Wintercount 2012

Many of you know that I love primitive living and survival skills. There are gatherings that happen all over the country where people get together and teach each other. Wintercount is one that takes place about an hour south of Phoenix every February. This was my sixth year of participating. I only went for a couple days because of work but I was able to learn how to make great basin atlatls, got a refresher course on making navajo rope and made a pictograph using pigment paints ground on a metate.

This is the great basin atlatl I made.

Every year at this gathering, there is a distance atlatl competition and for the last two years I have won. (an atlatl is a primitive hunting tool that predates the bow and arrow and was used in both the southwest and western tribes). I was a little nervous about this year because I had built it up so big in my head (how cool would it be to win three years in a row). I used my new atlatl I had made earlier in the week; sadly I forgot my camera and wasn't able to get any pictures of me actually throwing the darts. I broke my personal record from last year by fifty feet for a new personal best of 297.7 feet. I also won the competition. My only real competitor said she has never gotten close to 250 let alone 300 ft. I was so proud of myself. My prize was a beautiful black-on-white primitive made pottery bowl.

The painting design is fashioned after the Mimbres culture which neighbored the Anasazi in New Mexico. The picture shows three men hunting with their atlatls.

I'm going to experiment with longer atlatls and different types of darts so that if I get to compete next year, hopefully I will reach 325 ft.