Berget Forum

Well, someone has to favour the bold since the well trained, well equipped, well fed and numerior superior always favour themselves

Talking about being well equiped (and to go back on topic ):

At Berget 8 this summer there was a lot of rain and the supplied tents were not waterproof.

When your tent is situated at the foot of a hill there can even be streams and pools of rainwater going through your tent.
So keep your stuff waterproof even inside a tent. All my stuff was in a goretex bivibag (which also protects very well against those mosqitos) or in my Berghaus that was in a raincover.
In the army we used to bring garbage bags as an extra protection for your stuf.

You dont want to travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers to get sick because all your clothes are wet!

Talking about being well equiped (and to go back on topic ):

At Berget 8 this summer there was a lot of rain and the supplied tents were not waterproof.

When your tent is situated at the foot of a hill there can even be streams and pools of rainwater going through your tent.
So keep your stuff waterproof even inside a tent. All my stuff was in a goretex bivibag (which also protects very well against those mosqitos) or in my Berghaus that was in a raincover.
In the army we used to bring garbage bags as an extra protection for your stuf.

You dont want to travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers to get sick because all your clothes are wet!

You might also dig small ditches around the tent, and from it to lead the water another way! Maybe to your neighbour!

...but do it BEFORE it starts to rain!!!

A related tip: if at all possible, bring an e-tool. Besides digging ditches around the tents, these can be rather useful for the fine art of foxhole digging. The modern tri-fold types are good, because they don't take much space. If you are planning to buy one, go for an army issue shovel, they're the best and don't even cost much.

If at least a few members of the team bring something else to dig with than their spoons, you're pretty well off. If you lend the spade to someone, be sure to get it back - those things can go round and round forever...

Good point!

Another thing I thought of was that if your diet is mostly made up of MRE´s then its good if you eat som fibers, to keep the stomach happy. For example german dark bread or swedish dry bread (knäckebröd).
And as somoene else stated sweets are good for morale and when your bloodsugar drops (wich it does).
Another thing is simple dry soup packs, just pour the content in hot water and you have warm soup, wich is wonderful even during a warm summer (no risk as we will be in Sweden ).
Oh and beef jerky or some salted dry meat is really nice to chew on too as the salt will do you good, and help you preserve the water that goes thru you better.
And drink water constantly, like 0,5 liters per hour atleast as you will need it for the large amount activity!

Cheers

I have warm memories from eating knäckebrot and beef jerky in about all Bergets I've been to. I always keep at least some jerky with me at all times, because it packs very small and besides tasting good, really keeps you going. Some people might get nasty gas from eating jerky. Better find out if you're one of them BEFORE the event! Salty nuts are also pretty good besides jerky.

If you consume your water too fast, you might run out. That's one of the problems with bladders: they're almost too easy to use! If you have a bladder and are easily "tempted", the only alternative is to keep a lot of extra water with you if there's a longer mission coming - you never know how long they really gonna be. Personally I never had any problems with sticking only to normal water bottles. I tend to keep two with me at all times, more if deemed necessary. Never ran out and never felt dehydrated.

A good idea is to consume water in the base camp, where it is readily available. Just remember to generally keep your bladder/water bottles filled in case of a hasty leave. A smart fighter would probably keep one water bottle reserved only for base activity, like cooking. That way the stuff in your webbing is always filled & ready.

When out in the merciless Swedish jungle, it's good to be self-sufficient - to be prepared, not to rely on others too much, especially with vital supplies like food & water.

Ukkolzi wrote: If you consume your water too fast, you might run out. That's one of the problems with bladders: they're almost too easy to use! If you have a bladder and are easily "tempted", the only alternative is to keep a lot of extra water with you if there's a longer mission coming - you never know how long they really gonna be. Personally I never had any problems with sticking only to normal water bottles. I tend to keep two with me at all times, more if deemed necessary. Never ran out and never felt dehydrated.

So you mean that it is good to make your drinking as hard as possible so you are not tempted to drink too much too fast? Nice logic

Bladders are really good way to carry your water. It takes 3l, that much water stays cold/warm much longer than in bottles and it is much more comfortable to carry. Bottles tend to get heavy when you carry lots of those, hard to reach etc.

Besides the bladder I have carried also one camelbak bottle (0.75L). Inside that bottle there is sport/recovery drink. When exhausted/after hard fighting you can get recovery drink right away and it gives you nice boost.

So you mean that it is good to make your drinking as hard as possible so you are not tempted to drink too much too fast? Nice logic

Well, sort of. Not really "as hard as possible", but as I said, if you are easily tempted to drink, there's a possibility you will exhaust your water supply, unless you carry lots and lots of water. There can be some very long missions, and they might come as a surprise, as happened the last time: during the trip, two of my buddies drank their bladders (2 or 3l) empty, and I had to give them some more water. And I didn't really carry any more than they did, but in regular water bottles. And I didn't even run out in the course of the mission. And didn't get eliminated by dehydration, but from a BB to my face. Took the guy with me, though.

The bottles are still quite easy to use, if you keep them where you can reach them. For example, the US water bottle pouches can be operated with one hand if necessary. For me, that's good enough. Never had any problems with those being uncomfortable, and plastic bottles don't really weigh so much as it would matter (US bottle about 100g).

But granted, the bladders are excellent in terms of ease of use and volume, no argument in that one.

Never tried that sports drink thing, I'll have to remember that.