First, a quote about the weather:
“This isn’t the monsoon”
“How do you know it isn’t?”
“How do you know it is?”
With this brilliant display of empirical proof our scientific probing into the secrets of the local meteorology came to a halt.
Nicholas Clinch,
A Walk in the Sky page 164
Physiologist Griffith Pugh studied cyclists, mountaineers, skiers, soldiers, himself (in a tub of ice), swimmers (with a rectal thermometer probe), and hill-walkers in Britain. The latter after there were ongoing deaths in young people on organized lengthy hikes. Back in the 1940s-1960s when he did these studies, yes, clothing was suboptimal. Notably, a cold wet windy 40 F can kill you just as well as what we perceive as worse weather. Actually, more people die in such moderate temps because there are more sheer numbers of potential victims and also less prepared subjects, including rookies and those those who willfully ignore the risks.
Several generalities of his observations:
(A) Young bucks get tired, slow down, and cannot generate enough heat at some point. There ARE conditions where you die, Rogue just hasn't found it yet. (Personally, I learned the hard way that rain and slush in a Sierra August about knocked two of three of us out because we put on rain tops but not bottoms. All that splash wicked up a lot higher than you can imagine. Poor choice - we thought the storm would pass. After 3 hrs it had not, we could not keep up the pace so slowed down, cooled down, and had to stop, strip, and start an "illegal" fire. I was colder there than in subzero, dry, and properly attired.)
(B) Thrashing about in the cold, or in cold water, is actually less beneficial than you would think. Lying still in fetal position with wet clothes on land or in the water is often life-saving, especially for the latter.
(C)Sometimes naked wet skin is safer than wet clothes. Depend on circumstances like wind, shelter.
For more on Pugh and outdoor physiology, see his 2013 biography. It won the prestigious Boardman-Tasker Book Prize. - this is the US version, there is a slightly longer UK version.
Amazon listing Disclaimer: I wrote a book review of it to be published in Wilderness and Environmental Medicine next issue.
