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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 18,005
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 18,005 |
Not sub-zero but 4 degrees. I almost drown during a duck hunt a few weeks ago.
Driving wind blowing from the North. I launched my kayak to recover some ducks I'd shot. Water was calm in the lee of the North shore cliffs, but when I got out further the wind caught the kayak, lost sight of shore in the fog, water turned to whitecaps, and I was not able to fight my way back into the lee of the cliffs. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! I was forced to take a tack where the whitecaps wouldn't breech into the boat.
More than an hour later I made it into the surface slush that had not yet turned to ice in the flooded tamarisks on the West end of the reservoir. From there I worked my way to solid ground which took about another 45 minutes.
The REALLY scary part came when I was safe on shore. My light kayak had built up so much ice that it was too heavy to pull up the slope of the shore. I knocked more than 150 lbs of ice off the boat and realized I had been riding way too low in the water for the choppy conditions that day. It wouldn't have taken very much more ice to do me in ... and all to try to recover a stupid duck.
Yikes!!!  Alamosa, that's a closer shave than I ever want to have! Cold water combined with cold air can become a lethal combination in short order. Sure glad to hear you came through all right! I would have been terrified. My best friend and I fell through ice on a frozen creek when we were 15. Fortunately there was a second layer of ice under the first (this happens in western streams due to fall drought conditions followed by heavy snowfalls in early winter), so we only went in hip-deep. It was 50 below zero that day, if we'd gone all the way in I doubt we'd have survived. As it was, the 2-mile walk back to the cabin was all we could manage. Fortunately the other kids ath the cabin had a fire blazing in the stove and they were able to help us out of our frozen-solid clothes... our fingers were useless. My friend was delirious and I could hardly speak or even think. It was hours before I felt halfway warm again. Cold water and cold air are a deadly combo.
"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 18,345
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 18,345 |
One of the NOAA stations near Stanley reported 43 below zero *F last Friday early AM. I'd post a pic but this site and Photobucket aren't working too well for me lately. :grrrr: Minus 31 F. in N Custer county this morning at 8 a.m., looks like it is a new record for this date since the site I looked at shows that the previous record was minus 17 F. back in 1947. Our average for this time of year is 12 F. Darned global warming anyway. drover In spite of those temps, if I could convince the bride to move to Challis or Salmon, I would do it in a heartbeat! Yeah. Me too. Love the RONRW and the Salmon.
Carpe' Scrotum
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,082
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,082 |
I rolled a canoe in the Snake River in Mid October a couple of years ago. Temps in the mid 30s. Came up on the wrong side of the river. Took two hours for Search and Rescue to get a raft to me so I could get to the other side. That was more than enough for me. Glad things worked out for you Alamosa!
Stupidity is expensive
If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 18,005
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 18,005 |
Jay-zus, SRM!! That was a close shave!
What kind of clothing did you have on, wool, fleece, etc? Worth knowing, IMHO...
"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,082
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,082 |
Jeans, 50/50 cotton/poly sweat shirt, fleece jacket. I had a survival kit in my jacket pocket but it disappeared as I tumbled through the rapids. There were people on the other side of the river in short order but it still took time for the raft to show up. In the interval between my hunting partner heading out to get help and people finally arriving, maybe 20-30 minutes, even knowing that help was coming, it was damn scary. Proved to me that mental attitude is the most important thing in that sort of situation. In hind sight, one thing I should have asked for as I was standing on the wrong side of the river was a road flare to start a fire. The river has a very narrow spot there that they could have tossed one across.
Also should have been wearing a float coat but gee, the river was only 25 yards wide where we were crossing. Not big deal right? Dumb!
A friend is the River Manager for the Forest Circus. He and a co-worker rafted the river the next day, in dry suits, and retrieved the canoe from a rock. Rifle camping gear everything else is on the bottom of the river.
Stupidity is expensive
If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 21,959
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 21,959 |
SRM,
That's scary! The one time I ever had hypothermia was after I had fallen into a creek in the middle of winter. Long story, but if I hadn't had my brother along with me, I would have been a goner. Cold and water. Bad combination.
Glad you made it OK!!
Last edited by 340boy; 01/19/17.
"For joy of knowing what may not be known we take the golden road to Samarkand."
James Elroy Flecker
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,082
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,082 |
I can highly recommend deep knee bends to generate body heat!
And it's a weird feeling pissing pure adrenaline for days.
Stupidity is expensive
If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 21,959
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 21,959 |
I can highly recommend deep knee bends to generate body heat!
You know it! I've spent a few nights in the high mountains stuck in a bivy sack doing knee bends to help keep warm. Knee bends, doze off, waking up shivering, knees bends. Repeat as necessary.
"For joy of knowing what may not be known we take the golden road to Samarkand."
James Elroy Flecker
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213 |
Love seeing pics of that dog.
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213 |
... Proved to me that mental attitude is the most important thing in that sort of situation. ... This is huge. It sounds easy sitting at a keyboard but I think the mental aspect is the really critical part. I believe mental attitude is the reason that many don't manage to save themselves. Most who find themselves up a creek know the steps they must take ... usually methodical, persistent moves with no more screw-ups, but there is this huge temptation to do something impulsive, power on through danger, or to second guess the moves that logic tells you are correct. Glad you are still with us to tell the story.
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,082
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,082 |
You mean like that first thought, I'll just jump back in the river I just barely got out of and swim back across?
Stupidity is expensive
If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!
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Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 3,859
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 3,859 |
Any of you guys use G96? I've used it exclusively for years now, so far no cold related failures.Coldest I've used it is at -32, coyote hunting with my old 11-87. Got a chance at 2 coyotes towards the end of the hunt so had been out for some time and the gun functioned. Seemed to cycle a bit slower than usual but cycle it did. Read a report from the Canadian police(RCMP) on a test they did to determine which products to use for lube/cleaning and G96 came out on top in the cold weather test I believe. Plus it smells even better than Hoppe's...
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 10,718
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 10,718 |
Are you using the original G96 or the newer synthetic version?
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
--Winston Churchill
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 10,718
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 10,718 |
We hit a heat wave today of 31 degrees, and it was short sleeve time.
It's hard to watch the wildlife struggle right now. Today I saw three mule deer leave a county road and bound across a field to get away from me, and the snow was over their backs.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
--Winston Churchill
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20,683
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20,683 |
Good whether for sitting by a roaring fire sipping a glass of good whiskey.
Not much good for anything else, but nothing ever wrong with enjoying an adult beverage of two by the fire. I'm hoping I get to test some of that type gear with you someday Paul.
I'm pretty certain when we sing our anthem and mention the land of the free, the original intent didn't mean cell phones, food stamps and birth control.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 21,317
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 21,317 |
Good whether for sitting by a roaring fire sipping a glass of good whiskey.
Not much good for anything else, but nothing ever wrong with enjoying an adult beverage of two by the fire. I'm hoping I get to test some of that type gear with you someday Paul. Sounds like a plan. You ever make it down this way make sure you say hi.
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