
The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold - evo_9
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200226-how-to-survive-in-the-extreme-cold
======
LeifCarrotson
> _A man in the cold is not necessarily a cold man,” says Tipton. “If you keep
> moving and you are reasonably insulated you will produce enough heat to stay
> warm. At maximum exercise, it is like you are running a 2kW fire. When you
> exercise reasonably hard you can do that in shorts and t-shirt in the
> cold..._

I think about this a lot as a runner in the Midwest US. I regularly go out in
20-30F weather in wool socks, running shorts, a long-sleeve shell, and a hat
and gloves. I add running tights and a bit of vaseline on my cheekbones and
nose if it's under 20. This last weekend it was 45 and blissfully sunny; it
felt like spring, I left my hat and gloves at home and did my first shirtless
workout of the season.

The article reminds me of the quote from Jack London's "To Build a Fire" (full
text at [1]):

> _His idea of running until he arrived at the camp and the boys presented one
> problem: he lacked the endurance._

Guðlaugur did have the endurance! Good on him.

It does make me think, however, what would happen if I were to sprain an ankle
or break a leg and be unable to run to generate heat. If I could only hobble,
would I be able to, say, sit down to do sit-ups and push-ups until I could
warm up and resume hobbling? Fortunately, I'm not far from from shore on a
dark sea, my routes never take me further than about two miles from
civilization.

[1]:
[https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/to...](https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/to-
build-a-fire.pdf)

~~~
js2
Fellow runner here. For God's sake man, carry an emergency blanket with you at
least.

[https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-
Blanket/s?k=Emergency+Blank...](https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-
Blanket/s?k=Emergency+Blanket)

~~~
rmcpherson
The article mentions that plastic bags work better than emergency "space"
blankets since they block moisture and thus evaporative cooling. A large
industrial trash bag is part of my emergency supplies on cold backpacking
trips. It's cheap, weighs almost nothing, and provides protection from both
radiative and convective cooling.

~~~
jniedrauer
Related: I used ziploc bags as vapor barriers nested between two pairs of
socks while on a multi-month winter hiking trip in trail shoes. It was
extremely effective. I could posthole in deep snow all day in my running shoes
and not get frostbite.

~~~
klondike_klive
How did you avoid damp-related problems like fungal overgrowth?

~~~
jniedrauer
It didn't end up being a problem. I washed my feet when I could, used thick
wool socks, let my feet air out at camp, and that was enough.

------
gumby
As it happens I'm leaving for a camping trip in the snow tomorrow morning.
It's the sierras (relatively warm) and I'm leading a bunch of inexperienced
scouts (so not a particularly grueling trip) but still with opportunities for
danger. I was surprised how many of these SV kids signed up and were then
pulled by their parents -- 50%! Only a few years ago these trips were
immediately oversubscribed, with nobody getting pulled even when it turned out
to be blizzard conditions. The kids, at least, are enthusiastic.

Winter conditions in the continental US are, by comparison with the Icelandic
conditions in this article, rather clement. The worst I've been in here has
been -15 F (-26 C) though that was before the wind...oh the wind! But I have
friends who camp out and work in northern Canada, Alaska, and Antarctica.
_They_ have to deal with real cold! Me, I go out for a week with my dog and a
friend and then presto I'm back in toasty civilization. Not really rugged at
all. But it is why I drive a dinosaur-burner.

~~~
pjc50
Scout trips have been known to go wrong. This discussion brought to mind this
very old incident: [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-
bec...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-became-nazi-
propaganda-coup)

~~~
hobbyjogger
That's tragic--but let's keep it in context. It happened before WWII. Some of
these young boys were wearing shorts and sandals (without hats) in a blizzard,
climbing up a mountain slope with a 70% gradient (black diamond ski slopes
start at 40%), without any sort of topological or detailed map, no lights, no
ability to communicate with the outside world and one adult to supervise 27
students. I can't imagine any of those things are true for Gumby's trip.

------
gumby
> Unable to move far in the deep snow, his plan was to stay put, which under
> the circumstances was not a bad one.

It is almost _always_ the correct decision, no matter what the situation. At
his home he had access to all sorts of materials, and was clearly visible from
the air.

And a shelter in the snow is pretty warm -- regardless of how cold it is
outside it will pretty much stay at 0 C. The problem is that you can't be seen
from the air (or by someone walking by!) when you're in the shelter and little
sound will likely get through either. So you need to make a useful marker,
which is slightly touched on in this article.

I have taught numerous people to make these emergency shelters out of material
at hand (I'm a wilderness and snow survival instructor) and have been told
that it has saved at least one life.

~~~
Agenttin
What do you think of the V instead of SOS? Is it better? Should someone do
both?

~~~
thedrbrian
Should be pretty good as it’s one of the distress signals that pilots are
taught to look for.

~~~
xenonite
> “The SOS signal is what most people know, but the downside is it is very
> curvy,” says Krebs. “Most of nature is curvy – it is rounded hills and lakes
> and streams, so curvy blends in.”

> In the military Krebs was taught to use the letter “V” to request general
> help or an “X” specifically for medical assistance. The long straight lines
> stand out on a hillside. It also takes less time to create two straight
> lines 30 feet long compared to two loopy Ss and one O, each 10 feet high.

------
stared
There is a lot of interesting information. However, is it only me, or the
style of writing is chaotic (almost as if every paragraph was shuffled)?

~~~
munificent
This is the current fad in magazine-style journalism. You essentially take two
narratives:

* A personal anecdotal account to provide human interest and color.

* A relatively dry scientific narrative that explains the larger context.

And then you weave the two together. The human interest side keeps readers
engaged enough to wade through the otherwise tedious sciency part. The sciency
part makes readers feel they are learning something more practical than just
one person's story. The jumps between the two narratives can be done well but
often it's pretty arbitrary.

~~~
stared
I have an affinity towards the second one. I cannot bear ones, which start as
novels... and you need to go through a few sections to understand what it is
about, if it is a true or fake story, etc.

In this case, the problem is not with the balance between facts and narration
(for my taste, it is fine) but with stories being shattered. I read a
paragraph and need to guess if it is a new story, if it relates to the
previous one, did it happen before or after, etc.

BTW: I did enjoy Memento the movie. But in this one the order was designed
carefully.

------
jiggawatts
Has nobody here done snow sports?

Just a few weeks ago I was snowboarding in deep powder snow with temperatures
down to -20 C and I was _overheating_ to the point of being seriously worried
about heat stroke. I had just a ski jacket and a thin under-layer.

A few days before that I was "freezing to death" while standing still in a
queue outside. It was +3 C and I had three layers on!

The level of exercise makes all the difference...

~~~
sgt
Or how about feeling like you're freezing to death in an office if the AC is
set to 19C. Been there, and it gets cold real fast because you're not moving.

------
JSeymourATL
Surprisingly, no mention of Wim Hoff - The Ice Man >
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XKcsm3dKs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XKcsm3dKs)

~~~
allovernow
All the videos I've seen about Wim are incredibly frustrating - none of them
are remotely technical and none of them go into any kind of depth as to how to
actually practice the method - just a bunch of montages of Wim doing Wim stuff
and talking about his magic breathing.

Granted, I haven't searched in a few years now, perhaps things have
changed....

I want to believe but I don't have enough information to try anything and I
don't want to pay for his retreat to find out.

~~~
leto_ii
> none of them go into any kind of depth as to how to actually practice the
> method

Wim is selling his technique ([https://www.wimhofmethod.com/experience-wim-
hof](https://www.wimhofmethod.com/experience-wim-hof)), so that's probably why
he doesn't go into much detail. Turns out even the transcendence of human
boundaries has a well specified monetary value ;))

~~~
superpermutat0r
This is not true, the breathing technique is pretty simple.

You just breathe very deep and just relax and breathe out (not fully, just as
much as comfortable). You breathe with a rhythm, faster or slower, anyway you
like.

After breathing for a while you'll feel tingles or warm/cold sensations all
over and then you breathe out and hold. After about 90-180 seconds (some
people do more) you inhale, hold the breath for 15 seconds and start breathing
normally.

You can immediatelly start another round of breathing.

That's it.

~~~
allovernow
I dunno...I was doubtful at first but I had a thought that perhaps what the
doctor said about raising adrenaline while lowering cortisol has something to
do with activation of the vagus nerve.

Breathing techniques are of course used in various relaxation techniques, this
could be an extremely refined version. Perhaps each person has a particularly
optimum frequency of breath that must be discovered.

I've noticed that if I hold my breath and flex my core muscles to send blood
pressure to my head, while relaxing my upper body, if I breath out after
holding that for a few seconds I get a euphoric light headedness on exhaling.
But I feel like I'm going to pass out and it's terrifying every time.

Maybe I should try it while jumping into an ice cold lake.

~~~
superpermutat0r
The breathing technique is a no BS technique. You just need to get the air in.
You have to keep inhaling until you start feeling the effects of raised blood
ph levels (dizziness, passing out, tingles etc.). You can breathe through nose
or mouth, you can take as many breaths as you want, they have to be deep
inhale, not that much of an exhale and that is it.

Optimum frequency is mostly just finding the breath rhythm that will get you
to the state you need. You can experiment and try to go further and see what
happens (worst case you pass out or start having some seizures).

I also experience a euphoric light headedness after one round. Sometimes I
need to do a second round to experience it.

------
hourislate
Here is the story about Guðlaugur Friðþórsson. It was an incredible feat of
will and strength.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0laugur_Fri%C3%B0%C3%BE...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0laugur_Fri%C3%B0%C3%BE%C3%B3rsson)

I remember watching a program where they interviewed him afterwards and from
what I remember he had lost an incredible/insane amount of weight during the
ordeal.

~~~
exhilaration
A well-reviewed movie based on him is available for rent on Amazon:
[https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Olafur-Darri-
Olafsson/dp/B00CWVE...](https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Olafur-Darri-
Olafsson/dp/B00CWVEIY4/ref=sr_1_5)

------
noir_lord
I do wonder how much of this is genetic.

My ancestry is Celtic (Scottish on one side, Irish the other) and I have a
high resistance to cold, until I lived with my partner I’d have the the
windows ajar even in winter and rarely put the heating on, I’m rarely cold
even when cycling long distances on days with the temperature around zero and
I wear t-shirts year around, I find jumpers and shirts stifling in any normal
temperature room.

I joke that my ancestors evolved for cold drizzle.

~~~
teddyh
You’re one of _them_!

“They're almost like normal humans, except they have _no knowledge of what it
means to be cold._ ”

— [http://absurdnotions.org/F1992.html](http://absurdnotions.org/F1992.html)

Of course, there are those _other_ people as well…

[http://absurdnotions.org/an20020702.gif](http://absurdnotions.org/an20020702.gif)

~~~
tempestn
Direct link to the first comic referenced:
[http://absurdnotions.org/anc70.gif](http://absurdnotions.org/anc70.gif)

> Comic strip characters have a tendency to wear the same clothes all the
> time, for the ease of both artist habit and reader recognition. But with
> Jay, there's a reason. He's one of them. You personally know at least one.
> They're almost like normal humans, except they have no knowledge of what it
> means to be cold. Jay doesn't even own a coat.

------
hermitcrab
You can acclimitize to the cold, up to a point.

I occasionally swim in lakes and don't like to swim below 15C, even with a
wetsuit. But some people who swim all year round can handle much colder.

I remember having a BBQ with some British and Brazilians guests here in the
UK. The British people were wearing t-shirts and shorts and saying how lovely
it was. The Brazilians (who came from the very hot North of Brazil and were
only visiting the UK briefly) were wearing jackets and shivering.

~~~
steve_adams_86
I was thinking of this, too. I swim in the water here down to 6 or 7°C in a
7mm wetsuit. It's cold, but it's very bearable and I enjoy it comfortably for
the first 45 minutes or so. If I'm diving a lot (I'm usually spearfishing down
to 20m or so) I'll often extend that quite a while due to generated heat. I'm
not sure what it is, but the exertion of diving combined with breath-holding
turns my body into a furnace.

When I first started doing this, I found the water in summer (around 6°C
warmer) incredibly cold. I'd shiver if I was snorkelling for a while because
my activity was too low. I struggled with that because being so cold would
ruin breath-holds. Now I kind of prefer winter dives, because in summer I get
unbearably hot. I constantly need to let water into my suit, and I can swim
without it for around 1.5 hours.

That adjustment only took a year or so. People are awesome at adapting to
environments in that way.

------
mrkstu
The Gauls would fight naked in the snow against their enemies [0].

"This practice was common to the Gauls Aul Cellius Lib ix cap 13 quotes the
account of the Gaul who fought with Manlius whom he describes as _nudus
practer soutum et gladi 's duos torque atque armillis decoratus;_ and Plutarch
in Mario tells us the Cimbri went naked among the snow of the Alps to shew
their enemies how much they defied the cold."

[0]
[https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl2jgA9j5UkC&pg=PA800&lpg=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl2jgA9j5UkC&pg=PA800&lpg=PA800&dq=gauls+fighting+naked+%22snow%22&source=bl&ots=-2OdoUM9O_&sig=ACfU3U0bNH8cixCFPy54DPyGlvqhayVAag&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjP0aeovYToAhXimq0KHTH_DFkQ6AEwB3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=gauls%20fighting%20naked%20%22snow%22&f=false)

------
jniedrauer
I hiked the Appalachian trail during the winter with a very low bodyfat
percentage. I learned to adjust layers constantly. Even in temperatures down
near 0*F, you can become drenched in sweat while climbing a mountain. But once
you stop moving (especially if you don't stay dry), you've got less than 5
minutes before you start to shiver uncontrollably, and complex tasks like
pitching a tent start to become difficult. The most challenging part was
moisture management, because gear never dries when it's below freezing and
you're not wearing it.

------
dirtyid
How much of this is just self-selection bias. Some body's are simply more
adapted to the cold. I know people with passive metabolism of furnaces, my
smart heater doesn't run as often when the my significant other sleeps over.
I've seen steam vaporing off some folks who aren't even working that hard in
cold gyms. Me, I sweat profusely when exerting myself, would definitely be one
of the first to die in a winter military campaign.

~~~
scarejunba
When I read self-reported stories on the Internet about cold resistance, I
remember that ~40% of people are obese. That's a confounding factor. At that
amount of fatness, there's substantial insulation.

------
bacon_waffle
This isn't really an adaptation thing, but on the topic of human bodies and
cold:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Club](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Club)

------
bllguo
I like to think I can stand the cold relatively well, but what always gets me
is my ears. The rest of my body will be fine but my ears start hurting in
minutes, which then translates into quite the headache.

~~~
nightbrawler
I have the same issue with my ears in cold weather. They start to hurt pretty
quick in cold temps, so I try to always either have some small wrap around ear
muffs or a beanie. As long as I keep my ears warm and out of cold wind, I'm
able to stay comfortable.

------
magic_beans
> Gasping and panicking, they inhaled water. Friðþórsson, by contrast, managed
> to control his breathing. He later described remaining clear-headed
> throughout his swim.

I wish the article had gone into Friðþórsson's breathing a bit more. It seems
like this and/or his body fat are what kept him alive.

~~~
buserror
You get used to that cold shock, I take a cold shower every day for many many
years, and quite frankly I don't feel a "cold shock" anymore, even in winter.
It's really just requires a bit of training to get less sensitive to cold; on
the other hand I also have a tendency to get warm a lot quicker, which can be
a bit annoying sometimes. I keep my house at 18C and no warmer, when many
people I know want 21C or sometime more...

~~~
marinhero
What's the idea behind getting cold showers? why is it beneficial?

~~~
buserror
Well, nothing scientific than I'm aware of, strictly speaking, but I love the
effect.

Right after the shower, you'll get super warm, even in winter. You're system
just gets going to equalise your temperature.

Also, you'll be _woken up_ no dithering about in a stupor until your coffee
kicks in, it definitely gives you a kick in the backside to get going, so even
just for that, it's worth it in my opinion.

And, I _never_ get cold. I can work outside in a t-shirt in winter (UK winter)
without feeling any cold.

------
cosmodisk
I lived in Stockholm at the time.We had a night out in central part and
eventually I ended up on a train(underground,if I remember correctly, but not
even the right one).Fell asleep.Woke up when train was approaching the last
stop.They would usually ask everyone to get off and then after 5-10 minutes
the train goes back. It was a very Swedish winter with at least -15C if not
more.So here I am, standing with my 'not so winter' jacket and nike shoes.
It's open type platform,so no walls.I stare at the information screen that
shows 8,6,5,4,3,2,... eventually 1 minute left...And goes again to
9,8,7,etc..The train isn't going anywhere for some reason and I'm stuck in the
outskirts of Stockholm.No bar or any other place is open. Eventually I ended
up spending about 6 hours waiting for the service to continue,while constantly
walking around the station.I haven't swore so much in my entire life.At about
8am, the service was up and running again and I could get on a train back to
my place.Turns out, there was so much snow on tracks that they couldn't
continue until it was cleared.

------
oblib
When I was 14 years old I moved from northern Illinois to Hollywood CA and
when I told kids there that on a sunny 40º winter day in Illinois we didn't
wear coats because it was "warm out" for us.

They thought for sure I was bullshitting them. To be fair, after living in So.
Cal for a few years when it fell to 70º on summer evenings I would get the
shivers if I was only wearing a T-shirt.

~~~
dpbriggs
Same effect here. After months of -20c, 0c feels like summer.

Spent a few months in the bay area for an internship and was shivering and
adding layers at 15c.

------
blaze33
Nice article. Having some years of experience in outdoor activities (first
sailing, then many solo week-long hikes in the mountains, mostly french Alps
but also once in a caribbean tropical rainforest) I got to learn some vital
lessons and guess I could share some of it.

Obviously everyone has its own level of resilience in the face of harsh
conditions but once you're in, you have to deal with what you have. >
“Clothing or equipment is the first line of defense, shelter is second and
third is fire,” Preparation is key, for hiking I try to minimize my backpack
weight while keeping gear for all kind of weather. During one summer hike with
nice weather forecast for the week, I indeed had hot and sunny days but also
rain, wind, cold temperatures and even a sudden snowstorm.

\- Staying dry really matters, once wet you get cold much faster. \- Sleep
really matters. If you can't find a reasonable place or shelter to rest after
an exhausting day, your ability to carry on the next day sharply decreases.
Learned that on my caribbean trip where I got stuck above a waterfall one
evening, was raining, got wet, cold, no place to lie down and rest and had to
admit I wouldn't have the strength to climb back the next day. \- When stuck
or in a tough spot, remember that under stress you might not think as straight
as you could. Do an inventory of your equipment. My first sleepless night in
the rain I used my emergency blanket: such a mild protection, took me a day to
realize a had a bigger tarp that proved much more useful as a protection
against the elements. \- A bright colored jacket helps rescue teams to locate
you. (like a red / orange one) \- Have a map of the terrain, learn to orient /
situate yourself. Being lost is not the same as facing a difficult position,
better not combine those issues ;) \- Better have some way of communication
and people aware of your whereabouts. \- When cold, cover your head, you lose
up to half your heat there. Extremities (hands, feet) get cold first,
waterproof gloves and shoes can really help.

------
adrianmonk
Probably time again to post this old article that makes me _feel_ cold (and a
bit terrified) every time I read it:

[https://www.outsideonline.com/2152131/freezing-
death](https://www.outsideonline.com/2152131/freezing-death)

------
ggm
_" Another paper found that people brought very close to the point of
hypothermia (their core body temperature was lowered to 35.5C) suffered no
decline in cognitive function at all."_

Never give up. Equally, you may be aware, of what is happening, right up until
the end.

------
usrusr
What's remarkable is how easily the human body will fail when exposed to cold,
compared to many other animals.

Ducks for example will sleep on open ice as if it was nothing, then idly
waddle over to a hole in the ice to sleep some more swimming on the freezing
water, occasionally engaging in a bit of food gathering or social interaction.

But if a human survives those conditions with inadequate or compromised tools
for more than a few hours we write long form about their feat! It almost seems
as if to a human body deprived of tools (clothing, shelter, fire), a freezing
cold environment comes surprisingly close to outer space in terms of
deadlyness, hours of survival instead of seconds.

~~~
Retric
Cold kills a huge range of cold blooded or tropical animals. Humans fall into
the second category, being well adapted to dissipate heat.

------
forkexec
It is possible to generate enough heat to prevent frostbite in mild freezing
conditions for some hours using a Tibetan thermoregulation technique. They
practice this technique in nearly freezing conditions and are required to dry
3 wet soaked towels. It requires much training, patience, and practice to
develop this skill. Furthermore, there is a technique to raise the temperature
of the extremities as well.

[https://www.buzzworthy.com/monks-raise-body-
temperature/](https://www.buzzworthy.com/monks-raise-body-temperature/)

Deliberate shivering of more muscle groups is another idea but unlikely to
raise extremity temperatures.

------
Fr0styMatt88
Anyone know the rationale of people that make a room freezing with air-
conditioning and then wear a jumper in that room to warm up? I know a few
people like this and I’ve always been curious if it’s almost like some kind of
glitch in their body temperature regulation, like it might be easier for them
to regulate their body warmer or colder but not the other way around or
something.

------
overcast
Has anyone watched The 12th Man? True story about some insane cold resistance
in Norway during WW2. Watch it with subtitles!

------
mynegation
When traveling Tierra del Fuego (Southern tip of South America) I learned
about Yaghan people [1] that survived pretty cold winters not wearing much of
an essence.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuegians](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuegians)

~~~
anthk
>Tierra del Fuego

The irony was good on these people.

~~~
marcosdumay
The name is because of volcanic activity.

~~~
sriacha
Not much volcanic activity in Tierra del Fuego. AFAIK it was named after the
many fires of the natives.

------
clktmr
Another interesting read about effects of hypothermia is the Dyatlov pass
incident:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident)

------
mbroshi
I wonder why the body needs to move to stay warm. Seems like a waste of
energy. If I were to "design" the body, I'd make automatic heat generation one
of my MVP features.

------
esotericsean
That’s insane to me. Growing up in sunny California, I’ve never experienced
anything below 40°F. And 68° is freezing cold to me. Maybe I’m just unhealthy.

------
every
I'm on the other side of the ledger. It's 40C (104F) and I barely blink. Part
of living in Texas I suppose...

