This makes me wonder: could a human who is totally attuned to this cold environment do the same thing at the same speed? This would mean not being able to get any supplies, carry clothing and tent if needed and basically live off the land. Can humans do that?
Your question reminded me of the purported efforts of one of the male children of the Lykov family (the family separated from civilisation in deep Siberia):
> Lacking guns and even bows, they could hunt only by digging traps or pursuing prey across the mountains until the animals collapsed from exhaustion. Dmitry built up astonishing endurance, and could hunt barefoot in winter, sometimes returning to the hut after several days, having slept in the open in 40 degrees of frost, a young elk across his shoulders.
A few years ago I read travel by a man who spent a summer with nudists/naturists in Europe. His intention was a travel article about about the nudist subculture, but towards the end of summer he found himself hiking nude beside a frozen lake. "I didn't even feel the cold." The article then became about the ability of the human body to adapt. He realized that by wearing so many different types and layers of clothes we deny our natural ability to adapt.
