It can be difficult to start a fire in the snow when the environment is damp and cold, yet the production of fire can be a matter of life and death in a wilderness survival situation.

We hear stories of snowmobilers who freeze themselves to death trying to walk out of the mountains when their sled breaks down.

Why die like that?

If you light a fire the search and rescue crews will probably find you more quickly, and you have a tank of gas just sitting there.

Using gasoline can speed up the process significantly but this is also a very dangerous idea and should be approached with extreme caution.

Some physics on gasoline and fire:

1.) gasoline vapour burns most readily
2.) cold damp temperatures produce fewer gasoline vapours
3.) hot dry temperatures produce MANY MORE gasoline vapours
4.) time allows gasoline vapours to be produced

So if the ambient environment is cold and moist, gasoline vapours will be produced more slowly and it’s less dangerous.

But if the ambient environment is warm/hot and dry, gasoline vapours will be produced VERY QUICKLY and it’s FAR MORE DANGEROUS.

Time is also important.. you want to work quickly so that vapours don’t have time to build up which can lead to an EXPLOSION when you create a flame.

Bottom line: Gasoline is risky but the risks can be reduced if you are in a moist, cold environment and you work quickly.

Also, very important.. take all the gasoline away from the fire zone before making any flames!!

Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones =)

Technical Notes:

As Christmas morning began to warm up, the snow got heavier and started falling off the tree branches creating a mini secondary snow storm. I filmed this falling snow action for about ten minutes, sped it up 444% and tweaked with the colour phase throughout this video.

The Christmas lights are a small stock clip I purchased from Pond5 that apparently had an alpha channel but I ended up using an inverse Luma Key at 88% tolerance to make the original black matte transparent and bam — it works!

The nature scenes of ice waterfalls from the Nelson BC Canada area in the Kootenays seemed to me an interesting parallel to the ice comet named LoveJoy.

Gratitude to Gisto for introducing me to this random life moment and to every person who was there.

Back Story:

Gisto has been working on a new music video and we have been shooting video in and around Nelson for the past couple of months. Part of the music video plot involves some scenes from a soup kitchen and as we set up for the shoot we were treated to this live demonstration on worm composting. Luckily I was able to squeeze in a few good scenes and some interesting random moments from behind the audience.

Music is “Dreamy Cybernetic” by the artist ‘Re-Horakhty’ from the album ‘Under the Moss”.

FAQ:

Music is “Napalese Sun” by Ishq