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The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

bbc.com

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Re: The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

#31

Post by gumby »

> Unable to move far in the deep snow, his plan was to stay put, which under the circumstances was not a bad one.

It is almost always the correct decision, no matter what the situation. At his home he had access to all sorts of materials, and was clearly visible from the air.

And a shelter in the snow is pretty warm -- regardless of how cold it is outside it will pretty much stay at 0 C. The problem is that you can't be seen from the air (or by someone walking by!) when you're in the shelter and little sound will likely get through either. So you need to make a useful marker, which is slightly touched on in this article.

I have taught numerous people to make these emergency shelters out of material at hand (I'm a wilderness and snow survival instructor) and have been told that it has saved at least one life.

Re: The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

#32

Post by jiggawatts »

Has nobody here done snow sports?

Just a few weeks ago I was snowboarding in deep powder snow with temperatures down to -20 C and I was overheating to the point of being seriously worried about heat stroke. I had just a ski jacket and a thin under-layer.

A few days before that I was "freezing to death" while standing still in a queue outside. It was +3 C and I had three layers on!

The level of exercise makes all the difference...

Re: The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

#33

Post by Agenttin »

gumby wrote: post #31

> Unable to move far in the deep snow, his plan was to stay put, which under the circumstances was not a bad one. It is almost always the correct decision, no matter what the situation. At his home he had access to all sorts of materials, and was clearly visible from the air. And a shelter in the snow is pretty warm -- regardless of how cold it is outside it will pretty much stay at 0 C. The problem is that you can't…

What do you think of the V instead of SOS? Is it better? Should someone do both?

Re: The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

#34

Post by eveningcoffee »

starpilot wrote: post #16
eveningcoffee wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just the style of modern story writing. Words, a lot of words. Just too many of them. I have tried to read such stories and most of the time there are just words and not much substance.

It's amazing how we used to read entire stacks of bound leaves of paper. Some contained dozens of events and interwoven narratives. I don't have time for that.

I do not disagree with you but most of the time there is just some silly narrative, too many irrelevant details that do not add to the story.

This story is actually not bad at all because it is well backed with interesting information.

Re: The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

#35

Post by pjc50 »

gumby wrote: post #28

As it happens I'm leaving for a camping trip in the snow tomorrow morning. It's the sierras (relatively warm) and I'm leading a bunch of inexperienced scouts (so not a particularly grueling trip) but still with opportunities for danger. I was surprised how many of these SV kids signed up and were then pulled by their parents -- 50%! Only a few years ago these trips were immediately oversubscribed, with nobody getting…

Scout trips have been known to go wrong. This discussion brought to mind this very old incident: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-bec...

Re: The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

#36

Post by exhilaration »

hourislate wrote: post #27

Here is the story about Guðlaugur Friðþórsson. It was an incredible feat of will and strength. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0laugur_Fri%C3%B0%C3%BE... I remember watching a program where they interviewed him afterwards and from what I remember he had lost an incredible/insane amount of weight during the ordeal.

A well-reviewed movie based on him is available for rent on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Olafur-Darri-Olafsson/dp/B00CWVE...

Re: The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

#37

Post by rmcpherson »

js2 wrote: post #8
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #5

> A man in the cold is not necessarily a cold man,” says Tipton. “If you keep moving and you are reasonably insulated you will produce enough heat to stay warm. At maximum exercise, it is like you are running a 2kW fire. When you exercise reasonably hard you can do that in shorts and t-shirt in the cold... I think about this a lot as a runner in the Midwest US. I regularly go out in 20-30F weather in wool socks, runn…

Fellow runner here. For God's sake man, carry an emergency blanket with you at least. https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Blanket/s?k=Emergency+Blank...

The article mentions that plastic bags work better than emergency "space" blankets since they block moisture and thus evaporative cooling. A large industrial trash bag is part of my emergency supplies on cold backpacking trips. It's cheap, weighs almost nothing, and provides protection from both radiative and convective cooling.

Re: The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

#38

Post by Ididntdothis »

buserror wrote: post #17
magic_beans wrote: post #13

> Gasping and panicking, they inhaled water. Friðþórsson, by contrast, managed to control his breathing. He later described remaining clear-headed throughout his swim. I wish the article had gone into Friðþórsson's breathing a bit more. It seems like this and/or his body fat are what kept him alive.

You get used to that cold shock, I take a cold shower every day for many many years, and quite frankly I don't feel a "cold shock" anymore, even in winter. It's really just requires a bit of training to get less sensitive to cold; on the other hand I also have a tendency to get warm a lot quicker, which can be a bit annoying sometimes. I keep my house at 18C and no warmer, when many people I know want 21C or sometime…

I have tried to get used to cold showers several times. I always feel great afterward but I always get sick after a few weeks of cold showers. Not sure why that is.

Re: The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

#39

Post by munificent »

stared wrote: post #3

There is a lot of interesting information. However, is it only me, or the style of writing is chaotic (almost as if every paragraph was shuffled)?

This is the current fad in magazine-style journalism. You essentially take two narratives:

* A personal anecdotal account to provide human interest and color.

* A relatively dry scientific narrative that explains the larger context.

And then you weave the two together. The human interest side keeps readers engaged enough to wade through the otherwise tedious sciency part. The sciency part makes readers feel they are learning something more practical than just one person's story. The jumps between the two narratives can be done well but often it's pretty arbitrary.

Re: The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

#40

Post by marinhero »

buserror wrote: post #17
magic_beans wrote: post #13

> Gasping and panicking, they inhaled water. Friðþórsson, by contrast, managed to control his breathing. He later described remaining clear-headed throughout his swim. I wish the article had gone into Friðþórsson's breathing a bit more. It seems like this and/or his body fat are what kept him alive.

You get used to that cold shock, I take a cold shower every day for many many years, and quite frankly I don't feel a "cold shock" anymore, even in winter. It's really just requires a bit of training to get less sensitive to cold; on the other hand I also have a tendency to get warm a lot quicker, which can be a bit annoying sometimes. I keep my house at 18C and no warmer, when many people I know want 21C or sometime…

What's the idea behind getting cold showers? why is it beneficial?
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