#which is why places like Antarctica are still a desert; it's too cold to snow - let alone to rain! but places that get more snow

[bostonbakeddeans]

Hey! I wasn't sure who it might be good to send this to, but I did a video essay talking about Terry Pratchett and I actually got into the discworld series in part bc you kept reblogging stuff about it haha. If you wouldn't mind, I'd really appreciate getting some more visibility to my essay. Thank you!

My post about the video: https://whydidoth.tumblr.com/post/692527594093133824/so-i-promise-i-actually-am-working-on-that

The video: https://youtu.be/fVF89_AXW78

Hooooooly shit y'all, everyone who follows me who likes insightful commentary and deconstruction of media, Discworld, excellent voice acting, or dunking on Christianity and colonialism should go watch this video immediately if not sooner. Top tier jokes, excellent review and deconstruction of Small Gods (one of my personal favorites in the Discworld series), a picture of Michaelangelo's David colored as a Feegle, background kitty noises; *chef's kiss* this video has everything. I have never been prouder to have gotten someone into Discworld, hot damn.

This reminds me very much of Shaun's videos, particularly his video on Terry Pratchett and Hijacking the Dead (Shaun is referenced in the video; the video referenced is his refutation of The Bell Curve, which is also very good). Both have a very even tone, a dry sense of humor (delightful), and a thorough understanding of the works they deconstruct - both their flaws and their strengths. (Also dunks on Audible and encourages the support of libraries, which is based as hell.)

Seriously. This is incredible. Go watch this. It's 38 minutes and worth every second. It's about deserts and Christianity and how what we believe affects reality (and how it doesn't) and satire and colonialism and orientalism and damn. DAMN. Thank you for making this, thank you for sharing it with me, just thank you.

#Discworld #terry pratchett #gnu terry pratchett #small gods #holy shit y'all seriously this is so gooooooood #i am delighted and astounded #this is so so so good #also 👀👀👀 vetvimes fic hello?????? watching this space (op's blog) for that #the video demonstrates a deep understanding of and love for the material (the good and the bad!) which bodes well for fic #vetvimes is a particular love of mine #oh man its just *fist clench* so fucking good #its abt the devotion not to each other but to the city and the ''greater good'' #but also to each other #and the respect and affection and ''dear gods i could throttle you right now'' #its so GOOD and i am *chinhands* abt a potential fic #from the creator of this brilliant video #also ur voice is very soothing i should NOT have listened at 11pm i am so so sleepy now (in the best way) #definitely going to watch again and just absorb everything #(minor pedantic note about the pedantry of ''desert''... it's typically ''precipitation'' not ''rainfall'' #which is why places like Antarctica are still a desert; it's too cold to snow - let alone to rain! but places that get more snow #than they get rain still might not qualify as deserts bc theyre getting enough precipitation to disqualify them from being a desert) #(yes i was an annoying kid in class don't @ me; op pls forgive my pedantry ur video is no less brilliant for it)

[script-a-world]

I want a really cold place, with even the summer temperatures below 0°C at the equator ... but no snow. Not possible? It completely defies the freezing point of water, unless something else interferes with it ... ? Or make water not H2O but something similar but with a lower freezing point?? It's still got to be habitable for humans.

Feral: A lot of this answer depends on what you mean.

When you say “no snow,” do you mean “no precipitation”? Because that is absolutely going to be the case if no temperatures on the planet ever even reach 0 C. When you say “no snow,” do you mean no ice or frozen things? Then I really don’t see how that is going to be possible. If you want humans to live on this planet, then you’ve got to have water. And by water, I am obviously talking about water to drink, but I’m also referring to the water in the human body.

If you don’t want precipitation, which would come in the form of snow, then the climates you are looking at are tundras and polar deserts (or ice cap climates). You’ll notice that these are not particularly fit for human habitation (not least due to hypothermia and frostbite potential). The likeliest would be a tundra, which typically does thaw in the summer (in other words, goes above 0 C (32 F)), unless your humans live in structures similar to the research stations in the Arctic or Antarctica. But even then, you need to consider biodiversity and how people are gonna survive on your world.

And that brings us to my next “what do you mean?” What does “habitable for humans” in this context mean to you? Did humans evolve there? Did they settle there? Are they just living in small research or military bases? How do you expect them to get their food? When you say “humans” do you mean humans or do you mean humanoid aliens?

Ice planets have been proposed to exist, but they are generally considered completely inhospitable to any life at all, let alone human life which requires very specific conditions, like breathable air, water, and food sources. Also, keep in mind that while plenty of humans do live in harsh climates, the optimal temperature range for humans is 4.4-35 C (40-95 F).

In every solar system capable of supporting life, there is a habitable zone (other factors in whether a planet can support life also exist), which is the range of distances from the sun that a planet would have to orbit within to be considered inhabitable, which is generally thought to mean supporting some liquid water at the surface. The habitable zone is 95%-137% the square root of the star’s luminosity,* which is the star’s mass (your star should be between about .6 to 1.4 times the mass of Sol (our sun) for the solar system to be habitable) cubed.

*Please note that this has been super distilled for worldbuilding purposes by Edgar of Artefexian [video]. If you would like more information on the actual equations involved, feel free to check out these resources. Here’s a calculator!  

So if your star is on the upper limit of the habitable mass, which is 1.4 solar masses, then its luminosity is 2.477 the luminosity of Sol, and its habitable zone is between 1.574 times the distance of Sol to Earth and 2.269 times the distance of Sol to Earth, which comes to approximately 236.1 million - 340.35 million kilometers (146.706 million - 211.484 million miles) sun to planet. If you star is on the lower limit of the habitable mass, which is .6 solar masses, then its luminosity is 0.216 the luminosity of Sol, and its habitable zone is between 0.4415 times the distance of Sol to Earth and 0.6367 times the distance of Sol to Earth, which comes to approximately 66.225 million - 95.505 million kilometers (41.150 million - 59.344 million miles) sun to planet.

The planets that I know of that would be candidates for ice planets, do not meet this criteria. OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb orbits a star that is estimated to have a mass of 0.22 Sol’s mass, and MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb orbits a brown dwarf at approximately 0.06 Sol’s mass, so neither of these even qualify as being in a solar system likely to support life. Unlike ice planets, planets like Hoth from Star Wars are likely terrestrial planets covered in snow and ice, but are unlikely to exist in our universe or support life if they did. Earth itself may have once been a Snowball, but that was long before humans existed and likely before multicellular life existed (though it could be the reason multicellular life exists). In general, what we see in very cold planets, are several factors that make human life, or in some cases any life as we understand it, rather impossible: suns that are too small, planets that are too far away, and atmospheres that have low to no oxygen and instead gasses that would be poisonous.

(Keep in mind that the habitability zone is for the evolution of life; it’s certainly possible that a more distant planet could become home for colonists, but consider what could make them choose such an inhospitable place.)

Finally, we’ve answered a few questions before dealing with desert climates, which could be helpful in brainstorming how your people will live without precipitation or liquid water, and single biome worlds.

Water Scarcity

Evolving on a Desert Planet

Single Biome Planets

Synth: Does the rest of the planet also have to be below freezing, or just this one area of it? If it’s the whole planet, well, Feral already touched on several points that you will have to resolve to make the place habitable. If it’s just this one place, I have four words for you: altitude and rain shadow.

High altitude (how far above sea level you are) affects a place in ways similar to high latitude (how far to the north or south on the globe* you are): it gets colder, and eventually you pass the tree line, the point past which trees don’t grow and there’s just small shrubs, scrub-brush, grasses and other low-lying vegetation. Even in tropical regions a mountain that is tall enough can have glaciers at the summit. A rain shadow occurs when winds encounter mountain ranges and are pushed upward by the terrain. The low pressures and temperatures at the higher altitudes basically force the air to dump its moisture as it rises, leaving very little water — sometimes none at all — to fall on the other side of the mountains. There are several deserts on Earth located in the rain shadows of mountains. The Atacama in Chile is especially notable as the driest place on Earth, due to part of it being located between two mountain ranges, blocking any potential rain from two directions and not just one. Stick your equatorial place really high up and between a bunch of mountains, and boom: cold place with little-to-no precipitation, while the rest of the planet can still be whatever. Although if the rest of the planet is much warmer but you still want people to be permanently living in this cold place, there should be a reason why. What is it about this chilly place that makes people want to tough it out instead of moving somewhere more hospitable?

*Only applies if the planet’s rotational axis is oriented vertical-ish. If your planet is rolling around on a near-horizontal axis like Uranus, things will be different.

Lockea: In the study of thermodynamics, there’s a relationship between melting point, pressure, and temperature. Ice becomes water at 0 C because the pressure on Earth is 1 atmosphere (atm) which is also 101.3 kPa. To simplify what can be a very complex calculation, the higher the pressure the lower the melting point. So, the easiest way for a planet to have very cold temperatures but not have ice is to have higher pressure.

According to this source at Engineering Toolbox, at  100 MPa (about 100 times more than Earth’s atmosphere), ice begins to melt at -8.94 C. So as long as your temperature is above -8.94 C then there will be no ice.

Your other thought that water could consist of a different molecular structure than H2O also has merit. On Earth, the reason why regular water freezes at 32 F is because 0 F is the freezing temperature of salt water, and when the Farenheit scale was created, 0 F was chosen as the point at which salt water froze. (100 F was chosen as the average temperature of the human body, by the way, so there IS actually a logic behind the Farenheit scale.) The simple addition of salt to the water lowers its melting point quite significantly.

Ammonia, for example, has a melting point at -77 C at 1 atm, meaning that a sea made of ammonia would be liquid at very low temperatures.

You have several different options for how your planet could exist with water in a liquid state at very low temperatures, but those conditions would be extremely hostile for the presence of life. A planet with this sort of extreme would likely exist outside the Goldilocks Zone. If that is not something that is relevant to your world, then you’re all set! If it is relevant, then you may need to consider additional steps for your characters to survive in such a hostile environment.

#pylons #climate #snow #weather #Anonymous

[ruminativerabbi]

Frost and Snow

Of our great American poets, Robert Frost was the one who was held up to me as a young person on the edge of adolescence as the ideal, as the paragon, as the American poet par excellence. Walt Whitman was deemed too much—and in more or less every way—for adolescents, not to mention pre-adolescents, to digest. (In that, our English teachers were probably more right than even they knew.) William Cullen Bryant and his enormous and magnificent oeuvre was unstudied and unnoticed, his very name left unmentioned other than with reference to the high school in Astoria named after him. The other greats I later came to know and respect—and foremost among them James Russell Lowell and Henry Longfellow—were mostly skipped past as well. But Frost—he was the one we all watched at President Kennedy’s inauguration in 1960 (I was in second grade, but remember this clearly) declaiming “The Gift Outright” from memory when the glare of the bright sunlight made it impossible for him to read the poem he had written especially for the occasion. He, we were told, was to poetry what JFK was to politics: the apotheosis of his profession, the one to whom all others in the game were inevitably to be compared and no less inevitably to be found wanting.

I mention Frost today because a poem of his came right back to me the other day when we experienced the first winter storm of any consequence we’ve had in several years. As the snow fell and only the contours of what lay beneath the blanket of white remained visible, I felt a surge of…of what? Not exactly nostalgia. Melancholy, even less so. But a kind of wistfulness that I hadn’t felt in a while, a sense that the universe was speaking through the storm and reminding me—or rather, all of us—that all the many, many things in the world that appear to divide us—the number of cars we own or the size of our homes, but also less tangible things like the number of diplomas hanging on our walls or the size of our stock portfolios—that all of those things are purely cosmetic in nature, all details that together constitute the outer shell that, at least most of the time, prevents us from looking at our neighbors and friends, and at each other, carefully, respectfully, and thoughtfully. As the snow fell, the world became quiet. At a certain point, the light began to fade. The air all around, chilly already, became even colder. And still the snow fell, covering the earth with a white blanket of peacefulness and serenity. Joan and I put on our winter boots and went for a walk around the neighborhood. We walked for half an hour and didn’t see a living soul. We might as well have been on the moon. Except that the moon is covered in space dust and grey rock, and Reed Drive was covered, at least for a while, with the whitest of snow.

And then Frost came to call. I expected him, of course. (Whitman, at least with respect to myself, is a purely summertime visitor. Bryant, if he comes at all, shows up in the fall. The others, I hardly ever see at all these days.) But when Frost appeared in the cold air to speak into my ear so that I alone would hear, he surprised me. I was expecting, of course, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” which I actually know by heart. “Whose woods these are I think I know / His house is in the village though / He will not see me stopping here / To watch his woods fill up with snow.” That was the expected whisper, the predictable message. You all know the rest—the horse thinks its queer to stop without a farmhouse near, then “gives his harness bells as shake / To ask if there is some mistake.” And then, the real point—or what I expected to be the real point: “The only other sound’s the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake.”  And there Joan and I were watching the snow fall on Reed Drive and the world really was silent except, as Frost knew would be the case, for the soft whoosh of the wind and the imperceptible, non-sound of new snow falling on already fallen snow. So that was the expected message. But poets, or at least great ones, more or less never deliver the expected message.

Do school children still learn those words by heart in sixth grade? Probably not. But why am I even writing about that poem when Frost was in an entirely different mood and whispered into my ear a poem I once also knew by heart, although I only learned it later on in tenth or eleventh grade. “Desert Places” is a great poem, one of Frost’s best. Written in 1933 and published in 1934, then eventually included in his 1936 collection A Further Range,” there was a time when “Desert Places” was known to all Americans, or at least those who had lately been in tenth or eleventh grade. I learned it then, have occasionally returned to it over the years, but was completely unready to hear the great man himself declaiming it—to me alone, apparently—from his spectral perch just overhead in the white sky.

I should have known better: we were in much the same place when he stopped by to watch the snow fall on Long Island as he must have been when he wrote the poem in the first place. “Snow falling and night falling fast, oh fast / In a field I looked into going past, / And the ground almost covered smooth in snow/ But a few weeds and stubble showing last.” That was just where we both were as the white blanket fell on the world silently, obscuring all we have wrought in this place other than the occasional bush or blinking electric Santa. And that man-in-the-moon (or rather, man-alone-on-the-moon) sense of the world falling away that I felt was surely the poet’s as well.

“The woods around it have it—it is theirs. / All animals are smothered in their lairs. / I am too absent-spirited to count; / The loneliness includes me unawares.”

I’ve written so often to you all about that concept of loneliness and the subtle way it differs from aloneness, solitude, and seclusion. And I’ve mentioned repeatedly in these letters my great admiration for Admiral Byrd’s 1938 book, Alone, in which he wrote openly—and, I think, inspiringly and beautifully—about his experiences living entirely on his own for five months in a one-room shack in Antarctica. There is something threatening but also comforting, he wrote, about being that alone And so did the combination of frozen whiteness, solitude, and almost complete quiet remind me, yet again, that loneliness is something to be cherished when it occasionally comes to call and neither feared nor reviled. I have no specific desire to live on my own for months on end in a hut in Antarctica. But I also know that loneliness—as specifically distinct from mere aloneness—is the only reliable context for true spiritual and intellectual growth I think I have ever really known.

And that snow-inspired message was the poet’s to his readers in general…and the other night to me personally as well. “And lonely as it is, that loneliness, / Will be more lonely ere it will be less— / A blanker whiteness of benighted snow / With no expression, nothing to express. // They cannot scare me with their empty spaces / Between stars—where no human race is. / I have it in me so much nearer home / To scare myself with my own desert places.”

That was where I briefly was the other evening: in my own desert space, in my own wilderness, alone (but also with Joan by my side in a street lined with houses filled with people and with Robert Frost’s beneficent ghost hovering somewhere overhead), not scared by the experience but elevated by it, almost approaching some momentary version of sanctification, of ennoblement, of sublime privacy. And all this on a snowy evening before the neighbors began shoveling their driveways or the sidewalks in front of their homes, before we lit our Chanukah candles, before we fried our latkes or gave our granddaughters their last presents. That was all still before us as we walked in the snow, and a pleasure it all was to contemplate. But before we returned home there was this long moment of almost otherworldly aloneness in a street “almost covered smooth in snow” when a familiar ghost came to call, to share a moment, and to remind me that, for all loneliness may well be the context for all real emotional or spiritual growth, I’m also beyond fortunate not to be alone at all in the world except when I wish to be.

#Robert Frost

[kevingbakeruk]

How To Survive Cold Weather Like A Polar Explorer

Polar Training on Lake Winnipeg

Manitoba, Canada

It’s -16 degrees fahrenheit outside, and we’re pitching tents on a thick layer of hardened ice, preparing for a night of extreme cold weather conditions. Welcome to polar expedition training!

Twelve strangers from around the world traveled to Manitoba, Canada to spend a week camping and skiing across Lake Winnipeg, simulating the cold weather conditions of an expedition to the North Pole.

Leading our group is professional polar explorer and arctic guide Eric Larsen. Eric is no stranger to traveling in extreme winter conditions. He’s spent the past 20 years visiting some of the coldest places on earth.

In fact, he’s the only person to have trekked overland to the North Pole, the South Pole, and summited Mount Everest, unsupported, all in a single year!

Eric runs a Level 1 Polar Training Course in Canada to help prepare other adventurers for the unique challenges of camping and trekking in cold weather situations.

This year, Citizen Watches invited me to tag along and document the training, while also sharing some winter camping survival tips with you.

Ready to Tackle the Cold!

Eric Larsen’s Polar Training Class

Cold Weather Survival Tips

Who in their right mind would want to go hiking and camping in the ice and snow? Not many. However winter travel gives hardcore wilderness-lovers the challenge they crave, and a completely different outdoor experience.

Staying safe in these freezing conditions requires a bit more planning, and a unique set of survival skills.

If you do it right, like Eric does, you shouldn’t actually feel cold — the thing preventing most of us from enjoying winter adventures in the first place.

Being prepared for cold weather is the difference between a great trip, and a miserable one.

While I love a good winter hiking trip, I don’t have tons of winter camping expereince. So I was eager to learn how Eric stays warm on his epic long-distance polar adventures in the middle of nowhere.

Trekking Across the Ice

Layering Is Critical

What does layering mean? Basically, regulating your body’s temperature by adding or removing different layers of clothing.

Because while you don’t want to get cold, you also want to prevent getting so hot that you start sweating. Sweat sucks heat away from the body, eventually making you colder.

So staying warm requires a fine balancing act. This is why wearing multiple layers helps, as you can add or remove layers depending on your level of activity.

Eric recommends a 3-4 layer system, starting with a synthetic moisture-wicking base layer to draw sweat away from your body.

Next up is a warm insulating layer, preferably fleece. Now if it’s REALLY cold, you may want to add a 2nd, thicker base layer under the fleece.

Finally, a windproof, waterproof, and breathable shell jacket (like GoreTex) to protect against the outdoor elements.

On his extreme North & South Pole trips, he also brings an oversized expedition down jacket to throw on during breaks, because your body heat quickly drops once you stop moving.

Example of Cold Weather Footwear

Keep Your Feet Warm

If you’re trudging through ice and snow, you need to take care of your feet. The frozen ground will quickly suck heat away from them without proper insulation, risking frostbite on your toes.

It’s wise to wear a proper winter-rated boot. Something that includes a removable insulation layer if possible, which helps you dry them out later.

Don’t pick boots that fit too tight, as you’ll need room for at least 2 layers of socks. And tight fitting boots means less blood-flow to your toes.

Eric recommends wearing thin liner socks, followed by a thicker pair of wool ones. Plus a 2nd set for sleeping in while the others dry out.

In extreme temperatures, you can also wrap plastic bags on your bare feet, wearing socks over them. This “vapor barrier” traps in heat while also preventing your socks from getting soaked with sweat.

Clear Cold Night on Lake Winnipeg

Remember To Hydrate

It’s sometimes easy to forget drinking water is important in the cold, because we’re so used to feeling thirsty in hot weather. But staying well hydrated is an important part of any outdoor winter adventure.

Eric recommends taking a break every hour from your activity (hiking, skiing, etc.) for a drink. Make it a regular routine. Proper hydration maintains good blood flow and other bodily functions — helping you stay warm.

Filling a bottle up with hot water helps prevent it freezing, as does using an insulated container or cover of some kind. Drinking warm water keeps your body warm from the inside.

There are different types of cold too. For example, at the North Pole, the air is wet & humid (feels much colder). But Antarctica is basically a dry desert — so staying hydrated in that environment is more difficult.

Time for Adventure!

Stay On Schedule

In cold winter camping situations, setting up and taking down your campsite takes longer than it does in the summer. It’s important to stay aware of what time it is.

For example, stopping early enough to prepare camp before the sun goes down. Timing regular snack and soup breaks to keep you warm during the day. But not too long — or you’ll quickly get cold standing around.

Using a weather-proof watch like the Promaster Altichron from Citizen, the same watch Eric uses on his expeditions, really makes this easy.

Not only does the watch hold up to the extreme -40 F temperatures found at the North Pole, it’s also powered by the sun, which means you never have to worry about dead batteries.

The Altichron features an integrated compass and altimeter too. Having backups of these adventure tools on your wrist, in something that won’t run out of battery power in cold weather, is handy for peace of mind.

Fur Ruff, Goggles, and a Nose Break

Head & Neck Protection

There are many blood vessels near the skin’s surface on your head and neck. Exposing them to cold weather cools your blood down quickly, which then flows into the rest of your body lowering overall temperature.

Obviously a good winter hat that covers your ears is required. Fur lined hats or jacket hoods with a fur ruff work especially well, which is why they’re common in places like Siberia and Alaska.

Another piece of gear Eric recommended is a simple balaclava ski mask that only exposes part of the face.

Stretching a buff over everything holds your head warmth system together, in addition to providing yet another layer of protection. Remember, layers!

If it’s going to be windy, winter goggles and a face mask or homemade “nose break” will protect the last of your exposed skin while still allowing you to breathe freely.

Camping in the Snow

Winter Shelter Systems

You wouldn’t think the thin nylon walls of a tent would protect you much outside in the winter, but it can. In fact, even a shelter made of snow can keep you alive!

When choosing a shelter for survival in cold temperatures, pick a 4 seasons rated tent. A tent that’s specifically made for camping in the Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.

Four season tents have less mesh netting than 3 season tents, meaning they hold heat in better. Winter tents also come with larger vestibule areas where you can keep snow-covered boots and outerwear, outside.

Tramp down the snow to create a firm & level base for setting up your tent. Place the tent door perpendicular to the wind. Pile snow onto the bottom outside edges as an additional wind barrier.

Snow is a great insulator! So if you ever find yourself stuck in the wilderness without a tent, building an emergency snow-cave shelter may help you survive the night.

Re-Fueling With a Hot Meal

Fuel Your Body

On Eric’s two month long ski expeditions to the Earth’s poles, the weight of his sled full of supplies can top 300 pounds. So maximizing food calories while also minimizing weight is essential.

To be as efficient as possible, he prefers to remove meals from their original fancy packaging, using thin plastic bags instead. He also packs each day’s meals together for easy & quick access.

Choose foods that can be eaten cold or require very little prep time. Granola. Salami. Cheese. Trail mix.

Eating food is like putting fuel on a fire. Your metabolism kicks into action to digest it, heating up your core body temperature and radiating outwards through the bloodstream.

Instant soup is also a regular staple of Eric’s arctic diet. He prepares it in the morning, storing in an insulated flask for later. Eating hot soup is wonderful for emotional support, hydration, and warmth.

My Polar Training Tent Crew

Sleeping In The Cold

You are not going to have a great time on your cold weather adventure if you can’t recharge with a good night’s sleep! That’s why it’s so important to pack a warm & comfortable sleep system.

You lose way more heat from the ground through conduction than you do from the air. So during our training we used two sleeping pads — at least one made of closed-cell foam, the other can be an insulated inflatable type.

To stay warm in -16 degree F temperatures, I used a 0F/-18C down sleeping bag that cinched up close to my face keeping the heat inside, as well as a 20F bag over that. This way if any frost builds up inside the tent, it doesn’t penetrate into your main bag.

Before going to bed, we also filled a Nalgene bottle with boiling water and placed it inside our sleeping bags. This makeshift hot-water bottle will radiate heat for about 5 hours of bliss.

Winter Stove Training

Frostbite & Hypothermia

The dangers of cold weather travel are real, and include frostbite and hypothermia. So I wanted talk a bit about how to identify and treat these conditions.

Frostbite is when yo­ur skin falls below the freezing point, causing ice crystals to form in your cells, killing them. Your skin will change color to red, then white, and if it’s really bad, black.

It’s very important to warm your skin gradually. Sticking your fingers or toes into hot water can make it worse! Instead, try your armpits. Or soaking in luke-warm water.

Hypothermia is when your body loses more heat than it produces, and your core body temperature drops. Symptoms include slurred speech, loss of coordination, uncontrollable shivering, and mental confusion.

To treat hypothermia, it’s important to remove wet clothing and put on dry stuff, get into a sleeping bag, break out the emergency space blanket, start a fire, etc. Warm up as soon as possible.

Eric believes in the importance of being “selfish” during cold-weather adventures. In order for the whole team to function, each member needs to pay attention to their own health & comfort.

So if you’re feeling a bit cold, it’s ok to stop the group and put on another layer — before it turns into more serious problems that will affect everyone later (like caring for frostbite or hypothermia).

Skiing Over the Ice

Emergency Cold Weather Gear

Maybe you aren’t planning a trek to the North Pole. Or even spending one night winter camping. But on regular winter day hikes or car trips, you should still have some basic cold weather emergency gear with you:

Fire-starting kit with waterproof matches & lighter

3/4 piece of closed-cell foam pad insulation

Emergency bivy bag and space blanket

Spare hat & gloves

Extra fleece mid-layer

Chemical hand-warmers/heat packs

Your chances of surviving the night outside in the cold without these essentials drops significantly, so it’s wise to pack them with you just in case.

Maybe you get injured. Maybe the weather changes. Maybe you get lost. Maybe your car breaks down.

No one ever plans on getting into trouble. It just happens!

North Pole: The Last Degree

Trekking around Manitoba’s frozen Lake Winnipeg and learning polar expedition skills from Eric stoked my enthusiasm for future cold-weather adventures. His advice has really helped me become better prepared.

Many of my fellow students are planning expeditions of their own to the North Pole, South Pole, or crossing Greenland’s ice cap! Hanging out with them was pretty inspiring.

Right now Eric is leading his next Arctic expedition, a North Pole Last Degree trip.

This means participants fly up to the 89th parallel and then proceed to ski the last 60 nautical miles to the Geographic North Pole. It takes about 12 days.

You can follow along on his latest polar journeys through his blog and Instagram feed. ★

Bonus Video! Interview With Eric Larsen

Pin This!

Any questions about Eric’s winter survival tips? Do you have any other suggestions? Drop me a message in the comments below!

This is a post from The Expert Vagabond adventure blog.

from Tips For Traveling https://expertvagabond.com/winter-survival-tips/