In northern Finland temperatures regularly drop below -20C which makes it the ideal place to train NATO Allies in winter survival skills.
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In Lapland, northern Finland, where temperatures regularly drop below -20 degrees Celsius, Finnish instructors from the Finnish Defence Forces’ Jaeger Brigade run different courses for military personnel from various NATO countries.
In this iteration, course participants came from France, the United Kingdom, the United States as well as Finland. The course focuses on subjects such as using layered clothing, protecting against and treatment of injuries related to frostbite, sustaining performance capability, making fires, developing cross-country skiing skills and rescuing from the ice.
This NATO Multimedia footage, filmed earlier this month and released yesterday, includes various shots of course participants from Finland, France, the UK and the US receiving instruction in fire lighting, skiing and ice rescue.
Shot list:-
- 00:00 ~ Training area in Sodankylä, Finland
- 00:11 ~ Course participants from France, Finland, the UK and the US learn from Finnish instructors about operating in cold weather
- 00:36 ~ Multinational troops learn how to make, light and maintain a fire in a cold weather environment using a fire steel
- 01:27 ~ Participants tend to their fires
- 02:00 ~ Course member cuts wood and lights a fire
- 02:22 ~ Course participants build and light fires in the exercise area in Finland
- 02:37 ~ Course participants learn how to operate on skis in deep snow
- 03:21 ~ Skis and boots of participant moving through the snow
- 03:30 ~ Participants ski down slope towards the rest of the group
- 03:43 ~ Course participants plunge into a hole cut into an icy lake in Finland in a controlled environment
- 04:37 ~ Course participants plunge into the icy water
- 04:56 ~ Course participants exit the icy plunge pool under the supervision of the instructors who ask them questions to test their mental state before they exit
- 06:30 ~ Course participants in the icy water
- 06:57 ~ Soundbite – Staff Sergeant Christopher Koehler, United States Air Force
- 07:10 ~ Soundbite – Staff Sergeant Justin Garrison, United States Army
- 07:21 ~ Soundbite – Staff Sergeant Justin Garrison
- 07:30 ~ Soundbite – Staff Sergeant Justin Garrison
- 07:45 ~ Soundbite – Lieutenant Rupert Elmhirst, The British Army
- 08:05 ~ Soundbite – Major Mikael Aikio, Chief Of The Arctic Section, Jaeger Brigade
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