Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Surviving a cold wet night

That's why the army teaches forced marches. Sometimes it is the best solution.

I read through the entire thread and I'm impressed.

I saw Jone-E handwarmers mentioned as a heat source and I concur that they can be troublesome. I had the same thing happen to me -- working great until you put them in the sack, then they go out.

Believe it or not, Zippo has a handwarmer similar to the Jone-E, but they seem to actually work. That is, they get too hot burning in the open and moderate somewhat in their little supplied sack.

Of course, these things burn fuel and make CO (I imagine), so you don't want one in a bivvy if you pull your head inside. My experiments show they work well if you leave your face exposed outside the bivvy. (Exhaled moisture from your breath doesn't help your insulation stay dry, anyway...)

These things might be an option to an external fire, especially in areas where they are hard to build due to 150" of annual rain.

Bump for 2009

Rick could we get a sticky on this thread? It has to much good info to loose.

Thanx

Mark

agreed.

Thirded, All in favor?

YES!

Thanks, Rick!

Thank You RICK!!!!

Mark

Thanks, Rick.
Jim

One of the most inportant things to remember when choosing gear to pack in is (Try it before you trust it)

Take it out and use it in the brush and see if you like how it works, This thread is great. I just read it all today, thanks for bumping it. Threads like this can help in chosing gear and can savemoney for others.

The most important factor is being in physical shape, having a metabolism which has experienced severe cold so your subconcious system knows how to react to it, and having your body loaded with sufficient and proper fuel.

All the gear in the world is useless once you get soaking wet.
Look at those Special Forces who died of exposure on a training exercise in Florida in temperatures of 54 degrees.

You have to keep some gear and clothing dry.

A friend and I got caught in a weather change from 55 degrees to freezing rain and 70 mph winds which shredded our tent. We loaded up and walked out in the dark, descending 4,000 feet in 18 miles that we had covered earlier that day. At one point, my partner had such severe hypothermia that he went blind, and we had to stop and huddle while our clothing froze. When the freezing rain and sleet turned to a warmer drizzle, we got up and made it to an Adirondack, where we shed our wet clothing and got into our dry sleeping bags and warmed up.

I certainly found out what worked and what didn't. If we had both not been in super physical conditioning and had the nuts, dried fruit, and jerky to eat, we could not have kept hiking and generating heat to stay alive.

bastage! you just wanted Rick to sticky this thread cause you called me a liar and I didn't argue.

you ain't really goin to go out in the weather are ya?

I called you a liar? Where? If I did I hope it was as an elbow to the ribs.

Lee
How do you get metabolism used to cold? I mean if we get a cold snap here its under 30... My wife is a triathlete and duathlete, IE in better shape than most folks and gets damn cold, much colder than I do. Her BP is athletic, IE 100/50 appx....

What do I do to acclimate her?

Jeff

Jeff-

You will need to layer...........her clothes.

Surviving a cold wet night is easy compared to reading though this whole thread.

LOL now that's a statement that deserves a sticky!

well said WW

I hate to say it but I don't think it's possible to acclimate to the cold. It's not like we're going to grow fur or anything! A scientific argument would be that of homeostasis. Metabolism in the body is conducted at a very consistent 98.6 degrees. Turn the heat up or down, you're still going to be 98.6 degrees (unless you're fighting an infection). The body doesn't want to be anything else. That's why we shiver when we're cold and sweat when we're hot. The body puts up a good fight to resist change. That said, my cousin comes up from Florida and can't cry enough about how cold it is here. He also rants about how his blood got thin living in Florida and how all the hundred year olds Willard Scott says happy birthday to on tv are from up North here where the cold makes us more hardy people. I think it's BS.

I am usually not far from my 4X4 when hunting. I carry only a few basic items. I know the area where I hunt like the back of my hand, and don't really need much more than some TP, water, Cliff bar and a few knives.

If I am hiking on the Florida Scenic Trail, or the AT, its a different story.

I'm not sure I totally agree with you here about acclimating to the cold. Perhaps the term "acclimation" is not entirely precise, but I'm pretty sure the basic concept is sound.

As you, yourself mentioned, people from warm climates tend to complain bitterly about even slightly cool temperatures, not to mention what they do when they get a chance to experience real cold. Such people also seem to be more prone to hypothermia than those who spend a lot of time in the cold. I routinely go outside and recreate in temperatures that would literally paralyze my younger brother (who lives in sunny southern Kalifornia).

People who live at higher altitudes (which are usually colder) generally have more red blood cells than do people living at lower altitudes. This is because the air there is thinner and so; more red blood cells are needed to get enough O2 to the body. Many endurance athletes purposely live and train at higher altitudes so that when they go down to lower altitudes to compete, their blood is thicker and can carry more O2, which in turn allows them to perform better. It's essentially a "legal" way to "blood-dope." Perhaps this higher quantity of red blood cells and subsequent higher levels of O2 also helps explain this idea of "acclimation to cold."