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1. Having been thru a military winter survival course (we were allowed to get hypothermia to experience it), you get to the point you no longer feel cold. You start to feel drowsy and actually feel good.
   Watch others for these symptoms, especially children, who have less body mass.

2. A clean one-quart paint can with lid, a paint can opener, a roll of toilet paper (remove the cardboard core and toss that part away), a bottle of 91% alcohol, and a lighter.

   Squeeze the toilet paper tight and push into the clean paint can. Carefully pour alchohol over the TP until level is flush (your pun for today) with top of paper. Set can on the floor of your car away from flammable items.

   Light it and warm yourself. Make sure you previously capped the alchohol, remember you’ll be cold and jittery, so preplanning in your brain helps.

   When edge of TP starts turning color, put can lid over the it to smother the flame. Make sure flames are out, then refill with your alchohol container, seal with paint can lid or relight.

   I duct tape all components together as one unit gor packing away preps.

   I had my kids do this in their house by Spokane when power was off, and tested it myself. Try it. Total cost was less than 10 bucks. There are you tube vids on line.

   Best wishes and God Bless

3. having had “mild” hypothermia twice in Alaska growing up I can tell you it’s awful. Initial symptoms of cold and shivering give way to feeling warm and sleepy and stupid, if you sleep, you die. Thawing out is the worst part when your skin is yellow and slightly lumpy, then it starts aching and throbbing, and you can actually feel your bones being cold and then you shiver and shudder as you warm up, but even in a hot bath it took hours. One of my high school teachers actually froze to death on the way home from a PTA meeting in winter, he’d had a few beers afterwards and decided to walk home about a mile, well he apparently got cold and tired and thought he would sit down by the side of the road and rest, and in a little town with no traffic at night, they found him there next morning..

4. The Canadian North is a dangerous place but the #1 cause of death is hypothermia by a country mile.

5. Mother Nature is a cruel mistress. It is tragic to claw our way to the top of the food chain just to die from exposure.

6. Thanks for this great article. It’s a good refresher! What type of containers do you use to keep water in your vehicle, considering that the water will likely freeze and thaw repeatedly, depending on the outside temperatures?

   1. Ma G, we live in the central USA where winter lows get down to about 0 degrees F. I did an experiment to test this. I filled 2 standard 16 oz water bottles from Walmart w/ a few drops of bleach. Then I put those 2 bottles in a zip-lock gal bag, to contain the mess it the bottles froze & split open. I kept them in the trunk of my SUV. Those bottles never did freeze. I concluded that those bottles could take more than I expected. Not sure where u live, but you could try the same experiment. One can also find 16 oz bottles that are hard-plastic (not the cheap kind that comes w/ water) that come with juice or ice tea in a convenience store. My guess is that the hard-plastic bottles can take more, but not sure.

      1. Actually, any somewhat soft (think, “stretchy”) plastic bottle is a good candidate for freezing. To test, fill with water, and put it in your freezer. Then after it is completely frozen, pull it out and let it thaw. If it can stand 2 or 3 cycles without leaking, you have a winner.

         On another note, keeping a few frozen water bottles in the freezer is a great way to keep ice ready for the cooler, for travel.

      2. Thanks for the input, Chris & cf. We moved over the summer from the SW US back to the North Central US after more than 30 years. Winter temps in our area can get down well below zero, and our vehicles will be parked outside. I think I’ll try starting with a plastic bicycle water bottle inside a ziploc back and see what happens. Although, if it were frozen and I needed the water, I couldn’t warm it over a fire. I guess that for anything more than just trips around town, we could just bring a couple gallon jugs from the house and keep them in the passenger compartment, then take them back inside when we return home.

   2. Heavy plastic sports drink bottles survive repeated freeze/thaw cycles, a tuna can made into a candle with 3-4 wicks can keep a car heated for a day or two and is safely and eadily stored. Don’t forget matches or lighter

   3. Nalgene

      1. ThoDan, is Nalgene “stretchy” enough? Have you tried it? I have an empty nalgene bottle in my get home bag, not a filled one.

         In our former home state we were advised not to drink water that came from a plastic bottle that had sat in a vehicle when the temperature inside had risen to more than 100 degrees F because of possible off-gassing.

         So many variables to consider!

         1. I´ve never experienced them to stretch but the nalgene i use in my car was sometimes at least partially frozen and nothing happened to them.
            I like them for car use because i can use them one handed

            1. The post above is from me

7. I like wool. But fleece is better. Fleece is hydrophobic and water can easily be squeezed out and what little is left will dry with body heat. Wool on the other hand once it is wet will stay wet unless placed in a dryer or exposed to warm sunlight for days. AND fleece will also still work to keep you warm after it has gotten wet.

   1. Fleece is good, but it does not meter perspiration like wool does, which means that the comfort range is much narrower. (Fleece is not good for protection from heat. Wool is.) So, layers must be added and removed more frequently. Also, fleece does not store heat chemically, as wool does, to be released when moisture is encountered. And around fire, fleece is much more vulnerable than wool. It melts with a spark, while wool singes over and insulates.

      Fleece is more washing-machine-friendly. However, if you get a front-loading washer with a “hand wash” cold-water cycle, wool can usually be machine-washed without shrinking.

      1. I disagree with all of your rebuttal except that fleece will indeed burn when you get too close to a fire.

         Fleece does a better job than wool at moving moisture away from the body. Wool is an excellent insulator and thus needs to have layers removed as your body over heats. But advantage fleece because it is lighter. Your chemical heat storage is fairy tale.

         There is a good reason that the military ECWCS is fleece and not wool.

8. Wool can hold 30% of its weight in water and not feel wet. It does continue to retain heat even if wet, but depending on the fabric composition, will take longer to dry. I vaporized a Patagonia fleece jacket back once when I accidentally got too close to the iron fireplace front. Both products have advantages and disadvantages. I love my SmartWool clothing. You can wear it for several days in a row and it doesn’t hardly smell. Try that with synthetic socks. My fleece jackets are light, compressible, and not terrible expensive. I use both.

9. Thanks Joe and Amy for a great article! I used your and Wranglestar’s advice to put together a winter survival box CHRISTmas present for my wife who will be traveling by car to the mountain west next week. I like it so much I plan to upgrade the kits I put together for our now adult children a few years ago.
   And I agree with Oz on use of both fleece and wool. At least it makes sense to a guy from the Deep South! 🙂
   John

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