WEBVTT 1 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:37.719 Oh my god, Yeah, that's cold. Okay, this is this is 2 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:42.039 this is a podcast where I must let I swear, isn't it? Okay? 3 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:47.520 So this is welcome to another episode of Modern Outdoor Survival. My name 4 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:53.560 is Richard. And because I am in my very early forties and I spent 5 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:58.920 too long listening to Joe Rogan podcasts and stuff like that, I have a 6 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:06.280 homemade cold plunged tank in the bottom of the garden and this is this is 7 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:12.640 a two and a half thousand liter water stock drinking water tank thing, and 8 00:01:12.680 --> 00:01:18.439 it's not well. I think this was once a hot tub made a's a 9 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:25.480 diy thing by our friend crab boat Stew and now it's it's it's this and 10 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:32.920 they use it for reducing inflammation and meant to be repair and cold water stuff 11 00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:38.400 and things I'm not gonna try and remember now. But this is this is 12 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:45.959 not an episode about cold water immersion. This is an episode about wet cold 13 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:52.439 versus dry cold. And it's not actually that cold in here. According to 14 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:57.400 the little floating thermometer thing, this water is what as I say, that 15 00:01:57.480 --> 00:02:02.000 says here, it says it's an eight degrees centigrade celsius whatever, which I 16 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:09.960 think is about forty six in freedom fahrenheit units, but it's not actually that 17 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.879 cold, and the air temperature is even warmer. That's about ten degrees or 18 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:16.879 I think it's about is that fifty? I don't know. I can't do 19 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:23.800 the maths. So this isn't even full immersion. This is just the bottom 20 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:38.639 half of me. This is full immersion. So the reason people use cold 21 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:44.080 water rather than just going into a cold area, well, it's cheaper and 22 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:50.319 easier to do at home. But water will suck the heat away from your 23 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:58.319 body much quicker than air. And if I do things like this to move 24 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:05.479 arms, then it will feel colder because if you sit perfectly still, you 25 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:12.080 build a little area of not warm but not as cold water right next to 26 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:15.120 your skin. But if you move your arms, if you move your body, 27 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:22.439 you are constantly moving into colder water around you, and it makes you 28 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:27.599 feel colder. And there's all sorts of things the body's meant to be doing. 29 00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:30.840 Now, with regards to all sorts of things, this is not what 30 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:38.680 the podcast is about. The podcast is about the difference between between wet and 31 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:44.439 cold and dry and cold. So because it's going to sound well, let's 32 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:46.800 just face it's going to sound inappropriate if I keep talking like this throughout the 33 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:53.120 whole episode. I'm going to finish my cold water immersion thing here, and 34 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:57.280 then we're going to cut to us sat at the table in the garden once 35 00:03:57.319 --> 00:04:00.639 I've got out of here and I've put some clothes on, so three two 36 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:05.800 one, So now I'm fully clothed again and I'm sat here with a coffee 37 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:10.639 in the field, sitting in the sun. It's a bird in the hedgerow 38 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:15.199 behind me, is you can possibly hear? This is a lovely spring day. 39 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:19.160 It's mid April here in the UK. It's been a late spring this 40 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:23.759 year. It's been really wet and windy winter, so it hasn't been that 41 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:28.560 cold. It's just been wet and there's we haven't had many days where there 42 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:34.279 hasn't been wind, and that's that's really a factor in what I'm about to 43 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:38.920 talk about with this episode. This episode is something that I've had on my 44 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:43.519 list for a while that i wanted to cover because it's an important topic and 45 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:48.360 it's something that requires a bit of a bit of subtlety and a bit of 46 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:54.639 subtlety in your understanding of it. It also partners really well with our next 47 00:04:54.680 --> 00:04:59.959 episode. So our next episode is already recorded. That is a story told 48 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:05.439 by friends of ours about a trip that went wrong in the United States. 49 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:13.720 Nobody died, no long lasting injuries, but it is a really interesting story 50 00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:15.839 and there are lots of learning points from that. So that's covered in the 51 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:20.399 next episode, but this one is a good partner to it. So I'm 52 00:05:20.439 --> 00:05:29.199 going to be talking about dry cold versus wet cold, or another way of 53 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:35.560 saying that is the subtle factors that affect how you feel temperature and how temperature 54 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:43.360 affects you in the outdoors. Because as humans were quite good at regulating our 55 00:05:43.399 --> 00:05:48.639 body temperature with it across a wide range of temperatures. We have indigenous humans 56 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:54.920 in the far Arctic, and we have indigenous humans on the equator and in 57 00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:59.959 the hottest places on Earth. So people have managed to adapt to a wide 58 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:05.519 bread of temperatures. But those environments are not equal to each other in any 59 00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:12.120 way. Different humidities, different weather patterns, different amounts of daylight, sunlights, 60 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:15.319 angle of the sun, all of these things come into it when we're 61 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:18.319 doing stuff in the outdoors. Wherever you are, when you're listening to this, 62 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:25.680 there are certain factors that will really affect how you feel cold, how 63 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:31.680 temperature affects you. One of them is moisture, whether that is humidity in 64 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:35.279 the air, moisture on your skin, how wet your clothing is, whether 65 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:40.399 you're lying on wet ground versus dryer ground. All of that comes down to 66 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:45.920 moisture and how that interacts with your body. The other aspect is a moving 67 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:49.319 element, whether it's wind moving across your body or your body moving through air, 68 00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:55.680 or whether it's water moving across your body and moving water versus still water. 69 00:06:56.360 --> 00:07:00.279 So I'm going to cover the moisture water aspect first, but before that, 70 00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:05.360 I just want to quickly go through a refresher about what cold weather injuries 71 00:07:05.399 --> 00:07:10.319 are or cold injuries. See, you tend to have two really that people 72 00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:15.439 talk about and that are the most obvious. One is hypothermia. So hypothermia 73 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:19.800 is defined as a core temperature core being not your fingers, your not your 74 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:24.000 face, not your forehead temperature, but right there in the middle of your 75 00:07:24.040 --> 00:07:31.600 torso a core temperature of below thirty five degrees celsius. Average normal temperature for 76 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:40.040 people for humans is about thirty seven degrees celsius. If that drops two degrees 77 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:46.879 then you have slipped into the start of mild hypothermia, and the three states 78 00:07:46.920 --> 00:07:51.839 of medically defined hypothermia. There's mild hypothermia, which is anything below thirty five 79 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:57.839 to about thirty two degrees celsius. You have moderate, which is thirty two 80 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:01.199 down to twenty eight three cell, and then anything below twenty eight is the 81 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:05.920 core temperature is severe hypothermia, and that brings in all sorts of other risks 82 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:11.240 as well. So you may have heard these stories about people who've survived very 83 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:16.240 very cold temperatures and they've been rushed to hospital and they've appeared to be dead, 84 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:20.279 but upon medical intervention and other things, they have actually sort of come 85 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:24.800 back to life, or it seems like they've come back to life. You 86 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:28.439 may have heard a phrase that you're not dead until you're warm and dead. 87 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:31.879 If you've done any kind of outdoor first aid, any outdoor medical training, 88 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:37.120 you probably have come across that. And that's from that world. It's from 89 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:43.559 that phenomenon of if somebody is actually very very cold and the cold was the 90 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:46.879 thing that put them into that state, they might appear to be dead. 91 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:52.919 We won't know for sure until we've tried to rewarm them. So severe hypothermia 92 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:58.759 can look like death or can just lead to death, depending on the outcome. 93 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:03.559 So that's hypothermia. So a core temperature dropping below thirty five degrees of 94 00:09:03.559 --> 00:09:07.519 celsius. There's a bee attacking me currently, so that might be on the 95 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:11.679 microphone. Nature is a guest on this podcast, Will you go away? 96 00:09:13.240 --> 00:09:18.000 Thank you? Just feeling cold, feeling a bit chilly isn't hypothermia. Your 97 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:22.240 skin being cold to the touch isn't hypothermia. Just saying oh, I need 98 00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:26.759 to rewarm is not hypothermia. Hypothermia is a medical designation, is a medical 99 00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:31.480 limit of you have a core temperature of below thirty five degrees celsius, but 100 00:09:31.559 --> 00:09:39.559 you can feel cold and uncomfortable before that point. The second type of cold 101 00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:46.279 injury frostbite, frost nip, skin freezing, or skin starting to drop below 102 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:50.559 a temperature where it can self regulate. That is not hypothermia. That is 103 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:54.879 a separate injury. You can have a completely frozen hand. You can have 104 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:00.000 a hand that you've been dipped in liquid nitrogen or you've wrapped it in eye 105 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:03.960 so it's now completely frozen solid to the core, and still have a core 106 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:09.159 temperature in the center of your body above thirty five and you have not got 107 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:15.960 hypothermia. So these are two separate injuries hypothermia, core temperature dropping below thirty 108 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:20.799 five degrees, frost bite, frost nip, those kind of things that is, 109 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:24.639 think about skin freezing or starting to freeze. In this episode, we're 110 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:28.399 going to talk about hypothermia more. All the things we're going to talk about 111 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:33.440 will have an impact on frost nip, frost bite. And you do need 112 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:41.039 to be able to manage the temperature of your extremities through clothing, through the 113 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:43.639 way you're using it, through pre planning, through careful use of these things. 114 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:50.440 And the cold of the temperature is and the more wind and wet stuff 115 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:54.159 there is around, you really need to be aware of that. But separate 116 00:10:54.159 --> 00:11:01.559 the mount as to being two different injuries hypothermia and freezing skin freezing or starting 117 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:09.399 to freeze. So when your skin is wet, it could lose heat at 118 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:16.120 a rate four times faster than if it were dry. How your skin gets 119 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:20.759 wet, how wet it is, the ambient temperature, what's happening with airflow 120 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:24.600 and stuff like that will all have an impact on that. But just know 121 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:31.879 that wet skin will lose heat more quickly the environment you're losing heat into matters. 122 00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:39.679 So if you search for something called wet bulb temperature, this is something 123 00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:45.320 you might see lots of articles coming up now about climate change and how the 124 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:50.519 wet bulb temperature is actually more important and the thing that we need to keep 125 00:11:50.519 --> 00:11:56.679 an eye on more more than the actual dry temperature. So wet bulb there's 126 00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:01.879 got nothing to do with light bulbs. It is imagine classic thermometer glass tube 127 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:05.399 thermometer that somebody has taken a wet piece of fabric and wrapped it around the 128 00:12:05.399 --> 00:12:11.519 bottom of the thermometer that reads the temperature that expands and pushes the fluid up 129 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:18.000 or down. That is a wet bulb. So it is to do with 130 00:12:18.679 --> 00:12:22.200 the humidity of the air, it is to do with the ambient temperature, 131 00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:26.000 and it is to do with the dew point. So this is a thing 132 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:31.960 for meteorology and weather and those kind of observations. You're not going to be 133 00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:35.519 sat there on the side of a mountain calculating this, but know that there 134 00:12:35.559 --> 00:12:43.799 is actually scientific observation around humidity and air temperature and the point at which water 135 00:12:43.919 --> 00:12:48.279 will start to form and dewe points and so on. So you don't have 136 00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:52.039 to understand any of that, but know that yet to know that this being 137 00:12:52.039 --> 00:12:58.039 wet versus dry is significant because and it will have an effect on the way 138 00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:07.320 human observe and feel temperature around them. So if you were to stand out 139 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:15.600 somewhere in completely completely naked but with dry skin, in low temperatures, with 140 00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:20.200 no air movement, you could stand there for longer and not feel the effects 141 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:24.600 of cold compared to being wet. If you had wet skin, if somebody 142 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:28.679 came along and soaked you with a hose, poured a bucket of water over 143 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:33.360 your head, you would feel the cold, but up to a four times 144 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:41.320 factor than if you were just completely dry in zero air. Those kind of 145 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:43.960 things don't tend to happen, though, I mean, unless you're in the 146 00:13:43.960 --> 00:13:46.600 habit of diving under waterfalls, when you're out walking in the mountains, or 147 00:13:48.039 --> 00:13:52.039 somebody follows you around with a watering can, you're probably not going to suddenly 148 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:58.799 get wet unless it rains, or you'll hit by spray of some kind from 149 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:03.759 something else, or you get sweaty. And when you start to think about 150 00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:07.279 things in those terms, you think is actually quite a lot of the natural 151 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:11.799 environment that will make you wet, will put you in that state of having 152 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:18.879 wet skin versus dry skin. So you need to be aware first of all 153 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:24.200 of when your skin is starting to get wet. The thing that causes that 154 00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:30.000 you can mitigate to a degree. You cannot stand under the waterfall, you 155 00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:31.480 cannot go out when it's rainy. You can only go out on dry weather, 156 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:37.639 and you can make sure that you don't sweat. But I've been doing 157 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:39.360 this for quite a long time now, and if I didn't go out when 158 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:45.120 it was raining, then I'd never go out in the UK. That would 159 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:48.960 preclude any kind of water sports canoeing, paddling, stand up paddle boarding, 160 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:50.360 swimming, surfing, or any of the other stuff I like to do. 161 00:14:52.320 --> 00:15:00.399 And my genetics just won't allow me to go out without sweating. Minus twenty 162 00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:05.120 degrees celsius is about my happy temperature for not really sweating, and even then 163 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:09.039 for moving around and not sweat, not sweating anything more than that, if 164 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:13.440 I'm moving around, I'm generating sweat somewhere on my body. Of all those 165 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:18.519 things, the sweat is the thing that I really have to pay attention to. 166 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:26.360 So if I am somewhere where the air temperature around me is quite low. 167 00:15:28.679 --> 00:15:31.919 I have to be really conscious of how sweaty I get, how much 168 00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:35.320 sweat is building up in my base layer, in my mid layer, on 169 00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:37.240 the area next to my skin that is difficult for me to get rid of. 170 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:46.360 I can moderate that to a degree by moving slower. But if I 171 00:15:46.360 --> 00:15:50.480 if I'm moving so slowly I can't actually get anywhere, then I'm not really 172 00:15:52.039 --> 00:15:54.679 doing the job I need to do in that place. If I'm walking from 173 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:58.480 somewhere to somewhere else, or I'm walking up hill, or I'm snowshoeing, 174 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:02.320 or the few times I've been skiing, or anything like that, where I 175 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.240 need to move, then I need to move at a certain rate in order 176 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:08.480 to make progress. And if you're carrying a rucksack, if you're walking uphill, 177 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:14.320 if you're doing something slightly harder, then you will be sweating more or 178 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:19.000 more likely too sweat. So I need to find a way to manage the 179 00:16:19.399 --> 00:16:26.679 level of moisture on my body. It is harder in high humidity air, 180 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:32.679 so the amount of the moisture level in the air. It is harder in 181 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:38.519 high humidity for sweat to evaporate away. So if it is high humidity and 182 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:44.000 my body is sweaty and my base layer is sweaty, then it is going 183 00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:48.399 to stay sweaty in lower humidity, really dry air. If I sweat, 184 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:52.679 that moisture is going to disappear quite quickly, so I won't stay wet for 185 00:16:52.759 --> 00:16:59.279 very long. This is why, in the other end of the scale, 186 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:04.759 when you're talking about hyper thermia and being too hot, high humidity conditions and 187 00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:12.119 high temperatures are more dangerous than high temperatures and low humidity because it is harder 188 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:19.160 to cool down. In humid conditions. You'll be sweating, but your body 189 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:22.240 will just create a warm air of water around you and you won't. It 190 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:26.960 won't disappear, and you won't and you'll just keep building up heat and building 191 00:17:26.039 --> 00:17:33.920 up heat. Your sweat in colder conditions is not an advantage. It is 192 00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:37.759 something that will make your life harder. It is more likely to send you 193 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:44.160 into a state of hypothermia because your body will then stay wet and you will 194 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:48.759 lose heat up to four times faster. So managing the moisture on your next 195 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:52.720 to your body is really important. I can't emphasize that enough. You can 196 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:55.960 just think, oh, well, I'm getting sweaty. It's a good workout, 197 00:17:56.079 --> 00:17:57.160 or you know, look at this, or I'll just get sweaty. 198 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:02.839 But I don't mind being wet and sweaty. And I don't mind even if 199 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:04.920 your body is quite clean anyway, and you showered recently, then the sweat 200 00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:07.599 probably won't smell. You might think, oh, yeah, I can deal 201 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:12.079 with it. But the moisture next to your body is the problem, no 202 00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:18.160 matter how it was formed. Sweat is a thing that means you could form 203 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:22.440 moisture next to your body through exercise at a wide range of temperatures. At 204 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:26.720 lower temperatures, that is going to start to become an issue. So in 205 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:30.000 cold temperatures you make sure you don't build up a sweat, or even in 206 00:18:30.279 --> 00:18:34.279 mild temperatures like we have now, if I was to stand around in the 207 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:37.440 shadow in the valley at the bottom of the mountain waiting for my mates to 208 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:41.559 get there, then i might be wearing my base layer. I'm a midlayer, 209 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:45.559 and then a jacket on top of that, and then I'm still wearing 210 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:48.400 that when I set off up the trail, up the track and start walking 211 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:52.759 uphill, and I'll quickly build up sweat and start building up heat and then 212 00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:57.880 start to sweat and I will have to stop and then take those layers off 213 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:03.440 to get rid of that heat and stop me sweating. That's why when we 214 00:19:03.480 --> 00:19:06.920 take people out into the mountains, and when we take clients out on trips 215 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:11.000 or we advise clients, we always advise a layering system. So then you 216 00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:15.799 can have a layer that you just wear next to your skin that will absorb 217 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:18.279 some of that moisture and pull it away from your body a little bit. 218 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:22.000 But you can just wear that, or you can wear another layer on top 219 00:19:22.039 --> 00:19:22.799 of that, or a layer on top of that, or a layer on 220 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:29.000 top of that, up to four layers. But those four layers means that 221 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:32.839 you mean that you can take off one layer, two layers, three layers 222 00:19:33.079 --> 00:19:37.359 and still not be standing there topless or bottomless. If it's that half on 223 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:41.000 the side of a mountain, you can still have some degree of protection on 224 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:44.880 your body, but you will be able to regulate your temperature so you won't 225 00:19:44.920 --> 00:19:51.000 sweat as much. The type of fabric those layers are made from is how 226 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:55.920 you'll handle the sweat that you do generate anyway, So if you're walking uphill 227 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:59.400 with a rucksack and you're starting to sweat, you strip down to just your 228 00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:02.279 base layer. If possible, you start off taking off one layer, then 229 00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:06.599 maybe a second layer. And for me most cases, I'm stripping right down 230 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:10.920 to my base layer, just to the layer against my skin. I will 231 00:20:10.920 --> 00:20:15.240 still be sweating there, but because that base layer is made from a fabric 232 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:18.200 that isn't cotton, so it's a polyester or more likely these days, a 233 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:23.880 marino wall type fabric, it will pull the moisture away from my body and 234 00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:27.640 then try and get rid of it quite quickly. It won't saturate and hold 235 00:20:27.640 --> 00:20:30.559 on to a lot of it. It will only hold out so much and 236 00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:36.920 then try and push it out away from my body. That will then evaporate 237 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:40.319 out into the air. It will move out to other places. But the 238 00:20:40.359 --> 00:20:45.480 fabric type that I've chosen will hopefully mean that that sweat layer doesn't stay next 239 00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:48.279 to my body for too long. We've got other episodes that really cover that 240 00:20:48.319 --> 00:20:52.359 and layering and how to manage that body. You're sweat next to your body, 241 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:59.519 but wet clothing, wet layers next to your skin will mean you lose 242 00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:03.680 heat more quickly. Do what you can to reduce that sweat from building up. 243 00:21:06.759 --> 00:21:11.599 If you have got wet clothing. If you have got a completely saturated 244 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:17.119 wet base layer from walking up hill slightly humid weather, it's not actually that 245 00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:22.200 cold, but it's cold enough, and you're working hard walking up hill with 246 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:26.000 a heavy rucksackle or your mountain biking in right in the bottom gear in granny 247 00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:30.759 gear, grinding up the hill, trying to get up this trail, you 248 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:34.519 are probably going to build a level of sweat. Anyway, Your next thing 249 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:41.440 is that when you stop, you are now stood there in wet clothing and 250 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:45.279 your body is losing heat. If you stand there long enough and stay wet, 251 00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:49.000 you will drop into hypothermia. Your core temperature will drop, your body 252 00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:52.319 won't be able to regulate with that amount of moisture on your skin. You 253 00:21:52.359 --> 00:22:00.000 will drop into hypothermia. Eventually, you'll probably get bored and move on before 254 00:22:00.119 --> 00:22:03.960 or you reach that point. But if you have other factors like poor diet, 255 00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:08.599 or you're not feeling particularly well that day, or other factors like wind 256 00:22:08.920 --> 00:22:12.079 and air movement on you, which will talk about in a moment, you 257 00:22:12.119 --> 00:22:18.480 will develop hypothermia more quickly when you stop with a wet bas layer with wet 258 00:22:18.559 --> 00:22:23.160 clothing against your skin. So when you do stop. That's when you want 259 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:26.240 to stop. Get a layer out of your bag, put it on top, 260 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:32.359 just for the moment you're stopping there, because then you've still got a 261 00:22:32.440 --> 00:22:36.240 wet layer against your skin, but you've added insulation on top of that to 262 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:41.559 reduce that heat loss a little bit. Not one hundred percent, and you 263 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:45.119 won't be able to do it one hundred percent, but you have reduced the 264 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:48.880 effects of that moisture against your skin. So when you're walking uphill with a 265 00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:52.960 slightly sweaty base layer and you stop and you put a layer on to keep 266 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:59.480 warm, what you're doing there is you're mitigating the effects of the wet base 267 00:22:59.559 --> 00:23:04.599 layer as much as anything else. That's why it doesn't really matter whether you're 268 00:23:04.599 --> 00:23:11.200 putting a nice puffy down jacket on or just a waterproof hard sholler. One 269 00:23:11.240 --> 00:23:18.119 will feel nicer than the other. But really what you're doing is stopping the 270 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:21.279 moisture, pulling the heat away from your body as quick as it can, 271 00:23:21.319 --> 00:23:25.559 because it's only pulling it out as far as that next layer. If you 272 00:23:25.720 --> 00:23:29.680 then had to stand in that place and stay there for as long as possible, 273 00:23:29.720 --> 00:23:32.640 So say you for some reason you had to walk up this hill for 274 00:23:32.680 --> 00:23:36.839 two hours and then stay in that spot for the next two days. You 275 00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:40.039 would want to try and get dry as quick as you can and remove that 276 00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:41.920 moisture from your body. And on the odd times, I've done that with 277 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:47.839 different jobs and different bits of work. Back years and years ago, when 278 00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:52.279 we used to do mountain safety cover for big races and things like that, 279 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:55.880 and we used to or either employ people to do that or do it myself. 280 00:23:56.279 --> 00:24:00.519 You'd be stationed out on the side of a mountain for six hours watching 281 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:04.400 runners come passed, or mountain bikers or whatever the race was. I would 282 00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:08.039 take a separate basse layer for that, and I'd walk up hill quickly with 283 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:11.599 a lot of gear, and then stop and then change the bass layer out 284 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:14.920 to a nice dry one because i can walk down in the dry one. 285 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:18.359 But I've now taken away that moisture from my body. I've dried my skin 286 00:24:18.440 --> 00:24:22.599 up by putting a dry bass layer on, and I can stand there for 287 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:26.079 a longer and be happier with dry skin rather than wet skin. I'm not 288 00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:30.200 saying that you just carry fifteen bass layers with you for every mountain trip, 289 00:24:30.599 --> 00:24:37.880 but you do consider the effects of that moisture on your skin. Monitor how 290 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:41.240 quickly your base layer is drying. If it's getting sweaty, how quickly is 291 00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:47.039 it drying up. If you stay wet for longer, you will cool down 292 00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:52.000 more quickly. And this is where the problem with hypothermia comes in, because 293 00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:56.920 you can get cold and get to a stage of hypothermia or mild hypothermia without 294 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:02.440 realizing it. You can look at your body and go, well, I'm 295 00:25:02.440 --> 00:25:06.599 still sweating. I can't be cold. But actually you're entering the early stages 296 00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:11.839 of hypothermia, and you've started to lose some cognitive ability, some strength, 297 00:25:11.400 --> 00:25:18.759 some flexibility, some ability to control your limbs. You've lost some dexterity in 298 00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:22.480 your fingers, you've lost the ability to carefully place your foot on the edge 299 00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:26.640 of a rock and something like that. I've seen that before with clients in 300 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:30.880 the mountains, where they've started to enter the early stages of hypothermia, but 301 00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:34.079 they haven't noticed because they still feel a little bit too hot because they're really 302 00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:41.480 sweaty. So's at these subtle edges that's where the difference comes in. So 303 00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:45.759 be aware of the moisture on your body from sweat. The next thing is 304 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:51.920 rain and stuff like that. That's why we always say you should carry some 305 00:25:51.960 --> 00:25:57.480 way of keeping your body dry. Hard shell waterproof layers I think generally are 306 00:25:57.559 --> 00:26:03.440 better, or some kind of waterproof system like paramo or something that pulls moisture 307 00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:08.640 away from your body and stop and if it's working properly, doesn't let rain 308 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:12.519 through. Your aim is to try and keep your body as dry as possible. 309 00:26:14.200 --> 00:26:17.799 And that's the main takeaway from this part of it is keep your body 310 00:26:17.839 --> 00:26:22.000 as dry as possible. If it does get wet, pay attention to how 311 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:26.799 wet it's got, how quickly it's drying out, and what it's doing to 312 00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:30.519 you in that environment, and know that when your body is wet, it 313 00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:36.359 is losing heat more quickly than if it was dry. There are little micro 314 00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:40.279 factors to this as well, like if you're sat on wet ground, if 315 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:41.960 you're sat on a wet rock, you're going to be losing heat more quickly 316 00:26:41.960 --> 00:26:47.839 than if you're sat on a dry rock. If you're touching wet surfaces, 317 00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:52.240 you're going to lose heat more quickly than if you're touching dry surfaces. All 318 00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:56.880 of these things will make a difference. So try and keep your body dry 319 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:02.599 and try and manage that moisture. If you can't manage a moisture, if 320 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:07.119 you're doing something like swimming, if you're doing something like water sports where you're 321 00:27:07.160 --> 00:27:12.720 going to be getting wet, you need to be aware of that risk there 322 00:27:12.759 --> 00:27:18.000 and manage it differently. So if you're swimming, and in the notes are 323 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:19.880 going to link out to the Outdoor Swimming Society, they've got some great notes 324 00:27:19.960 --> 00:27:26.039 on cold water swimming and the effects of your body of cold water and some 325 00:27:26.039 --> 00:27:33.240 real myth busting and stuff like that. Your body's reaction to cold water is 326 00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:37.319 something you really need to pay attention to, and it's something you can acclimatize 327 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:41.480 to. And that's the part of what I'm doing with a cold water tank. 328 00:27:41.519 --> 00:27:45.240 And there's some other benefits to it as well. But you can acclimatize 329 00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:52.519 to it, but it's not something that you can just jump into. Cold 330 00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:57.960 water needs management. The temperature doesn't have to be that low for it to 331 00:27:57.960 --> 00:28:06.079 be classified as cold water. Five degrees celsius, So what's up forty one 332 00:28:06.640 --> 00:28:11.759 two degrees fahrenheit. That's a cold day, but it is if it was 333 00:28:11.799 --> 00:28:15.720 the air temperature. But it's something that you can deal with quite happily. 334 00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:23.160 Five degrees water temperature in a river or a lake or something like that, 335 00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:29.839 that is going to give you ten to twenty minutes, depending on your body 336 00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:37.799 before you start to really lose coordination, lose strength, lose literally power in 337 00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:41.519 your muscles, you can't move as much, you lose dexterity. You will 338 00:28:41.559 --> 00:28:47.279 get to the point after about ten to fifteen minutes in five degree water one 339 00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:52.279 forty two fahrenheit degree water that you can't pull yourself out of it. You 340 00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:56.599 can't pull yourself back onto a dock or onto a boat. You can extend 341 00:28:57.200 --> 00:29:00.279 your body's ability to deal with those lower tens through training, and there are 342 00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:03.920 all sorts of training programs for it. Some people are just naturally better at 343 00:29:03.920 --> 00:29:11.440 it than others. The difference between a slightly cool day on the shore and 344 00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:17.480 you're in a survival situation the moment you enter the water, it can be 345 00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:23.240 the same temperature. So if you're doing stuff around water, be prepared to 346 00:29:23.319 --> 00:29:26.960 manage that risk of the water. So if you're swimming, if you're getting 347 00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:30.000 in the water, if you're in a wet suit or something like that, 348 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:33.319 that's going to add some insulation or a dry suit even or an immersion suit. 349 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:36.119 That's really going to add some insulation, but it's going to bring its 350 00:29:36.119 --> 00:29:40.640 own factors loss of mobility, loss of flexibility, extra weight, extra bulk, 351 00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:45.000 whatever. But if you're getting in the water, you manage it through 352 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:49.799 training. You manage it through awareness of that temperature, and through just how 353 00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:52.839 long you're spending in there and what you're going to do when you get back 354 00:29:52.880 --> 00:29:59.119 on shore to rewarm. Be aware of being in that water, be aware 355 00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:03.359 of your management strategies for it. The really dangerous areas I think are when 356 00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:07.240 you're near the water, where you might go into the water. And this 357 00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:12.559 does and this is relevant to the next episode, if you might end up 358 00:30:12.559 --> 00:30:17.440 in the water, you should have a strategy for getting into that water. 359 00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:19.559 You might think, well, it's not frozen, it's fresh water, it's 360 00:30:19.599 --> 00:30:22.640 not frozen, so it's got to be above freezing, and I can deal 361 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:26.400 with temperatures above freezing. No. I mean, like, I was in 362 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:32.640 that cold water tank there for a few minutes or eight degrees and it was 363 00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:37.319 starting to get unpleasant. And I noticed because I actually had to spend longer 364 00:30:37.319 --> 00:30:41.160 in there while we sorted out some stuff for the recording of the podcast. 365 00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:44.759 So I spent sight long longer in there than I normally would have done. 366 00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:48.480 I lost some of the flexibility in my legs, in my feet, my 367 00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:55.119 toes, so I was stumbling slightly as we got out in temperatures that would 368 00:30:55.359 --> 00:30:57.680 I was happily working in in a T shirt yesterday when it was the air 369 00:30:57.680 --> 00:31:06.000 temperature on land. So if you're working near water, either on a shore 370 00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:10.599 or on rocks above it or something like that, or more likely in a 371 00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:15.480 boat, in a vessel of some type, be prepared to enter that water 372 00:31:15.720 --> 00:31:19.920 and what you're going to do afterwards, because if you enter the water and 373 00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:27.960 the water temperature is even anything below twenty degrees eighteen degrees, it could quickly 374 00:31:29.160 --> 00:31:33.720 and send you into a situation where hypothermia is not just a real risk, 375 00:31:33.799 --> 00:31:37.640 it is happening to you. Your core temperature can drop very very quickly. 376 00:31:37.160 --> 00:31:41.359 You can lose dexterity in your fingers, you can lose the ability to think, 377 00:31:41.640 --> 00:31:47.079 you can lose or at least to problem solve. You can lose strengthen 378 00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:49.319 your muscles. There's all sorts of things. We are breathing. We've got 379 00:31:49.319 --> 00:31:52.920 the mammalian dive reflex, and you know we can go into that, but 380 00:31:53.400 --> 00:31:57.119 just think that if you enter that cold water and it does not have to 381 00:31:57.160 --> 00:32:04.359 be that cold, you are then in a survival situation. If you enter 382 00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:07.880 it unexpectedly, you're happily going along doing a thing, and now you're in 383 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:14.160 the water, then in many ways that's worse because you haven't even got the 384 00:32:14.200 --> 00:32:20.079 ability to mentally prepare for it. But if you're going somewhere where the water 385 00:32:20.279 --> 00:32:24.599 is going to be cold or cool and there is a reasonable chance you could 386 00:32:24.680 --> 00:32:30.279 end up in there, you should have a management strategy for that before you 387 00:32:30.359 --> 00:32:36.240 get there. So that strategy could be clothing, it could be spare clothing, 388 00:32:36.519 --> 00:32:39.000 it could be what is attached to your person. There are all sorts 389 00:32:39.039 --> 00:32:42.240 of things around canoe journeys, and we're going to talk about this in the 390 00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:46.720 next episode and given away a little bit what that's about, but how you 391 00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:54.839 plan for that, but be prepared to enter that cold water and for you 392 00:32:54.880 --> 00:33:00.319 then to be in a survival situation where you need to sort yourself out afterwards. 393 00:33:01.039 --> 00:33:07.240 And if you're on your own, you're going to be already in a 394 00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:12.440 position where it's harder to sort yourself out, harder to fix that situation because 395 00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:17.640 you are cold. So generally for if somebody has entered cold water and they've 396 00:33:17.759 --> 00:33:25.160 become wet, and they have entered cold moving water, particularly, then you 397 00:33:25.160 --> 00:33:29.400 get them out onto the shore. You don't then keep them in their wet 398 00:33:29.440 --> 00:33:32.200 clothing and add stuff on top. You get them out of the wet clothing 399 00:33:32.319 --> 00:33:40.160 and get them dry as soon as possible. If you're staying there in the 400 00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:45.839 wet clothing, you are going to still be losing heat, and you can 401 00:33:45.880 --> 00:33:51.440 be pulling heat away from your body and crucially away from your core, and 402 00:33:51.519 --> 00:33:57.920 send you into that state of hypothermia quicker if you are wet. So get 403 00:33:57.960 --> 00:34:00.160 them out of the water, get them out of the wind, and we'll 404 00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:04.559 talk about that. I keep teasing this, but we'll talk about that shortly. 405 00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:09.639 But get them out of the wet clothing and into dry clothing quickly. 406 00:34:12.519 --> 00:34:16.079 The moisture is the real factor here that you need to be aware of. 407 00:34:16.360 --> 00:34:19.960 It's not just temperature. It's not okay, we'll make them warm and wet 408 00:34:20.079 --> 00:34:22.679 rather than cold and wet. Okay, how about you make them warm and 409 00:34:22.760 --> 00:34:27.559 dry. I keep emphasizing this. The rate at which the moisture pulls the 410 00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:31.679 heat away from your body so much higher than dry clothing. Dry dry surfaces, 411 00:34:34.159 --> 00:34:39.159 So manage that moisture, manage that water, manage that wetness as much 412 00:34:39.239 --> 00:34:43.840 as the temperature. If you've only got one set of clothing with you and 413 00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:47.599 that's all wet now, then you have a problem. The whole point of 414 00:34:47.679 --> 00:34:52.599 this podcast when we first started it a few years ago, was to counter 415 00:34:53.000 --> 00:34:55.679 some of the stupid stuff we see online, some of the stupid stuff you 416 00:34:55.679 --> 00:35:00.719 hear from other places, some of the stuff that's more about reinforcing a tough 417 00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:07.639 man image or some other weird skewed thing about making things as uncomfortable for yourself 418 00:35:07.639 --> 00:35:12.719 as possible, and instead push it back to what we know that works, 419 00:35:12.719 --> 00:35:16.760 which is making good decisions and doing good planning, make choosing good equipment, 420 00:35:17.679 --> 00:35:21.960 doing the right things at the right time, and some of those things you 421 00:35:22.039 --> 00:35:27.039 had to have done weeks ago. And you can't just wait for a bad 422 00:35:27.079 --> 00:35:30.800 situation to happen and then pull out your magical piece of equipment that's going to 423 00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:37.440 fix it all. If you entered that water without any way of getting warm 424 00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:39.920 and dry soon after, it doesn't matter that you've got yourself out of the 425 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.400 river or out of the lake and drag yourself onto the shore you're lying there 426 00:35:44.440 --> 00:35:50.679 on a wet beach, in wet clothing, still losing heat, be losing 427 00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:53.199 heat, maybe a little bit less quickly than you were when you were in 428 00:35:53.239 --> 00:36:00.360 the water, but you're still losing heat. Getting dry is really crucial here, 429 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:04.880 and that leads us on to the second part, which is a bit 430 00:36:04.920 --> 00:36:09.800 I keep teasing wind. Any kind of moving air is going to be pulling 431 00:36:10.480 --> 00:36:14.960 the little bit of heat that you've lost away from your body through the sweat, 432 00:36:15.039 --> 00:36:17.159 which will make it pull away more quickly. But even in dry air, 433 00:36:17.639 --> 00:36:22.639 on dry skin, rather, it will pull that heat away from your 434 00:36:22.639 --> 00:36:29.280 body much more quickly. Because imagine you're standing there. You're standing there naked 435 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:35.280 in cool air, and your body is losing heat. It's losing heat from 436 00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:37.559 what the surface you're touching, it's losing heat from the breath coming out of 437 00:36:37.559 --> 00:36:43.239 your mouth, it's losing heat through radiation. But it is losing heat just 438 00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:47.320 by warming up the area of air around your body. So think about little 439 00:36:47.559 --> 00:36:52.519 invisible suit you're wearing of heat being pulled out, warming up a little zone 440 00:36:52.559 --> 00:36:57.000 of air and next to your body. If you then were to grab that 441 00:36:57.079 --> 00:37:00.079 little zone of heat and pull it away from you, lost that heat and 442 00:37:00.119 --> 00:37:05.639 you can't get it back. That's what wind does. It pulls this little 443 00:37:05.719 --> 00:37:08.920 zone of warmth you have around you and pushes it off over there where it's 444 00:37:08.920 --> 00:37:14.360 of no use to you. So it's like being sucked away from you like 445 00:37:14.480 --> 00:37:23.360 smoke. Insulating clothing helps reduce this by keeping the little warm area of heat 446 00:37:24.039 --> 00:37:29.679 next to your body under that clothing, under that insulation. But if you 447 00:37:29.719 --> 00:37:34.199 take it off, the air can then pull it away, or even on 448 00:37:34.239 --> 00:37:37.320 a day without wind, if you're moving through it, you're leaving that heat 449 00:37:37.360 --> 00:37:43.119 behind. So if you're mountain biking, or you're cycling or on a motorbike 450 00:37:43.199 --> 00:37:46.320 or whatever, you're leaving even on a day without wind, you're leaving the 451 00:37:46.360 --> 00:37:50.119 heat behind you. And you've probably experienced this when you go downhill and you 452 00:37:50.199 --> 00:37:53.039 go down, you go or you go faster, you feel cooler because I 453 00:37:53.039 --> 00:37:58.519 think there was a nice breeze now moving. No, what's happening is all 454 00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:00.400 of the heat that you're losing from your body. As soon as it leaves 455 00:38:00.440 --> 00:38:04.719 your body, it's gone. It's off there behind you somewhere. You're leaving 456 00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:09.079 little zone of heat behind you. Slightly weird thing to think about, but 457 00:38:09.239 --> 00:38:15.760 is kind it's an important concept to get that. If there's movement of air 458 00:38:15.039 --> 00:38:19.960 around your body, whether it's through wind or whether you're creating it. Because 459 00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:23.159 you're moving through still air, you're leaving the heat behind or the heat's being 460 00:38:23.159 --> 00:38:29.360 pulled away from you. So even though you might you might be losing heat 461 00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:31.519 at a set rate because you've got dry skin or wet skin or all that 462 00:38:31.519 --> 00:38:37.159 stuff we've talked about, the fact that the air is pulling it away means 463 00:38:37.159 --> 00:38:40.480 that that will be happening more quickly. So you may have heard the term 464 00:38:40.519 --> 00:38:45.440 wind chill, and there are all sorts of wind chill calculators you can find 465 00:38:45.480 --> 00:38:49.880 online, and I think we'll link out to a couple, but they're all 466 00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:58.199 a bit weird because it still doesn't adequately reflect the temperature you'll feel in that 467 00:38:58.400 --> 00:39:05.760 environment. So one windshield calculator we use says that if the ambient temperature or 468 00:39:05.760 --> 00:39:12.000 the air temperature around you is minus eighteen celsius and the zero wind, that's 469 00:39:12.079 --> 00:39:19.320 about thirty minutes in that temperature before you start to really develop any kind of 470 00:39:19.320 --> 00:39:23.840 cold weather injury and for an average person, and really start to feel that 471 00:39:23.920 --> 00:39:29.280 the effects of that cold in a meaningful way. But if you add a 472 00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:32.400 fifteen mile an hour wind to that minus eighteen temperature, or it's about twenty 473 00:39:32.440 --> 00:39:37.719 four kilometers an hour, it's going to feel like you were stood in minus 474 00:39:37.760 --> 00:39:45.880 twenty eight celsius. Still there. That's all in dry conditions. If you 475 00:39:45.920 --> 00:39:52.679 were wet in either of those conditions, so wet skin, minus eighteen celsius, 476 00:39:52.920 --> 00:39:55.400 no air movement, you're in a bad state. You're not going to 477 00:39:55.400 --> 00:40:00.199 be lasting very long at all. If there was a fifteen mile an hour 478 00:40:00.239 --> 00:40:06.519 wind and it's minus eighteen and you're wet, I don't fancy your chances. 479 00:40:06.559 --> 00:40:10.119 You've got to sort this situation out pretty quickly or you're going to die. 480 00:40:10.800 --> 00:40:15.480 So all of that stuff I said about wet clothing being wet, wet through 481 00:40:15.519 --> 00:40:20.760 sweat, wet through rain, wet through immersion into water, If you factor 482 00:40:20.800 --> 00:40:24.800 in air movement on top of that, it starts to become a real issue. 483 00:40:27.320 --> 00:40:30.480 And that's why it's still an issue even though we're not in the depths 484 00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:34.480 of winter now and here in the UK we didn't really have the depths of 485 00:40:34.480 --> 00:40:37.760 the winter. Barely went blow freezing, but it was wet most days, 486 00:40:38.199 --> 00:40:42.119 and it was windy most days, and I've had quite a few days this 487 00:40:42.199 --> 00:40:45.039 winter where I've been working out in the fields, working in the woodlands, 488 00:40:45.119 --> 00:40:49.960 doing the other work we do, where I felt I'm on the edge of 489 00:40:50.039 --> 00:40:53.360 mild hypothermia here because I'm wet and the wind is pulling the heat away from 490 00:40:53.360 --> 00:41:00.400 me. So I've had to choose my clothing to reflect that, and I've 491 00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:04.159 been having to balance out. Okay, i need a windproof layer of some 492 00:41:04.280 --> 00:41:07.119 kind to stop that heat being pulled away from me by the wind. But 493 00:41:07.239 --> 00:41:10.800 if I'm working in a windproof layer, I'm going to get sweaty, so 494 00:41:10.840 --> 00:41:15.079 I'll have wet clothing. So I've had to bring two or three different layers 495 00:41:15.079 --> 00:41:21.800 out with me on different days to achieve different things. Managing body temperature in 496 00:41:21.880 --> 00:41:28.760 wet conditions and in windy conditions, I think is much much harder than managing 497 00:41:28.760 --> 00:41:37.360 body temperature in sub zero Arctic dry conditions. Scottish winter. Scottish wet winter 498 00:41:38.159 --> 00:41:45.239 is a harder environmental I've found to deal with than high Himalayan mounting cold dry 499 00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:50.880 air, because that moisture is a real factor, the wind is a real 500 00:41:50.880 --> 00:41:59.320 factor, and together that is a hyperthermia factory. And I worry more about 501 00:41:59.400 --> 00:42:02.280 hyperthermia. Don't do about frostbite, frost nip, those kind of things, 502 00:42:04.280 --> 00:42:08.800 because the hypothermia creeps up upon you on days when you don't even think about 503 00:42:08.840 --> 00:42:15.880 it because you're wet and it's slightly windy. So the wind is an easy 504 00:42:15.880 --> 00:42:17.400 one to talk about. And the faster the wind, the more quickly it's 505 00:42:17.400 --> 00:42:21.440 going to pull the heat away from you, and the more the colder you 506 00:42:21.480 --> 00:42:29.039 will feel. Water is another factor with this. You've got the water on 507 00:42:29.119 --> 00:42:32.119 your skin pulling the heat away four times faster. But and if you do 508 00:42:32.239 --> 00:42:36.480 cold the cold plunge thing, or you used to go swimming in cold water, 509 00:42:37.079 --> 00:42:40.320 you'll know what this feels like. If you stay completely still in still 510 00:42:40.440 --> 00:42:45.559 water in cold water, you can eventually feel like you're starting to acclimatize to 511 00:42:45.639 --> 00:42:50.360 it, because what you're doing is building up a little bubble of warm urh 512 00:42:50.719 --> 00:42:54.599 not warm warmer water right next to your skin. You're still losing heat into 513 00:42:54.639 --> 00:43:00.480 that zone, and you will develop hyperthermia eventually. If you stand there but 514 00:43:00.880 --> 00:43:04.039 you've got this little warm area right next to your skin and it doesn't feel 515 00:43:04.079 --> 00:43:07.239 quite as bad, and then swirl your arms around and move around, you 516 00:43:07.280 --> 00:43:13.280 will immediately feel much much colder, because what you're doing is the equivalent of 517 00:43:13.320 --> 00:43:17.800 that wind pulling the heat away from your body. You're moving into colder water 518 00:43:17.920 --> 00:43:21.440 all the time, and your body hasn't got a chance to heat up a 519 00:43:21.440 --> 00:43:23.679 little layer next to it. It's just moving it around all the time. 520 00:43:24.239 --> 00:43:32.920 So that's why moving water will always feel colder than completely still water, or 521 00:43:34.079 --> 00:43:38.000 if you're moving through the water. So if you stand, if you float 522 00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:43.079 completely still, it's submerged in water, the water doesn't move, you don't 523 00:43:43.079 --> 00:43:46.519 move, you will feel warmer than if you start swimming through it. You 524 00:43:46.559 --> 00:43:50.559 might build up some heat inside and your core through the exercise of swimming, 525 00:43:50.559 --> 00:43:54.039 and that will have its own effect, But immediately you will feel colder because 526 00:43:54.239 --> 00:43:59.800 you've started moving through the water, or if the water starts moving around, 527 00:44:00.360 --> 00:44:02.800 or if you're in a river, that heat is being pulled away from you 528 00:44:02.840 --> 00:44:08.719 straight away. So the movement of that little warm zone next to your body 529 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:15.559 from either wind or water in the outdoors is going to be another factor. 530 00:44:15.960 --> 00:44:21.440 So these are the two things. If your body gets wet, it will 531 00:44:21.480 --> 00:44:25.480 lose heat much more quickly if your body is an environment where the heat is 532 00:44:25.480 --> 00:44:30.440 being pulled away from you. But by either airflow or water flow, you 533 00:44:30.440 --> 00:44:35.440 will lose heat a lot more quickly. If you are wet and an environment 534 00:44:35.599 --> 00:44:38.920 where there is airflow around you, you are going to lose heat very quickly. 535 00:44:39.360 --> 00:44:45.159 If you are in cold water and it is moving or you're moving through 536 00:44:45.199 --> 00:44:52.239 it, you will lose heat very quickly. So you've got to be aware 537 00:44:52.440 --> 00:44:58.960 of those two things, moisture movement, and that's why it's taken a whole 538 00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:02.039 episode to go through this, and it's a really subtle thing to get your 539 00:45:02.039 --> 00:45:07.280 head around because how you deal with it, how you manage it, is 540 00:45:07.320 --> 00:45:12.199 going to be very dependent on what you're doing, what the temperature is, 541 00:45:12.440 --> 00:45:15.480 what you're going to be doing next, what equipment you have with you, 542 00:45:15.679 --> 00:45:19.320 how you're using that equipment. Way more than we can go into with this, 543 00:45:19.320 --> 00:45:22.960 this is part of good outdoor skills, which you've got to go out 544 00:45:23.000 --> 00:45:28.440 and make mistakes and make soft mistakes, makes lots of little mistakes and get 545 00:45:28.440 --> 00:45:32.239 cold and uncomfortable in a way that you can recover from and that where you 546 00:45:32.239 --> 00:45:37.199 can do safely and learn what happens. We could talk about, as I've 547 00:45:37.239 --> 00:45:40.400 talked about a lot in this episode, walking up hill with a rucksack, 548 00:45:40.760 --> 00:45:45.400 but I could do a whole episode on managing your body for moisture and air 549 00:45:45.440 --> 00:45:51.679 temperature and moving air when mountain biking versus road cycling. Do another one for 550 00:45:51.679 --> 00:45:54.960 swimming, do another one for canoeing. All of these things, all of 551 00:45:55.000 --> 00:46:00.400 these activities in these different environments. You've got to manage yourself else. But 552 00:46:00.519 --> 00:46:08.719 take that away colder temperatures hypothermia. Think about the moisture on your body and 553 00:46:08.760 --> 00:46:12.320 how that is held there, and what's happening with that moisture, how it 554 00:46:12.360 --> 00:46:14.679 got there, what you're doing to keep it out, what you're doing to 555 00:46:14.679 --> 00:46:16.519 get rid of it, what you're doing to prevent it happening again, what 556 00:46:16.519 --> 00:46:21.679 you're doing to stop the effects of that moisture by changing into other layers. 557 00:46:22.159 --> 00:46:25.039 And then the movement of things around your body, air or water, those 558 00:46:25.119 --> 00:46:30.480 two factors. If you can manage those and think about those, that is 559 00:46:30.519 --> 00:46:37.079 going to be your best chance at preventing hypothermia. But remember, hypothermia is 560 00:46:37.119 --> 00:46:40.039 different to frostbite, it's different to frost nip. It is a completely separate 561 00:46:40.199 --> 00:46:46.320 designation hypothermia. Drop core temperature drops blow thirty five and then you have mild, 562 00:46:46.400 --> 00:46:52.760 moderate, and severe. That is the takeaway. It's moisture management, 563 00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:57.559 wet management, water management, whatever you want to call it, and movement 564 00:46:57.800 --> 00:47:01.039 management. What's that window to you? How much in the wind are you? 565 00:47:01.119 --> 00:47:05.400 What are you doing to reduce the effects of it? How prepared are 566 00:47:05.440 --> 00:47:10.519 you for it? Or moving water versus still water. I don't think I 567 00:47:10.519 --> 00:47:15.480 can break it down any more than that without giving hyper specific examples. So 568 00:47:15.599 --> 00:47:17.559 now we're going to move on to talking about things in the after show. 569 00:47:19.159 --> 00:47:22.199 So thank you for listening, and keep an ear out for that next episode 570 00:47:22.400 --> 00:47:25.519 because it really ties into this one and it comes up with some really practical 571 00:47:25.559 --> 00:47:30.400 examples of what happens when this doesn't go quite as well as you hoped. 572 00:47:30.760 --> 00:47:36.320 Thank you for listening to this episode of Modern Outdoor Survival from Original Outdoors. 573 00:47:36.760 --> 00:47:39.559 If you go along to Modern Outdoor Survival dot com. There you will find 574 00:47:39.599 --> 00:47:44.599 links to all of the content and everything we've talked about in this episode, 575 00:47:45.079 --> 00:47:49.400 plus links to all of the previous episodes and the show notes for those episodes. 576 00:47:49.800 --> 00:47:52.639 You will also find links to our Patreon page where you can become a 577 00:47:52.639 --> 00:47:58.599 supporter of the show and get rid of all of those pesky adverts and access 578 00:47:58.639 --> 00:48:01.519 to bonus extra content and stuff that the public never gets to hear, and 579 00:48:01.599 --> 00:48:07.079 behind the scenes stuff and a few other things that are hidden away within there. 580 00:48:07.639 --> 00:48:12.440 You've also got our Instagram account which is at Modern Outdoor Survival. We 581 00:48:12.480 --> 00:48:15.239 don't post on their huge amount, but we do post photos from things that 582 00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:20.440 we talk about in the episodes. You will also find a link to our 583 00:48:20.480 --> 00:48:24.960 discord platform where we have a group for Original Outdoors as a wider community. 584 00:48:25.079 --> 00:48:30.039 There you can meet and talk to people and discuss things, but all with 585 00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:36.079 the anonymity of an early two thousand's forum or bulletin board. It's a nice 586 00:48:36.119 --> 00:48:39.599 retro way of going about things. I'm going to leave you now with our 587 00:48:39.920 --> 00:48:46.480 three principles of Modern outdoor Survival and they are Number one, make good decisions 588 00:48:46.519 --> 00:48:53.079 at the right times. Number two, prioritize training over shiny new equipment. 589 00:48:53.760 --> 00:49:00.800 Number three remember Instagram is not your training provider. Five