Frosty Days - Crochet Pattern #113 - Neck Warmer, Cowl, Buff, Cozy

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Except -- not this past August, at least, not so much. I wonder about this global warming thing a lot. I wonder what happens to those of us who live on the coast when the ice caps melt -- as they are. I wonder what happens when instead of one Katrina, there are two, or four, every year.

December 16, 2005

I wonder what happens when a major river, a river depended upon for water in some major city, dries up. Or when -- oh, sorry. We're talking about cold. Our house on the San Francisco Bay, when we moved in three years ago, not only had no insulation not terribly surprising both for the era and for the area but had no heat there was a fireplace, but the chimney was damaged in Loma Prieta and it wasn't safe to use it. When it was 40 degrees outside, it was 40 degrees inside. And there were other issues, like when it was raining outside there was a waterfall in the library, but this is tangential.

We're about to start our first winter with central heat both installed and operating, our fourth winter in the house, and just walking into the house and feeling warmth instead of a dark, damp chill inside makes a huge difference. We spend a lot less time shivering, for one thing, and on weekend evenings, we can stay home, instead of going out to any place that is likely to be heated to warm up.

In contrast, I've never ever been in a building in Chicago that didn't have central heat of some sort. And I've been in a lot of buildings in Chicago. I think being able to get away from the cold makes all the difference in the world in surviving the winter. When I was in high school, we moved into a house with steam heating. This is a great system in an area where it's cold all winter. It didn't work really well in the Bay Area. I will admit, it was not helped by the fact that the builder described by one of the neighbors as [pantomime of drinking from a bottle] installed the system with the main lines in the attic steam flows down and water up, yes?

We spent a lot of time cold in the winter and hot in the summer no AC in that house either. And if you're at all skeptical of your furnace and its ability to continue functioning as temperatures drop? Get a service tech to look at it Service techs just left our house about 20 minutes ago after replacing our failed furnace. Only warning we had of the incipient failure?

Ebook and Manual Reference

Steam heat is overwhelming even in cold places, in my opinion. Also, it helps if it was installed by somebody with a decent understanding of plumbing and heating principles. I have lust in my heart for a hydronic radiant system hot water rather than steam in the pipes , but that will have to wait. We put in a cheap forced-air system last winter but had to leave it disconnected until this fall for reasons I won't get into.

It's a terribly inefficient kind of heat under the best of circumstances, and only more so in a house with open holes to the outdoors. But it takes the edge off the cold, and now we can walk around the house without seven layers of clothing on. My parents have been limping their ancient furnace along for decades, and recently discovered that they could replace it with a new one that a takes up a quarter the space, b includes an air conditioner, c costs considerably less than the original in dollars that haven't been adjusted for inflation, and the kicker, d would save them so much money on gas that their total cash outlay for the first year would be less than with the old furnace, not including rebates from the gas company.

I think they went for it. If you also have a forty-year-old furnace, consider an energy-efficient replacement. Or midsummer, wherever you are, after the cooling season has been going a while but before everybody is thinking of winter again. They're usually a instantly available and b cheaper at that time of the year, and you don't risk having to replace the furnace at the last minute when everybody else's furnace is also failing. You don't need to do it every year, but regularly is good. I just wanted to add that it doesn't have to be all that cold outside for you to gethypothermia.

That's what people die of on the streets here and it doesn't get below the forties most of the time, hardly ever below freezing. It's having no rain gear and getting soaked and then it's just kind of cold, and that's enough to do a person in. However, I don't think they'll smell like the old ones.

Can't have it all, I guess. And I wanted to walk along the shore and see some local sight, since it was effectively my last chance before Jo et famille emigrated. It was cold, as the three of us had remarked on, with of course an onshore wind. And then Sasha commented that he didn't feel cold anymore.

Just an year-old's offhand remark. I declared that we were turning back immediately, and took shelter in the first available spot. After Sasha had warmed up again in the canned food aisle of said local grocery, we found Jo and Emmet and then a bus home. I've wondered, occasionally, whether Tom would have realized, at some point, what "I don't feel cold anymore" meant--he's not stupid, but he's English and not as used to serious winters.

They'd have been unlikely to be out there without me, though, so it probably wouldn't have been an issue. Sasha understands about winter, and warm clothes, and such now, of course--though I remember a couple of years ago, in Montreal, on our way to the Metro one morning, him asking why nobody had told him how cold it was, and I explained that I had told him, but he hadn't been paying attention.

Something close to smelling right is why I still have my moosehide mitts, even if they're really rather too small, now. They're a brand of winter boots that are insulated and waterproof and I saw them in a store once during the fall, and foolishly thought I would be able to buy a pair sometime later. Are they any good? They looked good, but boots always look good on a nice dry shelf in a store. It's in 4 inches of ice-cold water, snow, and slush that is the deal breaker. I went hiking in the Rockies one June with my father when I was in my late teens. We made sure I had both rain coat and rain pants, and we even re-sealed the seams on them as well as re-waterproofing my boots.

I think my father's gear was all new. But we neglected to check to make sure that the new waterproofing worked. It was several hours into the first day's hike, it was warm enough that I was wearing shorts and t-shirt, and it started to pour down rain. So I put on the rain gear. Turned out I missed a spot, or else the Gore-Tex had gotten worn out across the shoulders; I can't quite remember. Also I hadn't waxed around the boot laces well enough. I was absolutely miserable. Anyway, it's fortunate for me that my father was a member of a rescue club when he was in college, because he knew right away what was happening to me.

He pitched the tent in the first vaguely big enough not really , vaguely flat enough not really spot he could find, I remember just standing there weeping in misery, not understanding what was happening , and shoved me into it. He made sure I stripped off completely and got me into my sleeping bag; I wasn't too far gone, so I warmed up pretty quickly. The sun came out an hour later, so I went and basked on a boulder.

It's left me very wary of rain on warm days. It's also left me prone to being scoffed at for warning people against hypothermia in such circumstances. But I perservere in telling them, regardless. Stocking stuffers for everyone on our list this year. I started handing them out to relatives I saw at Thanksgiving.

So thanks, Jim, for reminding us to make sure that the people we care about start thinking about these things. Thank you so much for the information, both in the post and the comment thread. I'm going to print it out and use it to revamp how I dress for going to work. I commute by bus and as my office moved from Mid-town to the financial district, I now have a much longer bus ride and longer periods outside, which includes time waiting for buses in open areas by bridges and NY harbor.

Shop for socks at a sporting goods store that caters to hunters and hikers, even if you aren't a hunter or hiker yourself. I have a pair of Hunting-Fishing thermolite socks from Lorpen that is really outstanding. Padded, insulated, really nice. Never heard of "muck boots"; insulated boots with waterproof feet but not the leg covering uppers, which are merely resistant are pretty easy to find. The two brands I have had good results with are Sorel and Baffin.

Both manufacturers make boots rated for C. I'm off to the cricket. It may have gotten all the way down to 20 degrees today, just before sunrise.

Okay, maybe we're on different metabolisms, but -9 C before counting wind chill is cold enough for me, thanks. Not as cold as I'll be dealing with--I'll be in the frozen north in a fortnight--but it's cold. Can anyone recommend good -- warm, waterproof, and suited for walking a mile or two at a time -- boots that come in a women's size 8 E?

Or equivalent--I think that's a European 39, a US boys' 6. I have a pair of ToeWarmers, which fit quite well in the store and not so well once I actually walked more than a short distance in them outside in the cold. I seem to remember seeing battery-powered heated socks at a hunters' store, years back; I didn't want them, but I was younger then Nice lead, minor additions for consideration: If you come across a cold, maybe-not-dead person: Rescue flat, transport flat, you don't want the blood to drain from their head.

The urinating when cold shell-core affect can lead to impressive dehydration when you warm up, and possibly consequent vascular shock due to lack of blood volume. Get warm, fall over. When your brain starts getting cold, the first thing to go is common sense. We are only a few degrees from being morons. Don't assume there is only one diagnosis for a set of symptoms. Consider the hypothermic hypoglycemic diabetic. Kids definitely get cold faster, when I teach skiing to kids, I try to deliberately underdress so I realize how cold the kids are.

Conversely, when I'm ski-patrolling I overdress since I never know when I'm going to be lying still in the snow stabilizing someone's head for a half-hour or more. If you're looking for mukluks, try a snowmobile place. My preferred heating system is gas-fired steam. The thermocouple in the pilot light generates enough power to run the gas valve. Still warm during the blackout. All that insulation is keeping the heat in. Your body gets hot. The sweat soaks your clothing -- and collapses the insulation. Suddenly, you're standing there, with your body in full "dump heat" mode -- and you've soaked through, so the water in your clothing is conducting the heat right through.

Suddenly, you're really cold, you get stupid, and you die. The biggest rule of cold -- if you're sweating, your screwing up. When you walk out from indoors, you should feel cold. If you start moving and still feel cold, you add a layer. More likely, though, you'll quickly get warm. Strip off that top layer.

If you start to feel warm again, off with the next layer. When you pause, you immediatly add a layer until you get moving again. When you stop for the night if camping , you add at least two, unless and until you get into bed. For Ghugle's sake -- don't forget your hats. Heck, if you're cold sleeping, wear one while sleeping. Hydration is important -- even if you aren't sweating and you mustn't , when your lungs warm 0F air to 90F, that air is very dry, and it will humidify in your lungs. You will exhale amazing amounts of moisture that you'll need to replace. Food is also important -- no fuel, your body cannot make heat.

Camping Trick Number 3 -- eat before you sleep, and you sleep warm. You'll be warm all night. When you get inside, get as much clothing off as possible. It'll need to dry, and you don't want to overheat then you sweat when you get outside You can dry dampclothes in your sleeping bag while you sleep, but that energy comes at a price -- you provide it. If you don't have enough food, that's a big problem.

Finally -- the coldest activity is the world is astronomy. Clear nights are colder, because the Earth's heat radiates to the dark sky. Still nights when the seeing is best doubles this fast. Furthermore, if you're using optics, you aren't moving. I don't think that's enough.

Company moved, racking servers in new datacenter. Spent 14 hours in a dry, 60F room, not eating enough. When I left, and tried to reach my car, I had to sit outside for 30 minutes before I stopped shaking enough to dry. Thankfully, warming up in St. That's how easy hypothermia is -- it's a simple equation. Your body burns fuel to generate heat. The enviroment pulls energy away. If the latter exceeds the former, you start to lose. And, on the converse -- there's a rule of rescue.

There are no cold dead people in rescue situations. They have to warm up first, because you'd be surprised at how long someone can be cold, and come back. There is a limit, however -- if they're frozen solid, they're dead. So, if you ever pull a kid out from under the ice, and that kid still bends, that kid isn't dead yet.

I think I picked him up once. Except my guy was also psychotic the voices in his head told him that water is poisonous. Just an additional cold weather note. When it comes to water issues, do not go in after anyone in cold weather without proper rescue equipment. Two dead people instead of one will not significantly improve the situation. I grew up visiting my aunt who lives on a lake that freezes in winter, and she taught me about basic water rescue.

She saw three people die one winter because one went through and the other two didn't wait for help and equipment before going after the first. Under those circumstances, you're not being a hero, you're being a fool. Get help, so that the rescue people at least know where someone went in. And if you aren't trained, don't assume that you have any idea what you're doing. I can't see why it would.

If I fall through the ice into the water I expect I'll have more immediate problems than the precise fiber content of my clothing. Joke, mostly; I think this is a constructed rink, not a pond. The problem I foresee with either making underwear out of silk as various folks have suggested or wearing modern silk stuff or anything else that locks in air under my underpinnings is that I have the modern problem of going from heated buildings into the great outdoors, and I can't easily remove underlayers without stripping to the skin.

This wouldn't have been such a problem before central heating. I may have given the impression that all the layers I described were for outdoor wear. Everything up to the pelerine is normal indoor clothing such as I'd wear for vigorous activity like dancing. In summer I might remove the pelerine. Adding or subtracting a waist petticoat or two is fairly simple. Adding cloak, gloves, muff, etc. Adding layers under the chemise and drawers means I am stuck with them.

I suspect I'd have overheating problems indoors and end up going outside sweaty, which is something I want to avoid. There are also logistical difficulties with modern long-johns under the drawers, though I suppose I could alter a pair for functionality. Mine will be mid-calf as well, with tucks and maybe moderate cording. I'm in 's here; the fashions are full-skirted but not yet at their maximum. I think what this boils down to is that my layers of petticoats will be useful in and of themselves just by trapping air between them, such that the fiber content of one petticoat is less critical, yes?

Barring injury, I do not expect to perform the Emulation of the Forlorn Penguin posture and noises for more than a moment, though I will probably be less graceful and rather noisier in righting myself than the typical penguin. I would hope for a warmer day for skating. I am not that fond of cold weather; I grew up in Texas.

All this discussion is reminding me that, evolutionarily speaking, we are tropical animals. I am re-confirmed in my belief that I should never live anywhere that gets colder than sixty degrees Fahrenheit. It's also reminding me of a scene that's always stuck in my mind, from Tamora Pierce's Lioness Rampant. Alanna's about to hike up a mountain pass in the midst of a blizzard bad idea, and she knows it, but y'know, epic quest and all -- so Pierce gives us a couple pages of Alanna preparing.

Silk undergarments, wool overgarments, fleece-lined leather top and bottom with goosedown vest, knitted facemask, goggles, headcloth, fleece-lined mittens, fur-lined cloak, snowshoes. And then magic to help make it all stay warm. Then vivid description of re-learning how to walk in snowshoes, and an effective moment when Alanna realizes she's been walking for ages and has only made it a short distance out.

As a reader, it absolutely made me believe this blizzard was the incredible danger the characters said it was. The well-documented benefits of showing, instead of just telling. It also stayed in my mind as a guide to how I should dress in severe cold, and it pleased me to see, when I started reading this comments thread, that yes, leather over wool over silk is in fact a good way to go. Yay for authors doing their research. I spent much of my adolescence living in a barn on a mountain in the Massachusetts Berkshires. Forty foot ceilings in the hall and living room, forced air heating which really only warmed things in the small rooms--bedrooms, bathrooms.

Several fireplaces which were used most of the time. And while I lived there no insulation in the hall and living room, with the result that the wind would come roaring through the house at damned near full speed: You put on a coat to go from my side of the house the loft above the bathroom and TV room on the south side of the house to the kitchen on the north side.

You put on a coat to go into the living room. The first year we celebrated Christmas and brought a nice little tree down the hill it was 35 feet tall, but who could tell when it was on the mountain with all the really big trees? I don't handle cold well. What all this taught me was that when it comes to temperature I have no vanity.

When we lived in NY I would wear my ski-bib to work. People laughed, but my legs were warm. Now that we live in the Bay area, where as the nice realtor who sold us our house pointed out everyone is in denial about the weather and no one insulates properly, I am always just a little too cold. London is really warm. Ok, people keep telling me that this is unusual balmy weather, but still, if this is the worst winters can do here, I really laugh at them.

We got real winters at home, thankyouverymuch. Back in November when we had a couple of truly freezing nights I met a couple of minicab drivers who went through this pityful running-out-the-car-flapping-arms every time they had to go outside. They had a polare fleece jacket and a t-shirt on. I gently suggested to one that perhaps he ought to dress more. He said, no, no, it's just that he hadn't eaten. Lots of people go around in flip-flops, and denim jackets here. Miniskirts, no stockings, sandals, and cotton jackets. Maybe they have more moral character than me.

They don't seem cold, in general, althought there was a lot of complaining about the bitterness of the climate when it went a modest two degrees Celsius below freezing. I bought a fur hat from the Russians in Padova last year, mostly because I liked the probably fake hammer-and-sickle enamelled pin on it. It looked gorgeous, and I have lost count of the people - sometimes passing strangers on the street - who told me "Great hat". So I bought it for the look, and of course it doesn't hurt that the theme this winter seems to be Tzarist Russian Look, but as time went by I realized that Russians do know about cold.

I remember talking about this a couple years ago in alt. The consensus was that - and I think it was already mentioned above, people get stupid when cold, and take off their clothes rather than keep them on. The incidence of this happening in the general frozen public is about one in four. One year Sweden counted up all the peoplesicles found in flagrante delicato and determined that two thirds of them had drugs or alcohol in their systems.

They didn't come right out and make the correlation between drinking and taking your clothes off in public, but as also mentioned above, being cold and drunk makes you even more stupid than either one alone. There was some other Swedish study - which rates mention in that it is only one of twenty-five Medline articles that make reference to ' drunkards ', which tried to create a link between atherosclerosis, alcohol, hyperthermia and the winter lambada.

Artherosclerosis might cause paradoxical peripheral vasodilation, which, much like alcohol, will cause one to feel warmer than they really are. The Germans reference this and introduce another whacky behavior of the cold and nearly-dead - "terminal burrowing behavior". Another thing about making it more likely that children will be rescued on top of "give them a whistle" is to be careful how you teach children to respond to strangers. The difference there is between permeable and impermeable, but I misdoubt me you're going to make a mirror-mylar petticoat under any circumstances, so that's not likely to be a meaningful concern.

Have you ever seen penguins getting up onto their feet again? Not bending in the middle and having tiny, horizontal, splint-like femurs doesn't make for elegance in arising. Perhaps we could film this and then watch March of the Penguins for comparison. Clearly the most important accessory for this excursion will be a large penguin, err, gentleman with exceptional balance and ice-skating skill. I remain certain that frenzied territorial croaking and barking is entirely avoidable, which is not the observed case for the majority of the ilks of penguin. An obvious commercial opportunity presents itself -- highly elegant, mannered skating partners for hire at the entirely reasonable rate of a kilo of fresh herring an hour.

There's still the question of how you make skates for tridactyl digitgrade feet, but that can be dismissed as mere engineering in the funding proposals. It's been cold all week highs below C so yesterday when it snowed 41cm and was a balmy -4 it seemed quite warm -- no need for a fleece layer under the coat. Nevertheless, I was surprised to see people out wearing mini-skirts and little jackets with bare bellies. They were downtown, not in the wilderness, and the people I saw on the street around here mostly having impromptu "let's dig the car out" parties were sensibly dressed.

But even downtown the snow wasn't cleared everywhere, and it was -4, and I'd have thought winter clothes would have been better I live in Vermont, where the winters get a bit chilly. At 5 degrees F below zero, your breath will freeze to your scarf or beard. At 20 degrees below zero, your tears will occasionally freeze your eyelashes together. This is not weather for the unprepared. Cotton does not work. A layer of thick polypro against the skin makes an amazing difference in warmth.

At rest, the human body consumes about watts of power--a lightbulb. In motion, the human body consumes something like 1, watts of power--a decent space heater. If you're working hard, you will warm up radidly and sweat. When you stop working, you'll freeze. Because your body's heating ability varies so widely--and because you don't want to sweat--you'll need to control your temperature.

You want lots of thin layers, none of them cotton. Personally, I'm fond of middle layers which unzip at the chest and armpits if I'm going to be moving. Tick wool socks, good boots, and outer layers which break the wind. In particular, if you're using artificial fleece, remember that it's transparent to even a light wind. Exposed skin can freeze very quickly. You might try Turtle Fur around the neck, a really warm hat with ear flaps, and--in colder weather--a face mask.

Also, when possible, favor good mittens over gloves; your fingers stay warmer together. If you need some finger mobility, try a bicycling shop--they often sell "two finger" gloves. With the right preparations, and a little practice, 20F below is survivable. But it's not particularly forgiving weather, and any windchill can make it dangerous indeed. That really depends on the heights or depths to which we wish to lift the performance art, doesn't it?

If our skating achieves B-movie status I don't think any of us involved in this claim any actual skating ability , we might go for the truly awful and add sound effects and perhaps some flying pie tins.

I can practice the sound effects right now while I recite the Rant of the Missing Chimney Sweep, which is going to delay the opening of my afternoon performance art "Christmas in Connecticut" by preventing the artistic pre-arrangement of the logs for the Roaring Fire. This is the last straw after the noncooperation of the weather, which has removed most of my picturesque backyard snowfield putting an end to any prospects of romping in the white stuff and making snow angels. The world is against me; I might as well croak and bark. Provided they are sturdy enough to lift large, bundled-up ladies to their feet it would be a bargain.

Would it make sense to have three blades or would that spoil the physics of the skate? Perhaps a wider skate narrowing down to a single blade? Or perhaps the penguins could just slide around on their bellies until needed? I do tend to run hot, and have absurdly good circulation. Plus, I think I got the nordic gene for "jumping in to cold water after baking one's self in a sauna feels goooood".

The Eskimos also know how to deal with cold. The fur around the edge of the hood is very effective in keeping warm air around the head, even if the local gear has fake fur on a hood with polyester batting as a filler. You can wear a watch cap under said hood.

Or the Hallowig from Knitty. Isn't that especially dangerous? I remember reading "The Book of Lists" many years ago and finding a story about a man who decided to take coold bath on an especially warm day, and the sudden change in temperature seemed to have killed him. I did some further research on the subject because I thought it was interesing and because it scared me , but it was years ago. This topic is the other reason I love Making Light so much; great information. Me, as an Eagle Scout I remember our Klondike. I was no fool; seven layers of clothing although, I was foolish, I remember, for that was where I learned to wear a hat, always.

My lessons have served me well, like when I went to New Mexico expecting a desert and discovered it snowed on my first day there. Also, Berlin is a different cold than Chicago. Of course, I'll admit, I have slightly more and less difficulty than most people staying warm; I have a ludicrously high metabolism and very little body fat well under the average for men, by several percentage points. Old farmers here used to refer to sleet as the "sheep killer". There's nothing to make a flock of sheep seek shelter like it, and they're the ones that invented wool.

The survival technique I learned while in the north serving in the Royal Norwegian Navy: The protagonists are twins named Ophelia and Cordelia their father is a Shakespeare buff and the plot involves a stolen antique doll. Good novel; I was given it by my sister, who knew the author. This woman apparently has some adaptations the rest of us don't have. Two things I took away from the book were an increased respect for human diversity and the idea that if your kid consistently loses races and yet finishes in good shape, try longer races.

Lynne was a competitive swimmer in middle school who never won races. Her coach noticed she was swimming faster at the end of meters than at the start, and began entering her in channel swims. The first time she attempted the English Channel she set a world record. She has also swum the channel between the North and South islands of New Zealand. Someone asked about how many elder people died from cold at home. Last year, it was This is in a population of about 1.

I don't have a specific number for how many of them die in their residence because the. I wrote a hypothermia scene set in the early s, so this thread has been great for checking the details on both hypothermia AND period dress. It's given my confidence a boost too-my character was doing "burrowing behavior" of a sort before I even heard of it.

BTW, if you're trying to thaw someone out in a pre-Jell-o era, is warm sugar water a good alternative? I think it might be a bit hard on a weak heart, but there are arguably some health benefits to it. There seem to be more experienced medical personel here who could probably tell you more about the effects of sauna-to-cold-plunge type treatments than I could.

The Finnish people swear by it. I've lived in the Sangre de Cristos and the Colorado Rockies, in winter, and backpacked or X-country skied them all year round. In the high country, there is NO season you can't freeze in. Long underwear is wonderful and makes great pajamas--especially when getting out of your bag in the morning in a cold tent. Yeah, a couple of extra pounds in the backpack is a pain. So's freezing to death in the rain and wind because you thought jeans and a sweatshirt and a space blanket were sufficient for playing mountain man.

Bring the space blanket anyway. A partially open flap may be an invitation to the morning flies, but the flies make a good alarm clock, right? Yeah, almost all tent fabrics "breathe" some and most small tents have vent spaces up by the roof under the fly, but they're worth diddly when the fly is flattened and sealed against the tent under a blanket of wet snow. I've been snowed on every single month of the year in the Colorado high country, and I don't mean trace amounts.

I mean six inches or more, overnight, in July , while I was sleeping. Don't trust the weatherman just because he says "All Clear! You can get rained and snowed on just fine even when there are no clouds showing above timberline. If lost, there's really only two choices. Stay put on an established path if you can, and the weather permits, and figure out fire and shelter and hope you remembered to arrange "time checks" for giving the alarm, or that someone who isn't lost wanders along. That's what searchers consider the "prime course.

Topo map and a decent compass. Know how to use 'em. A folded topo map fits nicely in a gallon Ziploc bag, and then you can read the map in the rain without soaking it.

Your cell phone isn't that helpful when it works unless you know where you are! A cell phone signal can be traced to the receiver tower, but a five-mile radius is a BIG chunk of territory to search, almost eighty square miles. Evolution never stops, but you don't have to be its personal assistant it's a very temporary assignment. This thread, on Making Light, cannot be complete without some Robert Service. There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold; The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, But the queerest they ever did see Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows. Talk of your cold! He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee; And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee. In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load. I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear; But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near; I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar; And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: After the January exams, my grade 13 class had a skating party on the Rideau Canal.

In Ottawa; it's a skating rink every winter. Skating skills ranged from 'learned when they learned to walk' to 'never been on skates before'. There were some relatively comical consequences. The canal's ice surface is well below the summertime water surface, so the walls of the canal block most of the wind; in Ottawa, in January, at night skated until midnight this is a very good thing indeed. Never considered sound effects, though, despite the diverse failed attempts to stop pre-snowbank.

The problem with this sort of understandable lamentation is that the weather gods sometimes attempt to make up for the lapse. Not, hopefully, the sweep's, or at least not usually. Three blades would make turning impractical; could have a central blade and outrigger points to assist in turning, though. That would even go along with the clawed feet. If they're sliding around on their bellies, they're a tripping hazard, so that might be best avoided; it's so extremely difficult to pancake onto a penguin in an elegant way. No one seems to have mentioned battery powered clothing, which I always thought was nifty.

If I lived somewhere that got seriously cold, I'd look in to getting some. Is there some reason why they're not reccomended? Other than that the batteries run out, I mean. The batteries run out, the elements mess up and brand you, the elements mess up and light your shorts on fire, the insulation messes up and you get zapped, and the problem is rarely lack of heat; the problem is almost always lack of insulation, and having the heating elements and wires makes the insulation worse when they're not powered. The batteries would run out right when you needed them most. But mostly, I can't imagine wanting to deal with that many batteries all the time.

Clothing is available that will keep you warm at any temperature reached on the planet Earth, and it doesn't require batteries. That said, I know enough weather wimps who would totally wear electric clothing if it worked, and they don't. So I'm forced to conclude it doesn't work. I own an electric vest. It plugs in to an accessory outlet on my bike. Admittedly, it's not much good away from the bike, and bikes aren't so great in a snow or ice storm, but a good electric vest can keep you from getting hypothermia in a contstant mph headwind.

And yet, that's not battery-powered. I wonder how long it would be good for on a couple of D cells. Our low of around 15F last night seems like nothing compared to that 20 below, but it was enough to get our Norwegian Forest Cat to spoon with us on the bed after first draping his 20 pounds across my ankles. I'm just glad I never experienced what my husband said he did -- and I don't think this is one of his tall tales -- sleeping in a Maine farm house where there was frost on the inside of the windows.

One more thing on circulation. I'm one of those short people who have what I think is called Reynaud's Syndrome -- fingernails start turning blue on the slightest provocation, as digits chill. Yet I've read that Eskimos are adapted to cold by being short and stocky, with small hands and feet. Does anyone out there know why I have a Syndrome and they do so well? I doubt if the answer is entirely "moose-hide gloves. That's quite common in freezing climes, especially with uninsulated windows. All it means is that it's moister inside than out usually true , and the window is freezing cold.

When I was growing up I would carefully chip the ice off the window next to my head in the morning, to keep it from melting as the day warmed up, and dripping all over the windowsill and bed. I've been heard several times to say that the main reason we northern-dwelling folk can brag about how we handle tough weather is that we usually have the sense to stay indoors. We also know how to dress for it. Although yes, we get our idiots -- more within the city than on the highway, but you'd be astonished.

It's not because they don't know. Or justify it by "I'm going to be in a heated car". While real winter tends to be mid-November to mid-March, October and April have both featured blizzards within the time I've lived here, and possibly within the last decade. If you want to mention the months where there is a chance of snow at all? That would be eleven of them. I think it might even be all 12 as of last summer.

I should say, too, that our summers hit 90 Faranheit, before you get the cliched impression of what we're like. It can be relative. In my high and far-off college days, we had one really brutal winter. A couple-few feet of snow and for what felt like years. Then one day it warmed up. Several friends and I went out for a walk in shorts and T-shirts. I live in Minnesota. In winter, I wear silk long johns every day, and wool socks with my boots if I'm going to be outside for more than a minute or two. I always wear a hat. And that's just for running around town.

Back when I was in college, a group of us no, we hadn't been drinking decided that it would be fun to go out and look at the stars from the campus arboretum late one very cold night. We were all dressed appropriately, but one of the people in the group was asthmatic and the cold air triggered a severe asthma attack, which left him collapsed on the ground and too weak to move. We sent one person running back to get help, and then did our best to keep him warm -- which meant that we all stripped off our own outer clothing and spread them out over and under him.

Two people also lay down on either side of him to try to share body heat. We were so hyped up from the adreneline of worrying about our friend that none of us felt the cold till we arrived at the hospital we all rode with him on the ambulance , at which point we realized that most of us had lost feeling in our feet. The ER staff re-warmed our friend by giving him hot drinks and wrapping him up in blankets.

I believe he was officially diagnosed as pre-hypothermic; his temperature was something like The good news was, this was a good motivator to him to get his asthma under better control; he had been severely over-relying on his rescue inhaler. It's 35 F and windy in Portland. I'd stay inside all day, but I've got a dog to walk. She's a shepherd with an undercoat, and not only doesn't mind the cold but delights in skidding her face and side along frosty lawns. I moved to Kansas from Portland, where I grew up. Everybody asks me why, because in this particular burg, everone thinks of Portland as some sort of Xanadu which, comparatively, it is - possessing most of the advantages, and lacking most of the disadvantages.

However, natives of the Great Plains get confused about West Coast weather; they figure that Oregon, being at the same latitude as Wisconsin, must have winters just as bitterly cold. So I explain it to them. You know how it gets really hot and sticky here in the summers? Well, imagine the same stickiness, except when it's forty degrees out instead of ninety. That kind of cold seeps right into your bones.

I close by pointing out that I dress the same way for that weather as I do for the snow and single-digit windchill factors here, which is every inch the case and makes me every inch the idiot, because I don't own a long coat or any trousers nade of anything besides cotton. And my level of comfort usually turns out to be the same, though I'll admit that it's a lot tougher to walk around when there's six inches of fresh snow on the ground. Once I got stuck participating in a meet at a school we'd never run at before, where the grounds had no natural cover to speak of, and practically no manmade windbreaks.

In the course of the meet, the weather changed unexpectedly from mid-sxities, breezy, and sunny, to upper-forties with gusts and driving rain. Our entire team, who'd dressed for the warmer weather, was caught unprepared, and because of the weather the race schedule had gone completely nonlinear, so no-one dared head back to the buses for shelter.

Almost twenty years later, I've yet to feel that miserable again If I had that day to live over again, I'd've gotten myself marked down for a DNC - even if it'd resulted my being removed from the team - because the coaches were completely unresponsive to our misery.

Many things can make perfectly reasonable people into flaming idiots. For motorcycles or flying open cockpit aircraft I can see it working quite well. I was answering from the biases of someone who expects winter clothing to hold up, or at least be able to hold up, for continuous days of use without coming inside heated shelter. In that application -- and admittedly awhile back -- all those problems were known for electrically heated garments. Chemically heated, by things such as those slow thermite hand warmers, is a different set of tradeoffs.

Until the last couple of winters we've had a long stretch of milder winters. I hate wearing shoe or boots. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I survive in Birkenstocks through most of the winter when the snow is less than 5 cm deep by wearing wool socks. When the temperature dips below 0C, I put little thin cotton socks on under the heavy wool socks and my feet, and by extension the rest of me, stay a lot warmer than they otherwise might. And, even the flimsiest of scarves wrapped around the neck, acting as a muffler, can help keep in heat. I have a few questions, mainly related to things that I have read or seen published in other sources mostly wikipedia and the worst case scenario handbook.

They're mostly idle, but if anyone feels like answering them I'd be much obliged. What is the general medical opinion of the body heat method of treating hypothermia? I've read all over the place that it had fallen out of favor, because of the risk of the person prioviding body heat becoming hypothermic as well. Are there situations where it is an especially bad idea, and situations where it is fine? All of Jim's links seem to suggest that immersing someone in warm water is a BAD idea, but wiki and the worst case scenario list it as a preferred treatement.

I'm currently assuming that Jim's links are right, but is there any situation where that treatment should ever be attempted? If someone feels like editing the wiki entry it may need it. Compared to Jim's links a lot of stuff doesn't add up, and I must say rather shamefacedly that I had previously been relying on it as a decent source. Say you get a moderately to severely hypothermic person back to a heated, indoor location with food and running water but no emergency or medical supplies, and there is no way to contact medical assistance.

What would be the best way to begin to attempt treatement? I'd say this is one of the top 20 stock plot items, and I'm beginning to think that the average portrayal is just as wildly inaccurate as the idea that you can "shoot the lock off" any door with a pistol from range. I don't fault people for using hypothermia in stories, because it is quite obviously something that happens all the time, still I'd prefer to know when it is approaching realism and when it is complete bunk.

Raynaud's Syndrome doesn't have to do with being short and stocky. There doesn't seem to be any special type of person for it, though it seems like maybe more women than men have it. I lived in Taipei in the late 's and was shocked to find out how chilly it could get in the winter I arrived in the height of summer.

No place had heat, and most of the buildings were made of uninsulated concrete. I had a friend whose bronchitis swiftly turned to pneumonia, you could see you breath in her bedroom. This is also why most home in Hong Kong have hot water machines so hot drinking water is always available in the old days, people used thermoses, which you still get in most hotels in China. So, if you're working in an office indoors with no heat, keep your coat and hat on and drink lots of hot water. A popular frugal version for large consumption is to use an old Nescafe jar with tea leaves floating in it.

Unscrew the lid to drink and add hot water as needed. I've heard there is still no heating in public buildings south of the Yangtze - even though it might still drop below 0 C. I just looked in my dresser's seldom-touched "winter stuff" drawer: Five pairs of gloves ranging from those cheap wool ones with leatherette palms to winter work gloves , four scarves, three wool hats, and a baklava.

I already had two or three barely used ones in my car, so I gave it to my mom for the "regifting" pile. Provenence forgotten, it ended up being given back to me a few years later. I brought it with me to grad school, and gave it away to some frantic asian grad students trying to free their car after a Pittsburgh ice-storm. Scared the shit out of me. I would have preferred a scarf, or even socks.

Okay -- moderately to severely hypothermic person. I'm assuming deep shivering, acting goofy, lips and nailbeds blue, but no actual freezing and still conscious and able to guard his own airway. I am not a doctor, and cannot diagnose or prescribe. The following is purely for purposes of discussion, and not medical advice for any particular person or situation. Take that person inside, strip him, re-dress in warm, dry clothing, wrap him in a blanket and feed him lots of food stuff with fat and sugar and drink.

Warm apple cider is wonderful stuff. Warm apple cider with a shot of maple syrup in it is even better. Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Allow the patient to rest. The sugar is what warms the person, not the warmth of the beverage. The body heat method of rewarming -- well, if you need to add heat active rewarming, contraindicated when the patient is unconscious and that's what you have A nice hypothermia wrap is better. Wrap in mylar blanket. Wrap in wool blanket. Stuff the whole into sleeping bag. If I were trying to rewarm a person, I'd put heat packs on their carotid arteries, but that's just me.

When we're doing wraps for snowmobilers, the heat packs go at groin, armpits, and neck. Immersing someone in warm water is great if you want them to pass out on you, or maybe go into cardiac arrhythmias. In that case, you'd rewarm the affected part in lukewarm water, in a basin large enough to ensure the part doesn't touch the sides, then bandage exactly like a burn, and splint. If there is a chance of re-freezing, keep it frozen If you're trapped in an ice cave filled with flowing melt water for days on end Prevention is going to let you keep your toes.

I've seen the photos of Argentine troopers' feet who hadn't taken their boots off for thirty-plus days during the Falklands war. BTW, cold injuries are permanent. A previous cold injury makes a patient more susceptible to subsequent cold injuries. Thanks for the rewarming advice, it had the side effect of answering something I'd been wondering about, since I don't keep jello around and thus no warm jello: I often have apple cider in the house in cold weather--but I always have some random herbal tea bags, for when I want warmth usually for my throat and am limiting caffeine intake.

Any advice on learning how to fall safely? I've hurt my left knee several times by falling on ice, and it's obvious that I'm falling wrong.

People might be interested in Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales--it's an overview of survival in desperate mostly wilderness circumstances. Jim -- You wrote "The body heat method of rewarming -- well, if you need to add heat active rewarming, contraindicated when the patient is unconscious and that's what you have So, if one cannot transport immediately, and does not have heat packs, would that make the body heat method better than a hypothermia wrap? I was here for the blizard of 96 or ws it 95? It got so cold that a few trees exploded.

And I have, as I might have mentioned, extraordinarily good circulation. It's better than lots of insulation IMO. I can stand extreme hot and fairly cold weather. And, of course, I dress in layers. Tights, multiple layers of socks if neccesary, waterproof boots, hats, a scarf, a shirt, a sweater, an inner lined jacket, and an outer waterproof coat to use as a wind break.

I'm considering upgrading my hat to something a little warmer. Right now, I've got a nice wool fedora, and have to rely on a scarf over my ears and nose. I'd really like to get a nice hat that would insulate, act as a wind barrier not knit and cover my ears. I'm probably due for a trip to REI or some similar shop, and several hundred dollars of purchases.

Frosty Days - Crochet Pattern #113 - Neck Warmer, Cowl, Buff, Cozy

IIRC, that was the blizzard of ' I remember the year because it was the year I graduated from college. Which isn't important -- but is the same year that we were all celebrating the fact that our senior comps were done still in need of defending, but more or less finished and gathered at a buddy's house for warm beverages.

I then tried to walk home in said blizzard and did OK until I tried to cross an open, fairly flat quad that I assumed was covered in snow. My initial plan was to walk around it but I noticed that the person in front of me wasn't buried hip-deep in the snow and seemed to be having little trouble crossing. It is an attempt to explain what tree thinking or analog thought is about linear or sequential thinking. The gifted and love 1This fear will stop him. But his desire for love, his idealistic side will often push him beyond. It is a very great strength. Because if we have our weaknesses, we also have strengths.

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