Weather being a common and important topic at ISG, we are likely overdue for a series pertaining to cold weather. Whereas a tornado or hurricane can set in Type 1 and Type 2 events, winter itself can resembled a Type 3 event, even for portions of developed countries.
Past and current addresses of our contributors include Montana, Alaska, Wisconsin, and Colorado. A couple of us have formal training in either winter SERE or operations, and not less than a few of us have spent years of life training or engaging in snow-featured environments, hobbies, or skills. Naturally, what turned into a discussion about a few best practices in cold weather spiraled into a series.
What you can expect is four installments that focus on different aspects of working, living, or training in cold weather. The goal will be to provide very dense, actionable information. What we are going to define as “cold weather” is anything below the freezing point, 32°F/0°C.
101: Basic Dress
201: Sustainment & Travel
301: Mobility Cold Weather Concerns
302: Cold Weather First Aid
Cold Weather Dress
The first and most obvious factor in dealing with the cold is your clothing.
The major concept here is layering. Layering is important to anyone who plans to engage in a prolonged or physical task in the cold, as it allows for one to modulate their level of insulation in a manner a single large jacket could not. Go to any major city and you’ll find that very large, puffy, down jackets are very in-vogue. Utilizers of the large jacket are often doing themselves a disservice, however, as an understanding of insulation layers would lead them away from such clothing choices.
The big concept to understand is that clothing does not provide warmth, you do. You are the heat generator. You burn calories and heat is the byproduct of that function. What your clothing needs to do for you is to not allow that heat to be transferred to the surrounding air. Ergo, cold weather dress is always about modulating the rate at which your heat is dissipating into the environment.
Why does this necessitate layering? Because heat is retained in the air pockets of your layers, not truly the materials themselves. In the same way that a sponge is designed to trap water in its pores, heat is truly retained in air pockets within your clothing that do not have thermal exchange with the colder air outside of the next layer. This isn’t an exact, perfect truth. Your materials do have some heat retention, but the mindset that it’s about air trapping is what leads ups to our best practices.
The skiing crowd generally has this down very well. The gospel on the mountain is a Base Layer, Insulating Layer, and waterproof Shell Layer. This allows for one to shed layers to modulate their temperature (important), while still retaining the necessary layers to provide proper insulation.
The Layers
Base Layers: In addition to your undergarments, these are the items you wear closest to your skin. Their job, primarily, is to ensure the sweat you produce does not soak into your thicker layers. The base layer is usually a thinner material that allows for bulkier items to be worn over top in a comfortable fashion. These provide some warmth, but warmth is not it’s main goal. It’s to keep the moisture you produce between you and the base layer. This is usually accomplished with a synthetic materials that cover any open skin you have outside of feet, hands, and your head.
Common choices are long silk underwear shirts and pants. They often resemble pajamas. Do not be tempted to purchase Underarmor style fitted materials. With cold weather, since we’re worried about trapping warm air, we want to create those with loose layers. Skin-tight clothing does not promote trapped, warm air. Our recommendation here is anything with moisture-wicking qualities that keep your perspiration from infiltrating to your next layer.
Insulating Layers: These are the layers in which most of the hard work is being done. These are thick materials that allow for maximum air trapping. Though, unlike the shell layer, the insulating layer will remain permeable. If you become too warm, the removal of the shell layer allows some exposure to the colder environment and some thermal exchange to take place. Once the shell is reapplied, the thermal transfer stops near immediately. Thus, the insulation layer should ideally be a great heat trap and yet also a great dimmer switch to release that heat when needed.
You will find that we are big proponents of wool. Wool retains heat even while wet; cotton and many other synthetic materials will not. The popular choice among those worried about Aspen fashions these days are packable, down jackets. Goose down is a phenomenal insulator and can be incredibly comfortable for all-day wear. Be careful to not let it get wet, however. Companies like Land’s End and Eddie Bauer will certainly claim their water-resistant materials will keep you dry or allow the down to do its job while ‘wet.’ But make no mistake, once soaked they will be a huge chore to properly dry and heat retention will go out the window.
Another consideration is fleece. Fleece can retain warmth while damp like wool, but not to the same degree. Fleece is a favorite for one of our members who lives in the Rockies, in which the miles are arduous and the sun can be intense. Fleece will allow heat to dissipate very quickly when the shell is removed. It may be a great consideration if you anticipate heavy workload intervals in which you will cycle between exertion and rest. Wool will not let go of its heat the way fleece will.
Newer synthetics that try to mimic the comfort and heat retention of packable down without the insulation loss from becoming wet bet better all the time. These can be expensive, though. But if you’ve go the budget, the comfort and performance can be worth the price tag. If you’re on a budget, thrift store wool is a great way to source some life-saving insulation for less than what it takes to feed a family at McDonalds.
Shell Layers: Shell layers are aptly described. Their purposed with creating an impermeable barrier between your insulation layer and the elements. These layers should be waterproof, wind-proof, and ultimately durable. They will be the parts of your clothing brushing up against whatever the world throws at you, thus that durability bit is an important component.
Wind-proofing is a must. Your insulation layer cannot work as intended when the shell allows for the free transfer of air. Likewise with moisture, ergo water-proofing is also non-negotiable.
You will see these in the form of Gore-tex shells often, or other non-name branded materials. These are what compromise most catalogs of ski jackets, in which their whole purpose is to keep the snow and mountain air off your nicer, insulation layer. You can find cheap base layers and cheap insulating layers just fine. If you had to throw most of your cash at any single layer, however, this would be the one. The jobs you need it to do you will need it to do very well and without failing. Moisture and air exposure are the cold weather killers, and those are exactly the things your shell layer is tasked with staving off.
Military surplus has many quality yet affordable options. You will be stuck primarily with camo patterns, however.
The Distal Components
The items worn on your hands, feet, and head are what we consider the distal components. These are items you apply that aren’t covered by your three layer setup for your core and lower body.
For your noggin, a beanie or warm hat of of some sort is non-negotiable. While the tale that you lose most of your heat through your head is a myth, having the center for all decision making in a state of discomfort should strike any of us as an obviously poor idea.
Again, you’ll find that we’re big fans of old school wool watch caps. Likewise, if you are using the hood on your shell but would like to modulate heat quickly, fleece will work here in the same manner as an insulation layer. There are many very bulky hats with fur and ear flaps. This is something we avoid for the same reasons you don’t want just one big jacket doing the entire job of keeping you warm. If you don’t have a shell layer hood, however, these may be necessary.
The portions most in danger of cold weather injuries are the areas in which skin has direct exposure to the air. For your head, consider a scarf, balaclava, or other item that you can pull up and around your face to save yourself from direct exposure to the sun, air, and wind.
Lastly, sunglasses or goggles are mandatory in snowy environments. The snow will reflect light and UV from the sun. If you will be exposed to snow reflections for an extended period of time, get some eye protection.
For your hands, gloves are obvious. These can be largely preferential, but the hybrid gloves with a large mitten that slips over an individual fingerless section get a lot of love with the team as they allow the dexterity for finite jobs will while providing the superior warmth that mittens offer over traditional gloves. If they have purpose-built inserts for hand warmers, all the better. If you’ll be working in the snow, a helpful trick is to keep nitrile or latex gloves with you and to wear them under your large gloves. That moisture-blocking layers makes a difference over time.
For your feet, there is nothing better than a wool sock. Warm, well cushioned, works while wet, and will dispel itself of moisture when hung out after wear. There are other choices, but a wool sock is so beloved by us that we’ll let you research those on your own, we’ll be wearing wool.
As for your boots, they absolutely must be water proof. We also recommend that they be tall enough for the environment that you’re in. If there is some pretty deep snow, consider a tall boot that will not let snow fall into the top as you step around. There are ways of layering and tucking your pants to assist in keeping snow from falling in the top.
If you are choosing a boot in a store, bring thick socks with you. You will want to try them on while wearing the sort of sock you’d have on in a cold environment while testing. Likewise, a huge factor in delivering heat to your toes is proper circulation. You can always layer up your socks to take up more space, but if you buy a boot too tight, there’s no fixing cramped feet. Cramped feet get colder faster. If you must, err on the side of a larger boot that you can make fit better with thicker insoles and thicker socks.
Heat Modulating and Moisture Control
We have mentioned moisture and air exposure a lot. That’s purposeful. As concepts for remaining warm, they’re just that important.
Sweating is one of the main strategies your body employs to dispel of excess body heat. This works via evaporation. In that process, the vaporization of that sweat off your skin requires energy, which is taken from the sweat itself, which results in cooling. That’s evaporative cooling. Of course, this requires direct exposure to the air to work.
When you’re layered up, your sweat will not have the opportunity for direct air contact. It stays trapped on your skin, or in your clothes. We know that most any liquid will dissipate temperatures efficiently and quickly, meaning that the moisture you produce will work to shed the heat you build faster than you can build more heat. As a result, we must be mindful to avoid as much sweat as possible.
Hence why layering and dressing in a fashion to shed heat quickly is just as important as retaining heat.
During the daylight hours, when times are warmer and work is getting done, you will unavoidably sweat. That sweat becomes a problem when the sun drops and activity levels lower along with the temperature. The more adept you are at avoiding sweat production during the day, the warmer you will remain at night.
A helpful mindset to keep is “paying it forward.” While you’re doing your heaviest activities during the warmest hours, layer yourself down enough that you feel a slight chill. We are not advocating that you make yourself uncomfortably or dangerously cold, but do not keep on enough layers that exertion would cause you to start immediately sweating. If you modulate your equipment to feel just enough cold to be constantly aware of it, you will stave off the moisture. When night comes and unavoided moisture becomes an unavoidable discomfort, you’ll be happy to have avoided all you could.
More To Come
This first installment is just the beginning. In the next installment we will talk about equipment choices and dismounted travel in the snow, as well as sustainment practices. Later, we will begin to incorporate automotive mobility concerns. Lastly, we will talk about medical emergencies that are onset by cold weather and how you can effectively treat them as a layperson.
Thank you for reading, we’ll have more soon.