Synopsis

In Canada’s North, Canadian Rangers teach NATO troops how to survive in extreme cold weather. Master Corporal Dinos Tikivik of the 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group explains the mind-set needed to survive in the High Arctic. Canada’s Operation NANOOK-NUNALIVUT 2019 took place in northern Canada between 17 March and 1 April 2019. Around 500 personnel tested their Arctic survival skills and logistics including long-range patrols, ice diving and creating landing strips on the sea ice. Five NATO Allies – Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and the United States – are Arctic states, and Allies regularly work to improve their ability to operate in cold weather.

Teaser

“Being a Canadian Ranger you have to be self-sufficient,” says Master Corporal Dinos Tikivik. Working in temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius, the rangers are NATO’s eyes and ears in the North.

Transcript

--SOUNDBITE—(ENGLISH) Master Corporal Dinos Tikivik, 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group “Being a Canadian Ranger you have to be self-sufficient, able to hunt on the land, know the land without using a GPS. The majority of what I was taught from my Dad was to look back and read the hills, or valleys, or rivers. We are mostly the eyes and ears of the North.” “What we were teaching today was building igloos. We’ve been able to teach different nationalities and the igloo that we built today was a one-man overnight igloo.” “We can’t control nature. Nature is what it is. We can’t really say ‘wind stop’. It won’t stop, it’ll do what it does and we have to be able to work with that. I’ll be a ranger until I’m pretty frail and not able to do anything. So hopefully that’ll be a long time.”