Probably.
It may be that someone allergic to tree pollen might imbibe pollen accidentally ?
The pollen could be collected in the snow, while it remained thin in the air.
But basically, it only applies to people allergic to pollen . Perhaps their lack of exposure is contributing to their allergy…
Various hypogastrura live in the in the duff but hop about on the snow when it is not too cold. They live in the nearctic, palearctic and (probably thanks to us) antarctic ecozones.
Cuz you can’t stop the heat from radiating from you. You might as well capture it in the snow and put it back in you, rather than put cold snow in you and let the body heat escape to the atmosphere.
As a kid I was told never to eat snow, but that never stopped me from eating it anyway.
OTOH I’m from L.A., so my only encounters with snow were during winter day trips to the local mountains. Maybe with inner city snow, or other non-wilderness places, the rules are different?
No, not really. I probably wouldn’t eat the snow near a smoke stack, but I don’t see anything particularly wrong with eating the snow out in a field.
I wonder if some of this is a rural/urban thing. I ate snow as a kid when I lived out in the country (grandparents would add vanilla to it actually). When I lived in Boston, however, I remember the snow looked pretty gross after a while.
looks up with a mouth and handful full of snow
Fwhat?!
There is at least three Fops that do not believe that. When a significant snowfall is predicted I leave a bowl out on the deck to collect it so that myself, Mrs. Fop, and Mini-Fop can enjoy fresh Snow Cream.
Wow, bad English. There are at least three Fops. Edited from “There is at least one Fop”, changed everything but the verb. Time for bed.
No, I’ve never heard that anyone does that to warm snow. In winter survival mode you can use snow as insulation to keep you warmer than you would be if exposed to the much colder air. But no one warms up snow with their bodies; it’s about as wrong a step as you can possibly take if you’re trying to stay warm.
You can see snow fleas on a sunny day in New England, but they’re not hard to avoid. Besides, they’re additional protein.
Here you go, take your pick:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17089402&postcount=34
It still think it’s extremely poor advice. If you have no other options and can otherwise keep your body warm (food, heat source, etc) then it’s not going to do you much harm. But there are much better ways to warm water with a small stove or fire than to risk hypothermia like that.
Well, if one were to (hypothetically, of course) try to lick the first flakes of the year off the angle-iron top of the playground fence when it’s several degrees below freezing, one might potentially end up with one’s tongue frozen to the metal and squalling frantically for the attention of the teacher allocated to sponge&bucket-of-warm-water duty.
After being unfrozen from the fence, one might then be able to return to flake-licking since with that little bit of practice one would be reasonably safe from any freezing incidents. Unless one were, say distracted by a do-goody classmate shouting at one to stop.
After being unfrozen twice, however, the experience level would be so high there is virtually no freeing risk whatsoever, unless one were to e.g. participate in a snowflake-licking race and get a bit over-competitive.
Unfortunately teachers are sometimes unreasonable people. They may sometimes, after spending a morning rushing hither and yon unfreezing small children from fences, over-react ludicrously to the same child getting stuck to a fence three times in 10 minutes and make them go and sit in the naughty corner.
You are certainly welcome to think it’s extremely poor advice. But in a General Questions thread, it’s simply incorrect to say:
Some do, and now you’ve heard of it.
There are fish in your well?
I can also link to videos of people jumping off of bridges to kill themselves - that doesn’t make it a good idea. Using your body to melt snow in a survival sitution is bad advice and dangerous.
But most don’t for the reasons I stated. You can last for multiple days without water, but hypothermia can be a fairly quick death sentence. Most Wilderness First Aid courses no longer even recommend getting in a sleeping bag with someone to keep them warm because all it does is makes the heat source colder and risks hypothermia without doing anything for the victim. One of the very first things you do in a winter survival situation is to insulate your body from the snow and ground to avoid heat loss which happens very quickly. Putting snow next to the body in an attempt to warm the snow makes no sense. Either you melt snow using an outside heat source or you fuel your body and use internal heat.
You can come up with a scenario where you are warm, insulated from the outside, well fed, and have a good heat source where your body is the only way to melt snow and you are unlikely to do yourself any harm. But why bother? In that situation you eat the snow and do jumping jacks.
I don’t recognize the sources for those links. I’ve never heard of this type of advice from the Wilderness First Aid courses I’ve taken (SOLO, WMA) and it seems to go against some of the basic principles of cold weather survival. I have no doubt that some folks recommend it, thank you for the citations. But I maintain that they are wrong.
These little guys They have anti freeze blood! You see them in the Canadian Rockies, wandering around on the snow between the trees. It can be pretty damn cold and they will be trundling along. I try not to avoid them because they can freeze up if disturbed (I don’t know if for real or defensive) but often there are so many of them you end up crushing them.
There is also Watermelon Snow which is just silly but real none the less. I have only seen this in spring and summer on those lovely patches of snow that hang around in the mountains making them so pretty. And yes, it really does smell like watermelon, and it really is red, and no way am I tasting it. Looking back to see you foot prints turning red in the snow is pretty awesome.
And yes Snow Cream is most excellent. Best made with the coldest fluffiest champagne powder you can find and given to the woman that has graciously been dragged along on your ski trip.
Regarding hypothermia and hydration, there is a difference between winter outdoor recreation and winter survival mode. With winter outdoor recreation, the challenge is to both avoid overheating or overcooling, and to stay hydrated. In winter survival mode, the challenge is to identify immediate threats to life and to mitigate them in priority.
When in winter survival mode, a person suffering from hypothermia should not put something cold against his or her body, for hypothermia will lead to death far sooner than dehydration.
When hypothermia is not an issue, using body heat to melt snow is easy, provides water in good quantity, and does not require fussing with fire. (I realize that fire --wood or gas – is the norm for base camping, and more power to the folks who are into that for it really is terrific, but I am much more into low impact skiing, so I don’t like to make fires from wood, and I don’t like to carry a stove and fuel.)
For example, when I am earning my turns, I am far warmer ascending the slope than when I ski down the slope. When ascending, my vents are open to let excess heat dissipate, and my body uses up its water at a fairly high rate. I carry a wide-mouth camel back inside my outer layer of clothing (or second layer if it is very cold) which I replenish with snow after each time I drink from it. When I climb there is no need to conserve heat, so using my body heat to thaw snow is an effective use of my energy. By doing this I keep constantly rehydrated (which is vital) without risking hypothermia (which is even more vital).
Since this removes any need to avoid using body heat to thaw snow during regular (non-survival mode) outdoor winter recreation, I prefer to drink water in quantity (about 3/4 of a litre an hour when exerting myself) rather than to eat snow, for as much as I like eating snow, it is a bit of an embuggerance to have to constantly eat snow in significant amounts (fresh snow might have a water density of 10-20 %, which means having to eat a hell of a lot of snow to keep rehydrated) and to deal with ice cream headaches from having too many handsful too quickly.
Hypothermia is not the only thing to worry about. Am dressed for the changing conditions (neither too hot nor too cold), am I hydrated, are my electolytes in balance, am I eating enough to keep my energy level high? If I fail to keep on top of any of these things, then I will run into trouble, moving from outdoor winter recreation to winter survival mode and adjust my actions accordingly.
Regarding hypothermia and hydration, there is a big difference between winter outdoor recreation and winter survival mode. With winter outdoor recreation, the challenge is to keep one’s body properly functioning (avoiding overheating or overcooling, keeping hydrated, maintaining electrolyte balance, and maintaining energy level). In winter survival mode, the challenge is to identify immediate threats to life and to mitigate them in priority.
Think of it this way: outdoor winter recreation is about balance between various factors ranging from survival to fun and comfort; winter survival mode is about strict priorities. If balance is lost, strict priorities must be followed, requiring lower priorities to be sacrificed to higher priorities so as to better one’s chance at surviving.
When in winter survival mode, a person suffering from hypothermia should not put something cold against his or her body, for hypothermia will lead to death far sooner than dehydration.
When hypothermia is not an issue, using body heat to melt snow is easy, provides water in good quantity, and does not require fussing with fire. (I realize that fire --wood or gas – is the norm for base camping, and more power to the folks who are into that for it really is terrific, but I am much more into low impact skiing, so I don’t like to make fires from wood, and I don’t like to carry a stove and fuel.)
For example, when I am earning my turns, I am far warmer ascending the slope than when I ski down the slope. When ascending, my vents are open to let excess heat dissipate, and my body uses up its water at a fairly high rate. I carry a wide-mouth camelback inside my outer layer of clothing (or second layer when it is very cold) which I replenish with snow after each time I drink from it. When I climb there is no need to conserve excess heat, so using my excess body heat to thaw snow is an effective use of my energy. By doing this I keep constantly rehydrated (which is vital) without risking hypothermia (which is even more vital).
Since this removes any need to avoid using body heat to thaw snow during regular (non-survival mode) outdoor winter recreation, I prefer to drink water in quantity (about 1/2 to 3/4 of a litre an hour when exerting myself) rather than to eat snow, for as much as I like eating snow, it is a bit of an embuggerance to have to constantly eat snow in significant amounts (fresh snow might have a water density of 10-20 %, which means having to eat a hell of a lot of snow to keep rehydrated), and to deal with ice cream headaches from having too many handsful too quickly.
Hypothermia is not the only thing to worry about. Am dressed for the changing conditions (neither too hot nor too cold), am I hydrated, are my electolytes in balance, am I eating enough to keep my energy level high? If I fail to keep on top of any of these things, then I will run into trouble, moving from outdoor winter recreation to winter survival mode, which will require me to adjust my actions accordingly.