tersa]

IIRC at a certain depth, the people had to trample down the snow ahead of the horses so that they could proceed.

I read the covers off my copy of The Long Winter when I was a kid, and what I remember about people trampling down the snow ahead of the horses was specifically when Cap and Almanzo were trying to sledge back all the seed wheat from the recluse farmer through the Big Slough. The snow tamping came when they were going over the very long grass, which couldn't always support the weight of the sledge and horses.

Not precisely sure how that would relate to the OPs situation if long grasslands aren't involved. :)

[rustica]

I have heard an anecdote from the UK. In the 1950s(?) they had a really bad winter, snowdrifts upto 6 feet. People in the country apparently got around by walking *on* the frozen, snowpacked hedges. I have no idea if this is even possible, but the person who told me claimed to have done it.

[sollersuk]

That depends on there being hedges; it only works with properly laid hedges, where small saplings are part cut through, bent over and woven in and out of stakes.

My own experience of heavy snowfalls in England, from the 1950s through to the 200s, has been that you need either the roads to be cleared or skis or snowshoes to get around. In recent years it proved almost impossible to get sheep, cattle and horses out of snow covered fields.

A major problem with winter travel was not just the snow on the ground as the risk of storms. This is what kills climbers and mountain walkers, even in England (let alone Scotland).

[marycatelli]

Snow varies enormously in resistance to feet. Light fluffy snow can have you plunging knee deep or higher. More compact snow does less.

Sleet is easy to walk on and very compact.

Freezing rain leaves behind a nightmare.

[r_blackcat]

Oh please, can you give the link on "Robin-Hood-in-winter" article?

[r_blackcat]

Sure!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/features/2002/12/sherwood_forest_survival_guide.shtml

[r_blackcat]

Link was marked as spam, but look up "Nottingham features wintertime survival in medieval Sherwood Forest." It should be the first link that comes up.

[r_blackcat]

Yeah, that works! Thank you very much!