Cold Climates Can Kill

You would think that your friends and relatives are a reliable source of information, and the kind of people that would warn you clear of impending doom. But with today's temperatures dropping down to below -10 Celsius, I was reminded that, sometimes, that isn't the case.

Not moments ago, I was witness to a girl dressed as girls often did thirty years ago in a manner I love and admire. A short, half-thigh high skirt (pleated), knit stocking, a pair of Doc Martens, a bomber jacket with a few buttons, and probably the same can-do attitude of girls you might run into while slam-dancing or moshing it up to punk or hardcore punk. No, not that crap they call hardcore today.

She looked positively wonderful and was a sight for sore, weather beaten, freezing eyes. Especially for someone who can appreciate the look.

But below minus ten degrees and falling lower, with a wind chill that makes it more like minus twenty or lower? All that look served to do was make me wonder: Are you crazy?

She was positively freezing, shifting side to side and stamping her feet in order to try and keep warm in the bus shelter. There was no way she could do any of that as cold as it was.

I love fashion as much as the next person. But for a Canadian girl to exhibit such disregard for the obvious - it was that cold all day - it reminded me of a child I once saw when I came home from a trip.

The girl had an excuse - she lives here and should know better. But the child I saw on the arrivals pick-up platform at the airport had no idea what was going on, or why it was impossible to stand still. It was even colder that day, and even I rued the fact that I hadn't brought along my sweater for the return trip home. I knew it was winter in Canada, and there was no excuse to not have the correct weather gear.

The kid could not have been more than six or seven years old, and was idling and shaking terribly beside his parents. Probably waiting on a local family relative who'd said to meet him or her where they stood. The kid was wearing nothing more than a t-shirt, a pair of mittens, slacks you might wear in Bermuda, and a pair of sneakers with no socks says all that any Canadian or cold-weather-living person needs say and understand.

The parents weren't dressed much better, and they too were having no fun. But they were oblivious of the kid and seemed more concerned to find whoever it was that was supposed to be coming for them.

Giving a child a pair of mittens and thinking that child is ready for any cold weather is so wrong, it borders on criminality. Maybe the parents were not from our country and didn't know any better. But that, really, is no excuse.

From what the Commissionaire told me on the platform that day, he said it is commonplace for foreigners to arrive in Canada wearing the same gear they wore back home and being none the wiser to the reality they had brought themselves into. That the very place they were going could kill them in minutes if all they did was to go outside into the existing conditions dressed as they normally do.

I would encourage anyone visiting Canada or anyplace where it snows or freezes to read this guide intended for those who work in the cold in Canada. Given that most people do not work outdoors, and for visitors who have never been exposed to the cold being unlikely to be capable of dealing with anything having to do with the cold, they need to be prepkared to dress even moreso. This includes being able to wear clothes that can be worn well (and not sweat) whether it is above freezing (0 Celsius), or below it.

When you are approaching minus twenty degrees or more, arctic clothing is ideal and most assuredly essential to keep comfortably warm. Real arctic clothing, and not the fake look-alike materials offered by most manufacturer sites and stores. That means real animal hides from arctic climates - caribou, rabbit, fox, etcetera.

There are man-made materials that are designed for arctic climates, and select stores and sites have the goods you need for such low temperatures. But most do not, even locally. Reading something like this (see the PDF) and observing how well people cover themselves when in arctic climates with such extremely thick and warm materials indicates at how truly dangerous living in cold climates can be. This page gives a sample of the military people discussed in first link enduring such climates, and please do note the third image - the white substance on his eyebrows is moisture from his mouth exhaling freezing to his face. Every inch of that person is covered with many, many layers of clothes. Even his face is covered, and still, his face is capable of  freezing so well covered. Read the comment. The temperature indicated is warmer than it was today in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Even when dressed well, parts of you can be so cold that you appear/are frozen. Think of diving into a pool of ice cubes and being unable to raise your head above them for many, many hours.

Lastly, a page from a person that likes to run in the cold. Something I too thinks is crazy, yet perfectly normally where I live. Many do it, though it takes a particular kind of person committed to running and wise enough to deal with the myriad issues. That is the second page on the subject, but it goes into some of the very details people fail to understand. Layers and layers of clothing especially. Dealing with your own body fluids (sweat, moisture in breath, etc.) freezing on your body or beside it. To someone from a warm clime, it can be utterly bewildering and dangerous at the same time. Yet it is the very thing so many are ill-prepared for.

Cold can kill you. Don't let it, and don't let your relatives allow you to die.