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6 Winter Survival Health Hazards

Frostbite

When most people think of winter survival frostbite comes to mind. Frostbite is the freezing of a portion of your body often due to inadequate insulation or restrictive clothing that cuts off the circulation of warm blood to an extremity.

Frostbitten flesh usually first appears as a white waxy looking patch on your skin. If not thawed quickly the area of frostbite can quickly grow in both size and seriousness, ultimately leading to extensive tissue damage, loss of limbs, or even your demise.

In extremely cold temperatures and low windchill you must be vigilant in preventing frostbite from occurring. It is far better to prevent frostbite in its early stages than be burdened with the care and treatment of badly frostbitten areas of your body.

Preventing Frostbite

To prevent frostbite you should

Dress properly against the cold and wind.
Stay as dry as possible.
Monitor your body for signs of frostbite on a regular basis.
Have a means to escape the cold including shelter and building a fire.

Wiggle your toes, fingers, and exposed areas of your body that are susceptible to becoming frostbitten so that warm blood flows through them. Frequently check your ears, toes, fingers, face to detect signs of freezing. Areas of your body that become numb, tingling, or hard should be rewarmed immediately by using your warm hand, armpit, or even someone elses.

Should a limb become frostbitten you may have no choice but to prevent its thawing until rescue or self extraction. You may be able to walk on a frozen foot but thawing it could render you unable to get out under your own power.

If you are not already using the 3-layer clothing system I strongly suggest you do. By adding and subtracting layers of clothing you can dial in the optimum comfort zone for the conditions and activity level you find yourself in.

Generally it is best to keep yourself a little on the cool side than to allow your body to overheat and sweat. In the cold temperatures of winter becoming wet, be it from water or sweat, can threaten your survival. Remember the Survival Topics moniker “Cool and Dry Stays Alive”.

Immersion Foot

Immersion foot or trench foot is caused by prolonged damp cold temperatures that are above freezing. Footware made wet by wet conditions or sweating are the main culprit.

In the opening stages of immersion foot the flesh of your feet will appear pale and bloodless. Then cold and numbness will increase as the skin turns red or blue. The affected limb will swell and stiffen to the point where walking is difficult.

If your feet are not properly taken care of and these conditions allowed to persist, immersion foot can become debilitating within just one day. Open sores may develop as the skin literally rots; hence the term “jungle rot”.

Preventing Immersion Foot

To prevent immersion foot:

Keep your feet warm and dry.
Change your socks frequently.
Regularly massage your feet to rewarm them and help restore circulation.

Sunburn

Sunburn is a real danger in cold winter conditions. Sunlight is reflected by snow and ice, which increases the intensity of UV light striking exposed areas of your skin. Higher altitudes also have thinner air, which allows the passage of even more light.

Open snowfields during a sunny day often feel like an oven as light is reflected from all directions, striking every part of your body. Susceptibility to sunburn is especially great around the lips, nostrils, and eyelids and can lead to serious infections during survival situations.

Preventing Sunburn

To prevent sunburn

Cover exposed surfaces of your skin with clothing or shelter.
Apply sun block to any areas that are exposed, giving special consideration to the face, lips, eyelids, and ears.

Snowblindness

Snowblindness is caused by the reflected glare of sunlight from snow, ice, water, and even sand. The intense glare reflected from white snow on sunny days can make it very difficult to see, but even when overcast the amount of reflected light can be magnified so that your eyes are at risk.

Snowblind eyes have actually become sunburned. Symptoms of snowblindness include redness, puffiness around the eyes, burning, watering and sensitivity to light. Your eyes may close up so that you are effectively blind. Becoming snowblind may also lead to painful headaches.

Preventing Snowblindness

Snowblindness is easily avoided by wearing UV sunglasses. Your survival kit should always include a pair as well as sun block for the other exposed areas of your body.
Should you find yourself without UV sunglasses you can easily make a pair of snow goggles as described in the improvised survival gear section of Survival Topics.

To make snow goggles simply cut slits into a rectangular piece of wood, bark, or even cloth. Peering through these slits will greatly reduce the amount of glare that strikes your eyes.

Dehydration

What many people do not realize about winter survival that it is often in severe drought conditions. Nearly all available water is locked up in snow and ice and therefore is not readily available for consumption.

In addition, cold air is often drier than the driest desert, robbing your body of moisture with every breath you take. Because the air feels cold you may not think you need to consume as much water as in hot weather when in reality your water needs may increase.

Dehydration in winter can be insidious; you may not feel thirsty even when your body requires more water. Your energy level will drop and your morale adversely effected. With reduced efficiency you become more susceptible to accident and the effects of cold.

Many tasks such as walking or working in winter conditions require much more effort than in warmer environments. This will further increase your water requirements.

Preventing Dehydration

To ensure you remain hydrated be sure to drink water at regular intervals.

When your urine is clear or very light yellow you are likely to be well hydrated.
In general the darker yellow your urine is the more dehydrated you are.
Plan on drinking a gallon per day per person.
Drink water BEFORE you become thirsty. When you are thirsty it is a sign that you are already dehydrated.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon Monoxide poisoning is an insidious hazard that will bring you down without you realizing anything is wrong.

Whenever you have a burning flame in an enclosed space without outside ventilation you run the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. During the cold of winter you are more susceptible to this because often you are attempting to trap as much warmth as possible within your shelter as you are trying to heat it.

Sources of carbon Monoxide include woodstoves gas heaters, and cooking fires. When a flame burns yellow it is emitting carbon monoxide, while a blue flame is burning hot enough so that it is not. IF THE FLAME IS BURNING YELLOW IT IS EMMITING CARBON MONOXIDE.

Minor symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include a general feeling of tiredness, headache, and nausea. However it is important to note you may not know anything is wrong until you collapse. Unable to move or speak unconsciousness and your eventual demise may occur.

Preventing Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Whenever you have any type of flame in an enclosed space you should

Provide for the ventilation of fresh air.
Try to make the flame burn hot enough so that it is not yellow.

Main Winter Survival Health Hazards

So there you have it, some of the main winter survival health hazards: frostbite, immersion foot, sunburn, snowblindness, dehydration, and carbon monoxide poisoning. If you can prevent these big six threats to winter survival you are well on your way to making it out alive.