Re: Perils of Winter

One major problem with hypothermia is that it can sneak up on you. Obviously if you fall through the ice crossing a lake or something, you're going to be wet and cold, but for most people the cold creeps in, it's a gradual process. The down side is that, if you don't recognize the onset you can deteriorate really fast and get to the point where there's no way you can warm yourself. You start to lose fine motor control, you can't get your lighter to work, you can't start your stove or build a fire,your arms and legs go numb as your body tries to keep your vital organs warm, your thinking goes south. Eventually the shivering stops and typically you go to sleep. You might even imagine a feeling of warmth coming over you (which would explain why, in some cases, people are found, quite dead and frozen, with their clothing removed and folded next to them, in their last moments their mind tried to make sense of something, tried to impart order upon a situation it could not comprehend. This phenomena has been seen on numerous high mountains). If you're by yourself or if others in your party are in a similar state and no one else comes about to help you, I assure you, there's little chance that you'll wake up.
Call it exposure, call it hypothermia, ignore drunks and old people if you like, but it's a very serious topic which is foolish, at best, to ignore.
And, as stated before, it doesn't take much. You've got about an 8.6F degree differential between normal body temp (98.6F) and a point where, for all intent and purpose, you can no longer rescue yourself (90F).