which may need amputating.
FROSTNIP
The first, completely reversible stage of a cold injury is called frostnip, where just the skin is starting to freeze. Signs are waxy-looking pale patches plus slight tingling or numbness. To treat this condition, simply warm up gradually without rubbing. If on your face, take off a glove and rest a warm hand on the area till the colour starts to come back. For feet the best solution is to place them somewhere warm, like the armpits or groin area of a colleague (this is where buddies truly earn their title!).
HOW CAN YOU stop your face getting frostbite?
It’s a scary thought that at -30°C (-22°F) with a wind of 16km/h (10mph), your skin can start to freeze in as little as one or two minutes. So if the temperature starts to plummet or an icy wind gets up, the only answer is to make sure no skin whatsoever is exposed.
Of course, in the Arctic nothing is simple, and if you cover all your face you immediately have the problem of your damp breath turning into ice on your face mask, as well as goggles steaming up and freezing over so you can’t see.
A neat solution is to customise a pair of goggles by sewing on a nose-guard made of windproof material. It leaves a gap for breathing and protects the nose, one of the most vulnerable areas of all.
CAN SNOW REALLY make you blind?
The glare from snow can cause a very painful condition called snow blindness. You don’t actually go blind – it’s just too uncomfortable to open your eyes for a day or two.
Snow blindness is effectively sunburn of the eyeball, and, like sunburn, it appears a few hours after exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the Sun. It feels as if you have sand in your eyes, vision becomes blurred, and you become very sensitive to light.
Treatment is to stay in a darkened area with cool bandages over the eyes, taking painkillers and applying special eyedrops until the pain settles down. This can take several days.
To avoid snow blindness, you should always wear either goggles or good wrap-around sunglasses designed to block out UV rays. Don’t be fooled by overcast days – the UV light still gets through.
© Colin Monteath/Minden Pictures/FLPA
© Colin Monteath/Minden Pictures/FLPA
Even if the weather’s a little ‘warmer’ it’s still essential to use the buddy system, where pairs of expedition members watch out for each other. Your partner can immediately warn you if, for example, they see that you have a waxy-looking patch on your face. Pulling lots of faces to exercise the muscles and get blood circulating is also a good idea in cold conditions.
There comes a point when being ‘a bit cold’ turns into something much more serious. As warm-blooded animals we need to stay at a pretty constant temperature of around 37°C (98°F) for our vital organs to work properly.
The body does an amazing job over a massive range of activities and outside temperatures, but in extreme conditions it may eventually not be able to cope.
It only takes a fall in body temperature of a mere two degrees to around 35°C (95°F) for hypothermia to set in. A victim will feel sluggish and groggy, unable to think or speak clearly, and will suffer from violent shivering as the body tries to generate energy.
If not treated quickly, hypothermia can be fatal. A sure sign it’s turning critical is when shivering stops completely. This happens as the body temperature falls further and energy reserves are used up. Everything in the body slows down including the pulse and breathing, so much so that there are cases where people have been assumed to be dead, only to recover completely on rewarming.
TREATMENT FOR HYPOTHERMIA
Firstly, get the victim out of the cold if possible, for example, by putting up a tent to get out of the wind. If they got cold quickly then they probably have only mild hypothermia and can be warmed up pretty fast.
If, however, the casualty’s core temperature has fallen below 32°C (90°F) they must be handled extremely gently and discouraged from doing too much to help (there is serious risk of arrhythmia, where the heart stops beating normally). Rewarming should be done very gradually by wrapping them in blankets and giving them warm drinks if possible. The body heat of another person is also effective (ideally by getting into a sleeping bag naked with the victim).
Seek expert medical help as soon as possible and get the casualty to hospital. There, warm fluids may be put into the veins and other areas, such as the chest cavity and abdomen.
WIND CHILL
The ‘wind chill factor’ is often mentioned on weather forecasts nowadays, as it’s become recognised that the wind can have a serious effect on how quickly you get cold. Just as you blow on hot food to cool it down, the wind takes away warm air from the surface of your body, cooling you down much more quickly. A chart has been devised by scientists to show what the temperature feels like at various wind speeds. For example, at –9°C (16°F) with a 24km/h (15mph) wind, it feels similar to –18°C (–0.4°F) on a still day.
WIND CHILL CHART
The numbers in the coloured areas of the chart represent how cold it feels at various temperatures and wind speeds.
Danger of frostbite
