fire can't save you if you fall into icy water. (lake, house)
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only getting naked, inside of a Mylar bag can do so. regular bags just get wet, so if you lack dry cloth with which to towel off, your body is going to get your sleeping bag wet, making it nearly useless. The best answer is to have another person join you in the Mylar bag, to share their body heat. IN less than a minute, the cold will render you unable to do anything, under the above circumstances. You are not building a fire, and a reflector for the heat, and a windbreak, in 60 seconds.
The rate at which immersion-related hypothermia will diminish your capacity to function physically and mentally depends on many factors: the temperature of the water during immersion, the duration of immersion, the ambient surface air temperature, the wind chill (if any) of the surface air temperature, the ambient temperature of your shelter area, your individual tolerance/acclimation to cold, the amount of body fat you have, the amount of calories you consumed that day, your individual metabolic rate, and the availability and effectiveness of any warming or insulating materials you have available.
There are several cold water and cold weather survival guides available from qualified emergency, rescue and medical authorities such as the Coast Guard, Armed Forces, Red Cross, CDC, WHO, etc. If you believe your survival plans may include cold climate or water crossings you should become familiar with these recommendations.
In the case of a quick immersion, such as a fall through the ice, and a quick extraction you need to focus on hypothermia more than on drowning. Treating hypothermia is the same regardless of how the person became hypothermic, only the timing changes.
The following recommendations are from a pamphlet I received during my Alaskan Wilderness Safety course:
Quote:
1) get to as warm and sheltered an area as possible as quickly as possible
2) remove any wet clothing immediately and dry off as much as possible
3) insulate yourself with any available dry material to help retain heat and minimize continued heat loss
4) provide additional warmth by building a fire to heat the shelter, prepare warm food and beverages, and dry wet clothing.
5) apply chemical warmers ("pocket heaters"), if necessary, to the torso but NOT to the extremities
If you are alone, stay calm and focused. Even in extreme cold conditions, you have 10-15 minutes to obtain shelter and start a fire before hypothermia becomes severe enough to significantly limit your physical and mental abilities. It is critical to remove your wet clothing and either put on dry clothes or wrap yourself in a dry blanket or sleeping bag. Eat any non-frozen food you have available, especially sweets and starchy foods, because your body needs the calories to warm itself. Apply chemical warmers to your torso immediately if you have them. Once you have protected yourself from the immediate risk of heat loss, prepare a fire before your physical and mental abilities become further impaired.
Couple of things I would like to add to Missing's excellent post:
1) I usually use a lot of wool clothing when I am out in the cold because wool will retain body heat even when wet. Not to say it will save you in an immersion scenario, but it can buy you time.
2) Stay away from caffinated drinks and alcohol when worried about hypothermia. Both can speed heat loss. A warm drink can go a long way to keeping you alive when you are in a hypothermic danger situation, so I carry boullion in all my packs, but even warm water will help.
The best thing to do is avoid getting wet in the first place. Sweat kills in very cold conditions, and you can get hypothermia even when it is warm out if you are exposed to a cool breeze while you sweat.
Don't go out on ice if you can avoid it, but if you can't, a long pole carried crosswise can minimise the amount of your body going through the ice and will help you get out.
A rope anchored solidly on shore is better, but not always practical.
Check the ice, look for hard clear ice, not cloudy or snow covered as snow insulates and can cover weak ice, cloudy ice has a lot of air bubbles in it and is weak.
Listen to the ice. If you hear booms and cracks, it may sound spooky but means that the ice is building. Quiet ice is deadly ice. It may be melting.
Stay away from pressure ridges as the fissures can spread quite a ways from the ridge itself and the ice can be weak. Last year, (winter 2010/2011) 3 men went through the ice near a pressure ridge on the lake where I usually fish. The 2 other guys got out, one didn't.
Earlier this winter in January on the same lake, another man driving an ATV went through in the same area. That was on 16 inches of ice too, so never take it for granted that thick = safe.
I won't go out on less than 10 inches of clear ice, and even then I am pretty careful about where I am and the conditions.
If there is an active stream or river or moving water coming into the body of water, stay off of it. Moving water creates weak spots in the ice and you may have no indication the ice is thin.
If you can, carry a pair of ice picks in your sleeves, they are simply handles with a sharp steel point on one end. They are designed to help you get out of the water by gripping the ice so you can pull yourself out.
I made a pair out of 7/8 inch dowels with 20 penny nails and hot glue. Normally they have a string or paracord like mine, that runs up your sleeve across your shoulders and down to the second pick. One for each hand.
Not something everybody will have, but if you go out on ice, they can save your life.
Done a lot of ice fishing, my favorite winter pass-time, and knowing the ice is paramount to coming home safely.
My best advice for ice in the winter, if you aren't prepared for it, stay off of it.
If you have to go on it, take a few precautions so you don't get into a life threatening situation.
Last edited by MTSilvertip; 04-02-2012 at 09:56 PM..
Good points Silvertip! "Cotton Kills" is a rule in Alaska, most clothing is either wool or synthetics. It doesn't have to be frigid for you to get hypothermia. You can suffer from exposure in temps as warm as 70F, especially if you are wet or sweaty and it's windy.
It's always a good idea to carry spare clothing, your bedroll, and firestarting material in sealed waterproof pouches in your pack in case you fall into water or get caught in the rain.
Avoid the water and/or ice whenever possible, be cautious with any crossings, even if you think its safe... especially if the current is strong or you're alone.
If you must go out on wthe ater or ice, create a shelter and lay in a fire before you go, then clearly mark your trail back. That way everything is already prepared and easy to find just in case you do fall through and aren't thinking clearly.
But even here in AK with temps below freezing for 6 months, and extremes down to -70F, the survival recommendations still tell you that you have several minutes before 2nd stage hypothermia and significant impairment sets in, and that you need to use that time to get shelter, get dry and build a fire... even if you have to do it mostly naked or wrapped in a blanket.
If your body temp is already low due to exposure or immersion and you huddle up in your bag and fall to sleep, without a fire or supplementary heat source your chances of survival are next to none.
Living in a warm climate improves your chances, but hypothermia can still occur in tropical and desert climates. Hypothermia is the lowering of the body's core temperature below 95F. Hypothermia can happen even in 120F temps if you are wet/sweaty and wind chill is sufficient. Ambient air temp also does not preclude the water temps from being below tolerance levels during immersion. It is not uncommon for boaters and swimmers to develop hypothermia even though it's a hot day at the beach.
While you are less likely to be chilled to the point of death in warm ambient temperatures, you still must protect yourself from heat loss by getting dry and sheltered from the wind. If night is approaching, the temp is dropping, the wind is increasing, you are dehydrated, you have not eaten enough to sustain your metabolism, or your are injured and in shock then your body may not be able to maintain adequate body temperature to prevent hypothermia.
95F: shivering starts
90F: shivering stops, loss of coordination and concentration is pronounced
86F: unconsciousness, inability to regulate body temp
82F: cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) <<-- fatal heart attacks can happen at any time after this begins
68F: cardiac cessation (heart stops beating) and death
However, warm climates pose the opposite problem - hyperthermia, or heat stroke, where the body core temp is too high. In that case, you must cool down before injury or death occurs.
Personally, I'd rather attempt to make fire in the cold than ice in the heat
I'd like to chime in, as someone's who's actually been through that situation. A few years ago, I fell through the ice while ice fishing in late spring. It's not a fun experience, and not something I'd care to repeat.
Fire can, and will, save your life. It's also possible to get one going within a reasonable span of time.
Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht, at the University of Manitoba's sort of the guru on not freezing to death. He made a series of videos regarding what to do if you fall through ice. They're pretty good, and can explain how to do things right far better than I can.
Thanks for the links to those excellent vids, StubbleJumper!
Glad you survived your icy douse! I've suffered mild to moderate hypothermia from "warm" weather immersion and extreme cold weather, and stepped through weak ice a few times, but I've never fallen entirely through the ice in cold weather, thank goodness.
You could avoid the problem altogether by moving to Tampa,
Yeah. I went to Tampa for vacation and I got the sense homeless people moved there for that reason to not freeze but I wouldn't recommend people live there. only the beach is good.
Canadians have a hard time believing the ice isn't as solid in the states I had a friend whose leg fell through and my other friends risked there life to pull him out had to drag his butt 1 mile to his house. I was watching from the shore just in case they were being cute stomping and needed 911.
I swamped a canoe in ice water once. Had to paddle a while to get to a pull out spot. I could not control my hands well enough to start a fire. Fortunately sombody brought the van and I warmed up in the back. Then there was the 40 minute swim in 43 deg ocean water. The Coast Guard hauled us out of that one. I do not do this anymore.
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