Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
not have a partner, check these areas with your fingers to feel for numbness and the
sense that areas of exposed flesh may be freezing.
• If your fingers, feet, or toes are badly frozen, you have a decision to make. Once
frozen, they will perform like lumps of clay, but they will not hurt. If they were not
badly frozen, thawing is best and will minimize the damage, provided you can keep
affected areas from refreezing. The worst thing you can do is thaw them out only to
have them refreeze. Foot travel on thawed feet that had been seriously frozen will be
excruciating, and the damage to your flesh will be worsened with each freeze-thaw
cycle. If you have a long ways to travel on foot to reach safety, best to leave those ex-
tremities frozen, since once thawed, the feet and/or fingers will swell and blister,
making foot travel pretty much impossible as well as excruciatingly painful. Pray
you never have to make a choice like this one.
• When thawing out frozen flesh, or near-frozen fingers and toes, studies show the best
results are from warming and thawing quickly in running or circulated warm water
(not hot. As mentioned above, the optimum is 102˚F-105˚F (39˚C-40.5˚C), though
there will be less pain if the frozen flesh is thawed slowly in cold water before
switching to warm water. At first, the cold water will actually feel hot to your numb
flesh. Once feeling returns to your flesh, you can switch to warm water. If you
choose to skip the cold water soak and go straight to dipping your frozen flesh into
warm or hot water, I know from personal experience that the pain will be excruciat-
ing! If the person is already hypothermic, best to immediately use warm water to
help elevate the core temperature as soon as possible.
• Handle the frostbitten area gently, and do not massage it! Severe swelling and blister-
ing are common. Keep affected areas elevated to reduce swelling, and protect them
from contact with bed clothes via the use of sterile gauze.
To Eat Snow, or Not to Eat Snow, That Is the Question!
A common question that people ask is if it is okay to eat snow when you are thirsty, and with
no potable water to drink. The answer is, “It depends . . .” It takes a considerable amount of
heat to melt ice (in technical terms, this is referred to as “the heat of fusion”). Though not
nearly as much energy is required to melt a gram of ice, as it takes to evaporate a gram of water
(i.e., drying wet clothing with body heat), it requires about 80 times as much energy to melt a
gram of ice as it does to raise the temperature of a gram of water by just 1˚C! So, the question
to ask yourself is, “Does my body need to conserve heat more than it needs to satisfy its
thirst?”
