In the current issue of the Reader’s Digest there is a story of a guy who crashed his plane in the mountains, then left his two buddies to walk for help. From a mountaintop he was able to see a distant road, and made his way towards it. Halfway there, he spied a hotspring and hopped in.
Was he an idiot, or a genius?
I would think the hotspring would provide a temporary reprieve from the cold, but warm and wet goes quickly to cold and wet in the winter. But he did manage to bring his core temperature up for a while, which was probably a good thing. And he would be able to eat as much snow as he wanted to for the hydration that he so desperately needed. But he has no fire. When he gets out, he’s going to be wet. Do the benefits outweight the downfalls?
Depends on his condition when he reached the hotspring, I suppose. If it was so degraded that there was doubt of reaching the road because of cold or thirst, warming himself in the hotspring couldn’t hurt. If he kept his clothes dry to put on after he got out of the hotspring, I should think his chances of survival are improved, but it depends on a lot of variables: air temp, wind chill factor, physical condition, time & distance to the road. But I would say take the soak, at least you have a nice warm memory before you die.
Yeah, I’d say the trick to making this work is to keep your clothes dry. Strip off your pants, wade in. Strip off your shirt, wade in deeper. Then reverse the process, also in two stages, getting as dry as possible before putting on the still-dry clothes. It would probably pay to even sacrifice a small absorbent garment, like a t-shirt, to use as a towel before dressing.
Even without drying, the evaporation of a few ounces of water from the skin couldn’t be enough to drag your core temp back down into the danger zone. I’d try real hard to keep my hair dry though.
A good soak in a hot spring will keep your body temp elevated for hours, as long as you don’t wear your clothes in with you. (Being in Japan I get to do this every week… it’s a great cold-weather activity).
The trick is to not die from the heat first. If significant hypothermia has developed, then jumping into a hot tub is a potentially dangerous idea! All the capillaries and arterioles and smaller arteries that are very constricted to conserve heat will rapidly expand, and a fatal hypotension can ensue. Especially if the patient passes out and sinks underwater.
Otherwise as regards the OP, as someone who hottubs when it goes down to -15 fahrenheit, once you get your core temperature up it’s amazing how long you can maintain it! So if the heat doesn’t kill you, you’re probably better off.
I’ve never been to a hotspring, but couldn’t you also huddle near it and be warmed by the surrounding warm air? That is, if for some reason jumping in wasn’t a good idea.
First, how “hot” is the “hot spring”. Something that is warmer than the surrounding air, but lower than or or close to body temperature could help more than hurt, especially if there is no pre-existing tissue damage from frost bite.
Also, I learned in Girl Scout Winter Survival skills training that wool will help you retain body heat even when wet. I’m very allergic to wool, so I’ve never had the chance to test this, but I was taught that if you have wool clothing, it doesn’t matter if it’s wet or not. It will still help keep you warm.
I wouldn’t say that it doesn’t matter but you’re a heck of a lot better off in wool than cotton (winter camping motto was “Cotton Kills”). I inherited a 30+ year old Woolrich shirt from my Dad and it’s one of the first things I reach for when I’m going into snow and rain. It does stay warm and keep you pretty dry in nasty weather, but if I had an alternative (especially in a survival situation) I would not get it wetter than necessary. Err on the side of caution.