Extremely cold environments can be the hardest to survive in, with it taking hours to die in the desert without water, but 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 mean that if your outside in -5 °C weather with a wind speed of 10 mph, without shelter or the proper clothing you will start to suffer frost bite in as little as 30 minutes.
Very often in cold environments there’s 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.
Here’s a few things to keep in mind when out in the cold to maximise 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 wont help you if foods running out and you don’t have the proper protection to go outside.
Apart from good clothing, there’s 2 things which you should always take with you in these environments, and that’s a plastic mac and a foil blanket. The waterproof mac 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 fire wood, 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 water proof bag or container, its 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 wont 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 incredible heat draining. Never expose your hands to the cold and don’t touch anything you don’t need to, which includes the ground when your 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.
Don’t eat snow
Eating snow will lower your bodies core temperature and so 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 your on the move you can fill a bottle with snow and put it inside your jacket, but don’t do to much at once as it drains body heat.
Stay out of the wind
Wind chill can add a huge difference to how cold you get, with what would other wise be a bearable temperature can turn into the rapid on-set of frostbite. You are better off not moving anywhere and taking shelter from high winds than you are pressing forwards.