10 Cold weather survival tips
With winter approaching fast it won’t be surprising to know that many survival situations will present themselves over the next few months. Should you find yourself in one of these situations, it’d be handy to know a thing or two about how to deal with it as best you can, so here are 10 cold-weather survival tips to keep in mind for the coming winter.
1) Sweating is a serious threat
Walking through snow takes much more effort and calories than walking through the desert or jungle, so it’s no surprise that people sweat from all their hard work. The sweat can freeze on your skin and conduct heat away from your body much faster than the air, something people don’t fully notice until they stop moving. To avoid this it’s better to take a layer off and be slightly cold than it is to keep fully wrapped and drench yourself in sweat. This is dependent on the situation of course but avoiding moisture within your clothing should always be a priority in cold weather.
2) Get creative with fire lighting
Fortunately, snow doesn’t seep into wood very well and cold air is the driest type of any climate, so any wood you find should still be good to burn, but getting the fire going will be the hardest part. Normally some kind of fire-lighting block or a feather stick would be preferable, but in the event you don’t have anything like that, it’s surprising how well everyday items are at starting a fire. The following are regular items that make excellent fire starters:
Doritos or some other kind of high fat chips. Half a bag of these will easily create enough heat and burn long enough to ignite wood.
Tampons – They burn quickly but last much longer if smeared in a thin layer of Vaseline (petroleum jelly)
Cotton balls or a wad of q-tips – Fast burning but again work well with petroleum jelly.
Rubber – A seal around a car window (if you can afford to lose one), a strip cut off a tire or anything thin that’s made of rubber should ignite using a match, and once burning lasts for a long time making it an excellent starter material, though the flame can be blown out easily.
Cloth – Including clothing and the fabric from car seats.
3) Don’t touch what you don’t need to
Frozen metal will conduct heat away from your body 100 times faster than snow, so you’d be better off sitting on the floor than your car bonnet. Every single bit of body heat is valuable and should be protected, and one of the best ways to do this is by avoiding things that will sap your heat, with nothing being more important to avoid than water.
4) The ground is colder than the air
Something to remember when it comes to bedtime. If you have to make a shelter with your own bed, the further away from the ground you can get the better as it holds the cold more intensely than air does. Raised beds filled with leaves, reeds, or sticks will provide a warmer night’s sleep, and even if you have a tent, the thicker the layer between you and the ground is the better.
5) If you get stranded with a vehicle, stay with it
Rescue teams will always try to locate the missing person’s vehicle first as it’s the easiest thing to find and the best clue as to someone’s whereabouts. A vehicle will not only provide shelter but will be your best chance of getting found sooner.
6) Don’t risk a blizzard
The faster the wind is blowing, the faster it takes heat away from your body and replaces it with freezing air. Even if you know of a location close enough to walk to, there’s a very real chance that you could get lost when your visibility drops to a few feet. Waiting it out in a vehicle or shelter is much safer than trying to walk through it, and even the most experienced Arctic residents lose their way in a blizzard, like Pauloosie Keyootak for example who ended up 100 miles in the wrong direction.
7) Always keep an emergency kit in our car
When the heater in your car stops working it basically turns it into a large fridge that does little more than block the wind. Having a small kit on hand can save your life in these situations and there’s no excuse not to have one. If cost is your main concern then £10 worth of gear is more than enough to make a huge difference, with items like space blankets and chemical heat pads costing only a few pounds. A couple of boxes of matches wrapped in a warm blanket is something that anyone could keep in the corner of their car’s trunk, and it’ll feel like a miracle when you realize it’s there when you’re stuck overnight in a cold vehicle.
8) Always be aware of how cold you really are
This one might sound a little obvious but certain parts of the body lose feeling quickly when they get very cold. The ears, nose, fingers, and toes are the usual parts to watch out for, as they feel cold at first but then become more comfortable over time. This happens because they are losing feeling and you don’t realize just how cold they are, which could cause you to get frostbite without realizing it until you start to thaw out.
9) Don’t tend to frostbite until its safe to do so
If you thaw out a frostbitten area and it re-freezes, it will cause significantly more damage to the tissue. If you are halfway through your walk to safety through the snow and come across somewhere you can rest awhile, it would be more dangerous to expose frozen tissue to the air and partially thaw it out than it would be to just keep your boots on until you reach safety.
10) Watch where you breathe at night
It may be tempting to snuggle down into your sleeping bag or cover your face with something, but the moisture from your breath will build up through the night and freeze within your sleeping bag. Going to bed covered in sweat will cause you to wake up freezing cold and damp during the night, so be aware of how much moisture you’re trapping in your bedding. The best way to get around this is to wear a balaclava or some kind of full face covering that allows your mouth or nose to breathe directly out into the air, it may not be the most comfortable but it’s better than frost inside your sleeping bag.
