98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive Read online

  2. Feet sweat a lot, up to a half a cup per day, thereby soaking a sock’s insulation.

  3. Most shoes and boots act as a vapor barrier that prevents sweat-soaked socks from drying.

  4. Poorly fitting footwear, lacing boots too tightly, or trying to stuff a foot with two pairs of socks into a summer shoe or boot makes for a tight fit and impedes circulation. Foot circulation will already be compromised due to peripheral constriction of the blood vessels from outside cold temperatures.

  5. The insulation the sock provides is compressed by footwear, and the fact that it’s being stood upon.

  6. Feet lose heat by conduction to cooler ground temperatures, and sweaty socks increase the conductive heat loss.

  Donning loose and layered new wool socks allows for excess foot perspiration to freely evaporate while minimally compressing insulation and impeding circulation. Wool socks work best in cold, dry conditions (dry snow actually sucks the moisture from a water-logged sock) but I’ve worn them in slush as well. Experiment in your backyard to see what works for you. In the wilderness, if your ability to walk is compromised due to lost or damaged footwear, you might be headed for disaster. Two extra pairs of wool socks in your pack, kept dry in a freezer bag, might allow you to comfortably walk away from a deadly scene.

  A tried and true

  acronym for winter

  wear!

  C = keep yourself and clothes

  CLEAN

  O = avoid

  OVERHEATING

  L = wear clothes

  LOOSE and in

  LAYERS

  D = keep DRY

  Polyester

  Polyester is by far the most widely used material in outdoor clothing, surpassing even my beloved wool. Polyester pile fabrics are good insulators, can absorb a fair amount of water without feeling cold, and are hydrophobic. The fibers themselves can be woven into many different thicknesses providing both insulation and wind-stopping abilities. They are more compact than wool and come in a wide variety of obnoxious colors perfect for being found. A true hippy success story, nearly 80 percent of polyester outdoor clothing is made from recycled plastic bottles.

  Nylon

  Nylon is pretty tough stuff and is commonly used in the design of environmental layers. Spun tightly enough, it works well at repelling wind and water and can be made waterproof through various coatings available at outdoor stores, albeit at the expense of breathability. Nylon is extremely compact and lightweight and the little water it does absorb evaporates quickly.

  Your environmental layer is critical, as a wind of merely nine miles per hour can reduce the effectiveness of clothing insulation by 30 percent. In addition to the wind chill, mixing wet clothing with the “bellows” effect produced by walking can compromise your clothing’s insulation an unbelievable 85 percent!

  Down

  Down’s compressibility, loft, and weight to warmth ratio are legendary. It is an amazing insulator when it’s dry. Unfortunately, down is hydrophilic and sucks even more than cotton in cold, wet environments, losing virtually all of its insulative properties, and is nearly impossible to dry in the backcountry.

  The art of putting on and taking off layers of clothing to regulate body temperature is amazingly simple, requiring very little practice and few calories and water from the survivor. In short-term survival, clothing’s divine simplicity eliminates the necessity to create a fire. Fire is a task that requires fine and complex motor skills, physical dexterity, prior training, precious time, calories, and water from the survivor, dry tinder and adequate fuel, an ignition source, a safe spot to build, and constant monitoring. In a pinch, it’s possible to improvise insulation from the natural world, depending upon the environment. Leaves, pine needles, dry grass, plant fibers, moss, and other material may be available. Since clothing is your lifeline for thermoregulating core body temperature, resist the temptation to play mountain man or woman, and visit the great outdoors fully equipped with adequate clothing.

  Acclimation

  Now I’d like to add a personal word on clothing, or the lack thereof. Most of the time I don’t wear much clothing. There are reasons for this. First, I live in Arizona. While Arizona is a land of extreme temperature fluctuations, below-zero temperatures are not typical in my direct environment. I can and do, however, experience them an hour away along with the 12,000-foot-plus mountain that creates them. Winter temperatures average from the mid-20s to the low 30s with many mornings starting out in the teens. Stuff freezes, it’s windy, I can see my breath, and it snows. Local summer temperatures can climb in excess of 100°F (38°C). Drive an hour south into the desert and you can experience temperatures in excess of 120°F (49°C).

  I lived in a yurt (a Mongolian tent) in my friend’s backyard for several years. In the winter at night, my two-gallon water container would nearly freeze solid, requiring me to sleep with perishable food products such as fruits and vegetables in order to prevent them from becoming mush the next day. Another time in my life, while living in a brush shelter in the woods, I’d sit cross-legged in front of my thatched door, eating noodles while snow blew in the sides. To this day, after scraping winter ice from the windshield, I drive my Jeep early in the morning without using the heater.

  In the summer, this same black Jeep has no air conditioning. In my yurt, I couldn’t leave candles sitting in candleholders, as the intense heat would cause them to melt and fall over. Many days I would soak my cotton T-shirt with water to keep cool. I’d have to repeat the process every half-hour or so as the intense heat would quickly dry out my shirt. I did-n’ t have chairs but would rather lie on the floor, taking advantage of the cooler air. I did and still do all this barefoot, in shorts and a T-shirt.

  I relay this to illustrate that to a certain point, the human body can acclimate to temperature variation. Slow acclimation through repeated exposure to hot and cold environments results in more active sweating in response to continued heat and an increase in subcutaneous fat deposits in response to cold. Chronic exercise in hot or cold environments also helps with the acclimation process. Exercising in the heat, done with common sense, improves thermoregulation during hot weather in general by causing one to sweat quicker as well as increasing the total amount of sweat produced. In addition, training seems to cause existing sweat glands to get bigger without increasing the total number. Other adaptations include an increase in total blood volume and maximal cardiac output causing the blood flow in muscles and skin, with its heat flux, to be better preserved during strenuous exercise in hot weather. Stories of Tibetan monks sitting in the snow next to an icy mountain stream drying out wet sheets placed over their naked bodies is more common than not. Research involving Australian aborigines has shown that both skin and core temperatures drop (core temps lower to 95°F (35°C)!) when they sleep in the cold desert. Doing so reduces the temperature gradient between their skin and the colder environment, thereby reducing heat loss while conserving energy. I’ve seen several magazine photos of smiling little kids in some faraway country, standing barefoot in the snow and surrounded by a paper-thin blanket. At many of the primitive living skills conferences around the nation, naked babies run through grass thick with morning frost, oblivious to the cold, their buckskin-clothed parents trailing behind. A few generations past, people spent 90 percent of their life outdoors and 10 percent indoors. Today, the exact opposite is true.

  Most of us “modern” folks have robbed ourselves of the experience of acclimation for whatever reason. Instead, we put on extra clothing early in the season and take it off late when the season’s passed. We saunter from climate-controlled shelters to climate-controlled vehicles to climate-controlled work areas to climate-controlled shopping centers, worshiping the almighty god called “room temperature.” The body never has a chance to acclimate to temperature variation because it never needs to. But to each his or her own. There’s nothing wrong with living a climate-controlled life; I’m simply explaining how and why I do what I do. I choose to acclimate as much as
possible to the heat and cold for several reasons. I use myself as a human guinea pig to push the envelope of my own personal limits. There is a big difference between being uncomfortable and being dangerous when it comes to training in temperature extremes. Acclimation is like weight training; you either use it or lose it. Unfortunately, the “losing it” part can happen fast.

  I bathe less frequently when the weather turns cold, as there’s less sweat and smell due to cooler air temperatures. By doing so, I notice a small difference in heat retention due to the increased buildup of natural protective oils secreted by the skin. This “micro coating” of oil, from my experience, makes the skin less susceptible to chilly convective breezes. (Don’t confuse limited showering with “stink.” I can still spot wash the crotch and underarms without prematurely removing this protective layer from the rest of my body.) As an added bonus, my skin doesn’t become dry and flake as much when subjected to the cold, dry air of winter.

  I also routinely wear the same T-shirt for three to five days in a row depending on my activity level. Obviously, the shirt’s limited insulating properties soon plug up with body oil, dirt, or whatever else I’ve been doing. When I do finally change, I immediately notice the renewed insulating qualities of the fiber. The “clean” T-shirt, for me, feels like donning a light jacket. In addition, I tend to save new shirts for the winter as they’re thicker and provide better insulation. Laugh if you will, but it works for me.

  Short- and Long-Term Heat Production Methods

  In its defense against the cold, the body has both short-term and long-term heat production methods. Examples of producing heat in the short-term include eating more food, especially simple sugars and some carbohydrates, muscular activity through shivering or exercise, and nonshivering thermogenesis.

  Foods composed mostly of simple sugars as well as certain carbohydrates jump-start the body’s metabolism by burning very quickly. Examples of this include candy and breads. Longer-lasting energy is squeezed from complex carbohydrates, such as beans, pasta, and oats, while even more sustained calories are extrapolated from proteins and especially fats. Fats have long been the food of choice for survival because of their high energy density, but consider adding more carbohydrates to maintain blood glucose levels because carbohydrates are digested and absorbed much more rapidly than fats. Eating smaller, more frequent meals increases the body’s metabolism, thereby burning more calories for digestion, a process referred to as “diet-induced thermogenesis.” This “Thermal Effect of Food” or “TEF” principle, in a nutshell, creates a higher metabolism, which in turn increases the amount of calories burned. These increased calories produce MORE HEAT for the survivor.

  Human beings produce tremendous amounts of energy while exercising. As the physical activity increases, energy production climbs. Roughly 82 to 90 percent of the energy produced by exercising manifests itself as heat. In fact, muscle produces 100 times more heat at work than when at rest! Only a small portion of the heat produced through exercising is lost from the skin as most of the heat is passed to the body’s core via flow of venous blood returning to the heart.

  Exercising like a crazy person, however, quickly burns up your body’s available glucose supply, forcing it to tear into and consume readily available glycogen reserves. Glucose, found in certain foods and in the normal blood of all animals, is the product of carbohydrate metabolism and is the “magic juice” of life, being the primary source of energy for living organisms. Extra glucose is converted to glycogen and stored in the muscles (350 to 475 grams) and liver (100 grams) for energy when needed and, beyond that, is converted to and stored as fat. Each gram of glycogen contains around four kilocalories of energy and is hydrated with 2.7 grams of water. When glycogen is used for energy by catabolism, this water is freed up to be used by the body. Water produced in this way is referred to as metabolic water and provides roughly 26 to 32 percent of the daily water requirement in a normal, sedentary person. The act of using up all available glucose and glycogen stores is sometimes referred to as “hitting the wall” and leaves you totally exhausted. With the body’s carbohydrate stores vaporized and the threat of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) looming just over the next hill, glucagon levels rise, insulin falls, and the body attempts to maintain blood glucose levels by synthesizing noncarbohydrates in the liver, a process referred to as gluconeogenesis. To prevent this, do what aerobics instructors have known for years—exercise at 60 percent of your maximal oxygen uptake or VO2 max. Doing so will cause your body to dig into its significantly larger fat storage deposits instead of using limited glycogen (carbohydrate) and glucose reserves. This means you can go farther and longer before becoming tired.

  Consuming alcohol, especially in cold environments, is a no-no, as it impairs the ability of the liver to maintain blood-sugar levels, causing them to drop due to the glucose needed to metabolize the alcohol. This puts one at a greater risk for developing hypothermia. Alcohol, famous for allowing one to score high on the stupid meter, also decreases the shivering response, and causes one to feel less discomfort from hot and cold weather while completely trashing good judgment.

  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that repetitive movements of the larger muscle groups, such as those in the butt and legs, can really make a difference in regulating body temperature. Exercising in the cold to the point of sweating is rife with problems, as we have discussed. The Inuit peoples of the Canadian Arctic have an old saying, “If you sweat, you die.” Works for me.

  During nonshivering thermogenesis, hormones are released that increase the metabolic activity in all the body’s tissues. Heat is produced through repetitive cycles of muscle proteins sliding over each other without contracting, through glucose molecules being broken down and put back together again. Mitochondria are your body’s “furnaces” and are responsible for heat production. They are small organelles within the cell that are active in the transfer of energy during metabolism. They help turn fats, proteins, and carbohydrates into energy or ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) and heat. Heat production is limited by the amount of carbohydrates available to the cells’ mitochondria and the amount of oxygen that’s allowed to reach the body’s working muscles.

  Long-term heat production involves three factors, one of which is increased appetite. Pigging out on more food leads to a higher metabolic rate, thus enhanced heat production. The liver, processing nutrients, is responsible for the majority of the increase, with the greatest bang for the buck coming from the assimilation of proteins. Metabolism is measured in watts. On an average, a person’s basal metabolic rate (BMR), the amount of calories burned daily at rest, produces 100 watts. As mentioned previously, exercise produces tremendous heat, and can increase your 100-watt “light bulb” BMR to an astonishing 1,500 watts, a heating capacity on par with an electric space heater!

  Most everyone has experienced the winter joys of eating till you nearly vomit. Thank God that Thanksgiving and Christmas are not in July. When I lived in the woods during the winter, I craved calories like a madman, especially nice gooey fats. Upon returning home in the evenings to my wickiup shelter, I’d grab a jar of peanut butter and gobble down two huge spoonfuls of the precious goo. My body craved extra energy as I was burning massive amounts of calories trying to keep warm with minimal clothing as well as using my bike and hiking as my primary means of transportation. Due mainly to a traditional diet rich in fats and proteins, Eskimos have a BMR that is up to 33 percent higher than European cultures!

  The other two factors of long-term heat production are far more complex and interesting and revolve around acclimating to the cold. One involves raising the amount of mitochondria within the cells themselves. In essence, repeated exposure to cold increases the amount of mitochondria within your cells! It also increases the amount of fat your body burns while conserving carbohydrates, thus enabling you to expend greater amounts of energy before chewing up glucose and glycogen stores. This phenomenon, when coupled with a strict observance of the “60-percent rule�
� stated earlier, allows for very efficient, heat-producing endurance. The more mitochondria you have, the more heat can be produced. Last but not least, repeated exposure to cold increases the action of nonshivering thermogenesis. Both offer no-nonsense scientific proof to the benefits of acclimation.

  A person’s internal “temperature stability” depends on the ratio between his or her capacity for heat production, determined by volume, and his or her potential for heat loss, determined by surface area. I have a larger volume than many people and can limit my surface area by keeping arms at my sides, huddling, or whatever physical pose is necessary at the time.

  The phrase “mind over matter” is a common one. Less common is an understanding about what it means. From my experience, there is something to be said about visualization and affirming what you’d like rather than what you’re experiencing. This is a heavy subject and I don’t want to get too groovy in this book. In any event, blending the physiology and physics behind body temperature regulation with the spiritual wisdom of several thousands of years can pack a potent punch.

  If you wish to experiment with temperature acclimation, please do it in the safety of your own backyard and don’t be stupid about it. This type of training, at least for me, is merely meant to supplement being prepared in the first place. I am able to wear less clothing than most people I know in temperature extremes but always have along extra clothing should conditions require it. I know what works for me because I’ve been consciously practicing with my body for more than fifteen years. Know what works for you and stick to the plan, as I’d hate to walk over your dead body in the spring. Remember: Clothing is your lifeline as it regulates core body temperature. It is your personal shelter and your first line of defense. Forget this and you’ll pay the ultimate price.