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The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

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Re: The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

#171

Post by SoftwareMaven »

raverbashing wrote: post #134
DanBC wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the signal isn't good enough to send an SMS? I'd tend to agree that staying with the car is sensible. Maybe with some bright orange tarpaulin / flag thing over the car (although that'd probably get buried in snow.) At least if you're travelling in really bad weather you know you might get stuck and so you should prepare. People in England were caught out when light snow was forecast; they left work early and…

Then write your SMS, try sending it and try exploring different positions (maybe try exiting the car, or even climb it). Just don't wander away from it. In my experience, the phone will retry sending the SMS a couple of times if the signal is low.

When I go riding around central Utah on my motorcycle (note: these are paved roads with a street motorcycle), I'm often out of cell coverage for hours at a time. The reality is that the high mountains and deep valleys for "real" mountains, combined with the lack of towns, provide for no coverage, either SMS or cell. If I got caught in those places in snow that is feet-deep, I wouldn't expect my electronics to free me.

Re: The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

#172

Post by SoftwareMaven »

astral303 wrote: post #32
freehunter wrote: post #8

Living in Michigan, this is one of my biggest fears. Due to the massive lakes that surround us, we frequently get a blast of warm, wet air that causes rain, and of course that warm wet air is being pushed off the lake by a cold front, causing high winds and sub-freezing temps. This combined with large stands of farmland and no trees for windrows means wind blows right across the road and freezes the rain instantly, s…

The conditions you describe are tough. Going off the road in an ice storm sucks. Love your CB and snow suit suggestions. The following is not commentary on your situation, but tips to reduce chance of getting stuck: 1. I strongly recommend running a set of good snow tires, no matter whether you have an AWD Subaru or a 4x4 truck or a FWD Corolla. Yes, truck snow tires exist. The reason is that the rubber compound is m…

Every year, as the snow hits, I "play" with the kids in the car in controlled circumstances. The points is to 1) re-awaken my skills and 2) give me a teaching opportunity with my kids. Dealing with an out of control situation in the ice is challenging enough when you are prepared. If you are constantly freaked out about the snow/ice, you are in big trouble when something unexpected happens.

It's also a lot of fun to deal with a car that is borderline out of control in a more controlled environment.

Re: The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

#173

Post by philjohn »

ivix wrote: post #159
30thElement wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting tidbit: -40 Celsius is the exact same temperature as -40 Fahrenheit. Nitpick: If you have a diesel, your car will not start at all if the engine is cold, but if you have a diesel and live anywhere where there's a risk of it being cold enough for hypothermia, you already know this. Also if you have a crappy battery, in cold enough weather it won't put out enough juice to turn over the starting motor (that'…

The problem of course is that diesel fuel goes thick and viscous at very low temperatures.

I discovered this last winter when it got to -15 here in the UK - I was waiting for a diesel train from our local station that was 20 minutes late as they couldn't get it started.

It was interesting seeing electric trains too - the pantographs gave off amazing blue sparks that you normally don't get when the weather is warmer.

Re: The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

#174

Post by raverbashing »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #171
raverbashing wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then write your SMS, try sending it and try exploring different positions (maybe try exiting the car, or even climb it). Just don't wander away from it. In my experience, the phone will retry sending the SMS a couple of times if the signal is low.

When I go riding around central Utah on my motorcycle (note: these are paved roads with a street motorcycle), I'm often out of cell coverage for hours at a time. The reality is that the high mountains and deep valleys for "real" mountains, combined with the lack of towns, provide for no coverage, either SMS or cell. If I got caught in those places in snow that is feet-deep, I wouldn't expect my electronics to free me…

Yes, there are huge areas without cell coverage

Still, having a gps is helpful (at least you know where you are and can wander but knows how to get back)

Having an automotive gps with maps is even more helpful

But yeah, it is a very bad situation nonetheless

Re: The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

#175

Post by rustynails »

starpilot wrote: post #160
andyl wrote: post #74

I teach search and rescue people how to travel on skis or snowshoes and live in winter mountains. If you are prepared, you can stay out in sub-zero for days and days very comfortably. A key skill is constant regulation of your body temperature. You never want to become too hot/sweaty or too cold. If too cold - get into shelter, drink something hot, eat carbs, add clothes, move faster. If too hot - remove clothes, or…

An emergency blanket or bivy is extremely useful too and weighs very little. I just came back from spending a night in the snow ( http://i.imgur.com/yc0cc.jpg sunset, Sequoia National Park, ~8,000 feet). At night, temps went down to the 20s (fahrenheit) I believe and I was shivering pretty bad in my sleeping bag until I took out my emergency blanket. In the morning, I cut it up and wrapped the pieces around my feet b…

Thank you for specifying Fahrenheit. Given there are different temperature scales used throughout the world, I always appreciate people who take the effort to clarify. Thanks ... Oh, awesome pic!!

Re: The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

#176

Post by 314l5926 »

tomrod wrote: post #63

A tip: http://lifehacker.com/5856986/use-your-floor-mats-for-tracti... Always know your resources available!

Have somebody used it, ever? I did, once. Tyres just throws mats under the car, without much movement. If there's no friction between tyres and ice, there would be not friction between mats and ice, either. However, it could help on the snow or sand.

Re: The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

#177

Post by LnxPrgr3 »

funkaster wrote: post #80
UnFleshedOne wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do use kilocalorie that is defined with degrees of celsius though. It isn't as bad here, but unit mixing is extremely annoying in aviation books in canada. In the same chapter of "From The Ground Up" you can see nautical miles, statutory miles, multiples of thousands of feet for height (took me a while to realize a mile is not a multiple of 1000 feet, wtf?), degrees of celsius, pounds, kilograms, kilopascals, mi…

I also find it completely strange that here in the US people tend to use feet as a sub-division of miles, but the mile/foot relation is not trivial: 1 mile == 5280 feet. And why would you need so many units for length? mile, yard, feet, inch... All (apparently) unrelated. The metric system on the other hand, is so elegant and simple. Only one unit: meter.

Growing up in the US, we're exposed to these units our entire lives. End result? When my GPS tells me to turn right in a quarter mile, I can eyeball that distance. If it told me to turn in 400 meters, it'd make me pause a bit.

When I buy a gallon of gas, I know what I can expect to get from it. I know roughly how much a gallon is and how much a liter is, but I'd have to do math to tell you how far my car will go on a liter of gas. Don't even ask me me how many liters I need to travel 100 km…

It doesn't help that gasoline is sold only by the gallon, fuel efficiency is given in miles per gallon, speed limits are in miles per hour, and mile markers give our position on our highways and number our exits. Non-SI units are burned into our brains and our infrastructure all over the place. Grow up in that world, and the awkward math doesn't seem all that bad compared to having to get your bearings in a whole new system.

(That's not to say we shouldn't be switching to metric… but there are definite downsides for a population so used to our strange way of doing things.)

Besides, these length units do have integer relationships with each other: 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, and 1760 yards to a mile. I find the first two easy to remember, and the third easy enough to calculate by remembering that one mile is 5280 feet.

But a yard is 0.9144 meters, making a foot 30.48 cm and a mile ~1609 m. Math within metric is easy. Math within our silly units is slightly more complicated, but we get used to it. Conversion between the systems is messy.

Re: The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

#178

Post by tnorthcutt »

philwelch wrote: post #170
raverbashing wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today, in the age of gps enabled cell phones there is no reason to leave the car (unless there's a risk of explosion, car sliding off a cliff, etc, etc) Get your position, call 911, wait. If the signal is not good enough to make a call, send an SMS

If you have any cellular reception at all, you're generally not lost or stuck in the wilderness and at risk of freezing to death.

I don't think that's right. I've been places in Colorado miles from "help" and still had cell reception.

Re: The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

#179

Post by dhughes »

andyl wrote: post #74

I teach search and rescue people how to travel on skis or snowshoes and live in winter mountains. If you are prepared, you can stay out in sub-zero for days and days very comfortably. A key skill is constant regulation of your body temperature. You never want to become too hot/sweaty or too cold. If too cold - get into shelter, drink something hot, eat carbs, add clothes, move faster. If too hot - remove clothes, or…

Canadian here, a lot of people don't realize how dry winter is the humidity can be very low on a cold day probably comparable to a desert environment.

Re: The Cold Hard Facts of Freezing to Death (1997)

#180

Post by rdl »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #158
rdl wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also: STAY WITH THE VEHICLE. In general, if you're driving somewhere remote and something goes wrong, you're almost always better off staying with your vehicle vs. setting out on foot for help. There are obviously exceptions, but as a general thing, it's true.

I would probably be more likely than most to leave my vehicle but I have training in mountaineering and I wouldn't do so without a good plan and sufficient equipment. My car always holds a basic level of backup supplies including: a first aid kit, a bottle of water (which can also serve as a water container), a head-lamp with extra batteries, a multi-tool, matches, a fleece blanket, rain gear (including rain pants),…

I don't really leave a 2hr radius of SF now (although I guess I drive to Front Sight and Vegas sometimes, but prepare separately for that), and have all that stuff and more. Case or two of water, some tools, often a range bag with items, etc. Mostly worried about responding to someone else's accident, but there's the lingering fear of an earthquake, big fire, or other event like that. This is one of many reasons I like having my own car vs. zipcar or public transit -- it's 100 pounds of things to deal with emergencies (including "server broke, need tools and some network cabling", which is a much more common emergency for me than gunshot wounds...)

I really want to get into bay area amateur radio and get on some repeaters and stuff. An HT in the car seems like it would be a good addition. Maybe 2013.

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