Cold Weather survival tips

Extremely cold environments are the hardest to survive in, while it takes at least a whole day to die in the desert without water, it only minutes in extreme cold under certain conditions. The average human body temperature is around 36.5–37.5 °C (97.7–99.5 °F), this means that if you are outside in -5 °C weather with a wind speed of 10 mph, without shelter or the proper clothing you will start to suffer frostbite in as little as 30 minutes.

Very often in cold environments, there are particular situations that can be the cause of your demise, such as falling into cold water and freezing in the wind, or suffering frostbite on your fingers to stop you from being able to light a fire. These are things that people never think will happen to them, but have been the cause of death for so many people trapped in the Arctic.

Here are a few Cold Weather survival tips to keep in mind when out in the cold to maximize your chances of survival.

Clothing

This one may seem obvious but it can make the single biggest difference to your situation. Being stuck in a nice warm cabin with the wrong clothing on won’t help you if food runs out and you don’t have the proper protection to go outside. You should never get anything too cheap when going into extreme cold, because the smallest mistake with your clothing you cost you a finger.

Apart from good clothing, there are 2 things that you should always take with you in these environments, and that’s a plastic raincoat and a foil blanket. The waterproof raincoat will stop snow from settling on you and soaking through making your clothes wet, and the foil blanket will not only make you easy for rescuers to see but will provide a much-welcomed heat boost when you’re taking shelter. Both of these things are very cheap, with both together costing no more than £5 and fitting into a single pocket.

Prepare a quick-light fire

Even though you may be in an area where there’s plenty of firewood, the chances are that it will be wet and frozen, making it difficult to start a fire from scratch with cold hands. If you have some kind of waterproof bag or container, it’s worth filling it with dry tinder or pre-made feather sticks.

In the event you fall through the ice or happen to get especially cold, you won’t be able to use your hands anywhere near as well as normal, so having the ability to make a fire with nothing more than the strike of a match can make all the difference. A good idea is to make some tinder and put it in a pocket inside your clothes so it can get nice and dry.

Don’t touch the wrong things

Frozen metal can conduct heat away from the body many times faster than ice can, which is in itself incredibly heat-draining. Never expose your hands to the cold and don’t touch anything you don’t need to, which includes the ground when you’re sleeping. If you need to sleep in a shelter you’ve made then make the base of your bed as thick as possible, sleeping on a thick layer of spruce bows instead of the ground can literally make the difference between life and death.

Learn how to dig a snow shelter

Some of these cold-weather survival tips won’t be necessary unless you like your extreme bushcraft, like the snow shelter. There are many places in the world where you won’t have the option of making a nice sturdy shelter out of branches and instead will have nothing more than a huge pile of snow to work with. This type of shelter is most often used in emergencies and takes a while to build, but if you do not have a tent it is the best form of defense against the cold.

Don’t eat snow

Eating snow will lower your body’s core temperature and should always be melted. If you have some kind of fabric bag or a spare sock, fill it with snow and suspend it on a stick next to a fire, placing a container underneath to catch the drips. Alternatively, if you’re on the move you can fill a bottle with snow and put it inside your jacket, but only do this if you are active and creating additional heat, and be careful of frost or condensation forming on the outside of the container.

Stay out of the wind

Wind chill can add a huge difference to how cold you get, with what would otherwise be a bearable temperature turning into the rapid onset of frostbite. You are better off not moving anywhere and taking shelter from high winds than you are pressing forward. A good example would be the story of Funatsu Keizo, who was part of a team traveling across Antarctica. He went outside to check on the dogs during a blizzard and got lost a few meters away from the tents, he had to dig a hole in the snow and wait until his teammates found him before he froze to death.