Gagetown soldiers learn to fight in winter conditions near Bathurst

A group of 75 soldiers from CFB Gagetownpicked the perfect time to arrive on the North Shore for a winter warfare course.

They're camping deep in the woods outside Bathurst, right as the biggest storm of the season hits.

"They're here to learn how to survive in an Arctic environment," said Lieutenant Daniel Doucet, in charge of the training exercise. "Obviously this isn't the Arctic."

It's pretty close to it though.

The group arrived on Tuesday, and headed several kilometres into the woods, by bus and truck.

The last stretch to the winter warfare camp was so remote, only snowmobiles could get through, or soldiers trudging through knee-deep snow.

Then they had to learn how to survive overnight in this environment.

"They set up tents, they're called ten-man tents. That's what we usually sleep in," said Lt. Doucet. "They learn how to set those up, sleep in them, keep the stove going for heat and all that stuff."

The next lesson was figuring out how to survive by making their own shelters out of materials they've found in the woods.

They made lean-to's, which can sleep three, and something a little more secure in case they come under attack.

"Today, they also built snow defences which is basically a wall with snow to protect you from enemy forces and stuff like that," explained Lt. Doucet.

After another night in the woods, the soldiers are heading out Wednesday to an even more remote location.

This time, it's completely on foot, six kilometres in, and the only wayback out is on foot, with an almost 30 kilogrambackpack strapped on.

When that's finished, the soldiers may have conquered the North Shore, but there's more winter training to come.

Their next exercisetakes them to Labrador, even closer to those Arctic conditions.