Winter Survival Advice

I live in Ct, and while it doesn't seem to likely that I will need a lot of winter survival information I strongly beleive that it never hurts to have some. Should the power go out we will be fine, as one of our primary methods of heating the house is a wood burning stove. That said, I was wondering, does anyone have any winter survival advice?

Keeping the heat on your skin is just as,if not,as important as creating heat from an outside source,have lots of small layers of clothing(thermal gear is great btw!).And try to stock up on flammable things that create fire easily as firewood could be damp....thats about it apart from building some igloo outposts haha!

reply to post by JDBlack


dress in layers.
don't forget about water (melting snow is harder than you think)
don't go traveling if you can stay at home
keep chains for your 4x4 (you did buy a 4x4 right?)
cedar will get any fire going
cover your body when you go outside if it's snowing hard. goggles, face mask, all skin covered
if you're bugging in at home don't forget to clear the door fronts every few hours
be prepared if your roof is old, to remove the snow from it
if the heat goes out, and the wood/coal runs out, a cellar will keep you warm enough to survive

That's about all I got.

"98.6 (core temp) maintain it".
(cody lundin)
shelter
food calories
backup heat/ readily available food (pantry)
avoid unnecessary travel..
stay dry; especially your inner most layer

Outside and exposed : " you sweat; you die" (experienced canadian survivalist Les stroud)

heat leaves your body 5 ways:
conduction ( touching cold metal or rock; sitting on a frozen log with no insulation.)
convection ( air currents)
radiation ( exposure to a clear black winter night sky)
respiration (hot moist breath)
Evaporation( sweat)

Buya copy of Cody Lundin excellant : 98.6 ("keeping your azz alive")
to learn the basics of human survival physiology...

1. produce heat( exerciselargemuscles)
2. decrease heat loss( minimize theabove "5 losses")
3. avoid exhaustion; work at 60%to burn fat instead of fast burnin glucose and glycogen reserves)
4.reduce internal and external constriction( avoid tight clothing to promote blood flow)
5.stay hydrated( drink warm liquids if possible)
6 stay aware of yoursituation
List taken from from cody Lundins book: 98.6 degrees ( keepin your a** alive")
guard for hypothermia.(another thread)

Originally posted by Evolutionsend

dress in layers.

can't emphasize that enough.

worked many a day in single digit temps, with 20-30 mph wind chills dropping actual exposure to mid teens or twenty's below.

back when i was still doing union masonry and such [schools & prisons] ... walked into the job trailer one morn and the foreman was like ... are you sure gonna be okay out there?

we weren't gonna be working/laying that day ... just covering up materials and already finished-grouted walls to comply with both code and contract .. killing/filling time, if you will

a top/bottom pair of 'long johns', long sleeve t-shirt, sweat shirt and pair of sweat pants, jeans and a hooded pullover w/ a rather light jacket.

thin and light-weight yet layered

he, in his quite heavy-weight 'insulated' overalls complained about the cold

i, on the other hand, couldn't wait fro break, if only to get back to the job trailer and shed a layer os so - i was sweating.

LAYERS ARE KEY

Really warm cozy slippers for when you're indoors, for outside try to make sure your boots are weather rated for the coldest temperatures in your area in case you have to walk anywhere. I'm investing in a new pair of boots rated for temperatures of subzero. Minus 32 or 40.

Don't leave your vehicle if in a blizzard, except to tie a bright scarf or something to the highest point (so they can find you). Have a cold weather kit, make sure there's candles (be careful) and a little metal cup to melt snow in. Have some food in your vehicle, protein bars are good. If you go into a ditch and keep the car/truck running for heat, make sure the tailpipe is clear.

Snow is harder to melt than you'd think. Once your snow has melted, there's way less there than you'd expect.

I just have one more bit of advice that not many people know of. If you're outdoors and on the ground in a sleeping bag when it's freezing, let your dog in the sleeping bag with you. They'll raise the temperature a good ten degrees and will enjoy your warmth as well.

Originally posted by Evolutionsend
I just have one more bit of advice that not many people know of. If you're outdoors and on the ground in a sleeping bag when it's freezing, let your dog in the sleeping bag with you. They'll raise the temperature a good ten degrees and will enjoy your warmth as well.

Or on the bed indoors. I use a wood stove in the daytime, and it goes out halfway through the night. I have an electric furnace otherwise, I keep it set low all the time, and at night my dogs pile in around me. One night a couple of years ago, the furnace didn't turn on, and the house thermostat read 45F. I only found up by getting up to go to the bathroom, the bed was so warm, 2 large dogs, one on each side had me pinned right in.
They sleep on top of the covers, and thankfully they're really clean dogs.

As one born and raised in Ct, the best advice I can give is...

Move south!!

One of the best things for survival is to keep calm. Exercise thought before movement. Frantic/chaotic movement will probably make you sweat, which is bad, and drain your energy reserves that would be put to better use keeping your core temp. up.

If you're stuck outdoors, remember that snow is a great insulator. If you can cover/bury your shelter in snow, it's easier to maintain whatever heat you can generate.

Plenty of food in storage, not just a minimal supply to get by with, but plenty. When the body eats, it burns calories just by digestion alone, and when the body burns calories, it heats up the core.

That's why when you're always cold, you'll find youself more hungry than usual... the body is using up calories in an attempt to warm it from the inside out.

But even more important than a big supply of food is a source of heat surrounded by a good solid shelter. If you're able to keep warm from a heat source and able to maintain fairly steady temps in a shelter that doesn't expose you to the outside elements, then you can get away with a smaller store of food because the body can last longer without so long as it stays warm.

Priority list:

#1 - good shelter
#2 - heat source
#3 - food/water

Notice how clothing and blankets aren't even in the top 3 ? That's because if you can maintain a nice warm temperature in your shelter and plenty of food/water, you could sit there stark naked all winter and it wouldn't matter.

reply to post by snowspirit


On the fire going out in the night, we've found that a big log, say 1ft diameter or so, if put in before we head up, say around 9:30, tends to burn until after twelve, and smolders for a good while after that, and with someone being up at 6:30 or earlier, the stove is usually still warm, though not throwing off heat when we go down to restart the fire. In a bad enough situation, we would move down the the basement, keep the fire small and use that trick. And we keep about 3 days worth of wood in the basement, with about a weeks worth of wood piled right by the entrance to the basement, under a tarp. As for other things mentioned, haven't been able to get my hands on that Lundeen book, have boots that have kept me warm at under 10 degrees. Usually have some snack food in my car, as well as a lighter. Water would probably turn into a problem, especially in an extended situation.

reply to post by JDBlack


I know from experience that you don't have enough fire wood. You need to have the means to go get more. You will burn through it so fast using it as your only source of heat. Make sure your stove is up to the task as well. If you don't have the heavy duty version, get it.

Our power went out for two weeks once. We burned 8 truck loads I think it was, in addition to our normal stash of about 3 truck loads.

never go out alone if someone is with you they can look out for the signs of hypothermia and frost bite. thick dry socks as your feet will be in constant contact with the ground/snow and are gonna sweat no matter what stop every so often and change your socks

To have a wood stove with a flat top is handy. I've had to use mine for cooking twice this year already.

We've had 2 power outages in 2 weeks now. The first one was someone drove into a power line and knocked out the power to a really wide area for about 10 hours. Second time was today for about 2 hours. We can survive really strong winds, it seems, but people keep sliding into power poles...

Then there's house insulation. Even if I can keep the stove smouldering overnight, the house cools fast. I'm at that temperature now to run around insulating air leaks. You really feel them in December. If it's colder than last year, I'm probably going to be putting heavy blankets on a couple of the windows.

We bought a logging truck full of wood this year, 20 cords of wood total. You can never have too much. It does burn up fast.

Wood stoves are also great for creating a makeshift water heater, if the need should arise.

All you need to do is place a coil of narrow copper tube on top of the stove. Then hook the feed end of the tube into a gravity feed water bin. And the outlet end into another container.

When a fire is going, the water will be gravity fed slowly through the tube and heated by the fire. It's a useful trick in a pinch. Especially if you get frostbite.

reply to post by JDBlack


Remember if you are cold, so is your pet and the old lady down the road. Blankets, sleeping bags, hats , gloves, etc. Sleep in your hat and gloves if you need too. Provide for the pets, the weak and the elderly who cannot do for themselves.If you manage a hot meal, share a portion of it with someone. Find heat where you might overlook it like in an emergency hey go out and gather around the old barbeque grill for a warm up. Take extra vitamins. I have to say that a heavy sleeping bag is great when there is no electic or heat. Keep a heavy towel on top of toilet when lid is close to keep that seat from feeling like its made of ice on those cold nights

With a few cans of sterno on hand and a small sauce pan you can heat enough water for hot tea or warm soup etc. I keep my doggys snuggy with beef vegetable soup on really really cold evenings.

And lastly make sure you have a couple of bags of cheap cat litter for walks and steps and porches. In an emergency be creative.......fashion some sort of wind block so that when you open the door you dont get all that cold blast rushing into your house. make sure you have a shovel INSIDE the front door. You may need to shovel your way out. Can you say suprise blizzard?

reply to post by subject x


Amen on using snow to your advantage. Forge the snowman, instead built a wind block close to all doors. Kinda like a small maze. Dont let that wind get into the house. Also when possible take the bus to work and avoid frozen fuel lines and frozen locks and cleaning the ice and snow off the car. Ever do a 360 on an icy freeway?

Originally posted by Magantice
Ever do a 360 on an icy freeway?

Absolutely! More than once. Another reason I moved south.
One time was pretty spectacular. Hit a patch of the dreaded "black ice" doing about 50. Did a complete 360 before I caught traction again and continued going, never leaving my lane or losing place with the car next to me (should have seen her face!). As much as I'd like to chalk it up to awesome driving skills, I can't. It was just dumb luck. That's the day I decided to get the hell out of there.

avoid excessive alcohol consumption in the cold it increases the risk of hypothermia.

reply to post by JDBlack


Hi JDBlack

As an avid outdoorsman I can help you a lot on this point. Where I live we have temperatures ranging from -5 to -35 degrees C (edit: 6 months of the year). Usually around -10 -> -15 all through winter.

If the electricity went out then good clothing and good sleeping bags would be the most important part to surviving. Sooner or later you will have to move outdoors, you`re clothing procedures (layer model) will also be used at home.

The only thing you will really need heating for is detailed work (indoors) and cooking your food. The food will provide the body`s heating otherwise.

For a good example youtube eskimo`s, canadian natives, the sami people of norway/sweden as well as people that live in nothern parts of Russia. To all of them clothing is number 1 to survive! Skin and fur from large game is the most effective and durable - down jackets and such are the second most effective mot not very durable.


Oh - and as to Les Strauds quote (you sweat you die) that is ONLY meant to keep you alive if you`re stranded with one set of clothing. Having a backup inner layer is what everyone spending a lot of time outdoors do. If your clothing is breathable (goretex or such) then you`re clothes will also be dried by body heat if done properly.