Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 13:36:26 -0600
Reply-To: John Rodgers <jhrodgers@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <jhrodgers@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: Let's not make vented catalytic heaters
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Rico Sapolich wrote:
> Eat a lot of fat,
Great call, Rico. Fat has more energy per gram than any other food. Will
definitely help keep one warm at night.
> wear a watch cap,
Another good call. 25 percent of your body energy is lost through the head. Guys
like me with no hair on top are especially prone to cold and energy loss when
there is no cover on top. A good cap goes a long way towards keeping that energy
in the body and in the sleeping bag at night.
By the way, DO NOT direct your breathing into your sleeping bag. The moisture
brom your breath will destroy the insulation with in and hour and you will be
totally miserable. If its cold enough you need to protect your nose, put on a
watchcap, pull the hood of the bag up, leaving the face exposed and lay a towel
or something similar over the fact. Anything to abate the temperature difference
between the face and the outsid air. In other words reglate the heart and
moisture from the breath, but don't direct it into the bag.
> take a whiz,
Reduce the prospects of having to get up at night, and loose the accumulated
heat energy in the sleeping bag, and a rapid heat loss and chill down of the
body, which may take hours to recover from.
> change into fresh dry skivvies before you bed down and you will be
> surprised how warm you will be.
Clean skivvies are essential . Actually, not just the skivvies. Keeping the body
clean of all body oils and perspiration is essential.
Attended the Air Force Arctic Survival School outside of Fairbanks, AK one year.
Temps were about -35/40. Spent a week out, lost nearly 30 lbs, but never really
suffered from the cold. Learned a hell of a lot about keeping warm in the cold,
especially extreme cold. The one thing the instructors insisted on was that we
keep ourselves well washed. That was a real trip, trying to wash in that extreme
cold. But we learned why, and how, and experienced the effects of it.......we
were warmer for it.
Why keep washed in the cold. The body oils and perspiration very quickly destroy
the insulating value of your clothing. We were shown that under clothing could
be washed and dried in extreme cold. You do have to melt snow and warm the water
a bit by fire, and the clothes do freeze, but they dry out by sublimation of the
ice in them. And washing the bod made an amazing difference.
We also learned the importance of drinking water. When in the cold, drink plenty
of water. Have some every hour or so, whether you feel thirsty or not. It is
extremely easy to become dehydrated in cold weather because we don't FEEL
thirsty. You can get into real trouble in short order unless you pay special
attention to it. Once dehydration sets in the cold affects you more rapidly.
DON'T EAT SNOW!! Takes a huge amount of body energy just to convert the snow at
32F to water at 32F, much less raise the temperature to any measure. Warm the
water to at least normal room temperature before drinking.
Keep plenty of fluids pumping through, warm liquids are best, but water is best
of all.
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
