My experience with hypothermia

[Dougfirtree]

Glad you're ok. I've never gotten that far, but I remember coming out of the woods one November afternoon when it was about 35 degrees and raining. I was soaked and hungry and I could tell that something didn't feel quite right, but I just kept going for the car, rather than stopping to eat, build a fire, etc. I was ok, but a little freaked out by the resistance I felt to stopping to take care of it.

 

[shines@times]

Scary story. I had a friend of a friend die of hypothermia back in the 1980s.
Their sea kayak overturned, they had to swim it 100 yards to shore.
Windy, upper 30s, drizzle lead quickly to hypothermia and killed him.
That shocked us all as college students we took many stupid risks outdoors.

Brother of a guy who once worked for us died of hypothermia in Lake Aldwell, which no longer exists as it was an impoundment of the Elwha River. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Aldwell

Three guys all fired shotguns at a flight of ducks and capsized their canoe. (I don't know if they were standing in the boat, but it seems likely.) Two clung to the capsized canoe while the third swam to shore to get help. By the time rescuers got to the scene, one of the two remaining with the canoe had slipped under and drowned. Our employee's brother died of hypothermia in the hospital.

 

[shines@times]

This was a really tragic hypothermia event: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/mount-hood-disaster-1986/

Living in the Pacific Northwest, I remember hearing the reports when it happened. However, thirty-five years can skew memory; and I had to Google the incident to remind myself that it occurred on Mount Hood and not Mount Rainier. If one googles either mountain's name + "hypothermia death" they will see that such are, regrettably, fairly common occurrences, though never as tragic a death toll as that school outing.

 

[Gellar]

Thankful you are all alive.

Every November I reread accounts of the Armistice day storm of 1940.

Armistice Day Storm - November 11, 1940

www.weather.gov

 

[mxracer317]

Peeps! Garmin Inreach... SOS. Done. Don't mess around with your safety. P.S. Have it attached to your person, not some piece of equipment that got tore off, washed away, etc.

 

[Mallardsx2]

I fell completely under water when it was 5 degrees outside one time when I was duck hunting by myself, alone, on a river. Only thing that saved me was the insulation from those 5MM cabelas ultimate hunting waders and the fact that I always put my jacket OVER my waders and water barely made it into them.

By the time I made it back to my truck 5 miles down river everything I was wearing was frozen stiff.

The things a guy does for a duck.