In cold weather, cotton clothing/blue jeans can kill you

[dmarsh8]

I hate wearing jeans in the cold. I just got some great Columbia pants. Very warm, plenty of pockets , & block the wind.

 

[melensdad]

. . . There are performance synthetics now that don't funk up, but the cheap ones folks buy will for sure, and the older stuff would pretty readily. . .

I have some polyester baselayers that have an anti-microbial additive in the fabric, that stuff doesn't stink up like the regular polyeester. But it costs almost as much as genuine merino wool.

 

[Hookeye]

One of these days...........

King of the Mountain

 

[Sylvain]

 

[ru44mag]

Still having trouble giving up my cotton long johns. But do dress in layers, and love gor-tex. The only way I have found to keep my feet warm are thick wool socks. And when it is really cold, smart wool sock liners under my thick wool socks. But if the boot is tight, no circulation, and that's bad.

 

[melensdad]

Still having trouble giving up my cotton long johns. But do dress in layers, and love gor-tex. The only way I have found to keep my feet warm are thick wool socks. And when it is really cold, smart wool sock liners under my thick wool socks. But if the boot is tight, no circulation, and that's bad.

Try Merino Wool, its non-itchy and will replace those cotton long johns.

 

[Hoosierkav]

I thought the issue with cotton was only when it got wet (that it loses its insulative properties). Otherwise, it is ok.

 

[melensdad]

I thought the issue with cotton was only when it got wet (that it loses its insulative properties). Otherwise, it is ok.

Yes, cotton is fine in the winter if you can keep it dry.

But in the snow its virtually impossible to keep it dry.

Further, if you work up any sort of sweat you will soak your cotton from the inside out and even if the outer layers are DRY you can freeze to death if the inner layers pick up your sweat.

The guys in the original article that started this thread wore cotton clothes while hiking in the North Carolina mountains in the snow. Weather conditions vary from dry to rain to snow. They got unlucky and it wasn't dry!

 

[Mackey]

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for bringing this up OP.

 

[Hoosier8]

Wool, best stuff ever. I will chose wool over anything in the Winter. Cool in the Summer and Warm in the Winter. Wool will keep you warm even if it gets wet.

During the winter I almost always wear a 100% wool sweater under a Shearling coat (actual lamb) with a 100% wool scarf. Wool socks. Legs seem to weather the cold better than anywhere else so I just use long johns.

I always keep toasty.

I also go on winter hikes and made the mistake of not wearing wool the last time and sweated in to the coat I was wearing. Holy cow, that will kill you if you had to stay out in the weather.

 

[Hoosier8]

Try Merino Wool, its non-itchy and will replace those cotton long johns.

Sigh, my Merino wool sweater now has a hole in the elbow. My fave because it is so warm and comfortable.

 

[SaintsNSinners]

my flannel lined jeans are great

 

[melensdad]

my flannel lined jeans are great

I have a pair too. They are great. But I use them on/around my property, on short day trips, etc. Not for overnight or backcountry uses. They are great when riding the tractor and using the snowblower, etc. But they do soak up wet snow, etc and lose their insulating value.

Mine are cotton flannel lined. I'd like to find some that are wool flannel.

 

[melensdad]

Back to the original post. I looked up a bunch of reports on this one, and I am amazed at the whole thing.

Concerning shelter, in the long video interview I found, they made it clear they didn't have any. When they stopped and huddled down, they used their sleeping bags draped over a branch as a shelter. Yep, you heard that right, they didn't get in their bags, they hung them out as makeshift tarps....and then proceeded to burn their jackets and clothing rather than putting them on. Their jeans and shirts were mostly cotton. It was wet, they were cold. Nearly died of exposure.


So, the summary is:

Head out in for a ten days, in January, in the Smokies, wearing cotton, only expecting daytime temps of 40-50F, with no shelter of any kind, carrying mostly canned food, and only a plumbers torch for heat and cooking.​

And the upshot? They said they planned it for months, and were "Prepared for the forecast weather"

 

[actaeon277]

Back to the original post. I looked up a bunch of reports on this one, and I am amazed at the whole thing.

Concerning shelter, in the long video interview I found, they made it clear they didn't have any. When they stopped and huddled down, they used their sleeping bags draped over a branch as a shelter. Yep, you heard that right, they didn't get in their bags, they hung them out as makeshift tarps....and then proceeded to burn their jackets and clothing rather than putting them on. Their jeans and shirts were mostly cotton. It was wet, they were cold. Nearly died of exposure.


So, the summary is:

Head out in for a ten days, in January, in the Smokies, wearing cotton, only expecting daytime temps of 40-50F, with no shelter of any kind, carrying mostly canned food, and only a plumbers torch for heat and cooking.​

And the upshot? They said they planned it for months, and were "Prepared for the forecast weather"

Are you sure the problem was the clothes?
Sounds like they'd have been screwed no matter what they wore.

 

[melensdad]

Well these guys were clearly idiots. But here is one of the pertinent lines from one of the dozens of reports:

The men were reported wearing mostly cotton clothing, which provides little or no warmth when wet.​

When the MSM reports on things like this and points out the line above, then they are getting their information from a Ranger who assessed the situation and why it failed. Granted there are multiple points of failure in this story, its full of fail, but had they worn good clothing they would not have been in such dire straights.

There is a Swedish (or Norwegian?) saying, translated: There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.

 

[actaeon277]

Better clothing would be like the warning on my Escape's traction control, assist but will not prevent physics from working.

 

[melensdad]

Better clothing would be like the warning on my Escape's traction control, assist but will not prevent physics from working.

Larry I'd have to disagree with you on that.

These guys were about 3-4 miles from the cabin that was their destination, that is a 2 hour hike. They gave up and hunkered down because they were so cold and wet that they were suffering from exposure. Body temperature of one of the guys was 93 degrees.

Properly insulted clothing would have allowed them to get to their destination.

 

[melensdad]

Far too often, people who survive these "adventures" are described as heroes just because they survived some debacle of their own making, usually saved by the extraordinary efforts of strangers; no, they are not heroes, they are morons. They claim they checked the weather, but didn't have rain gear, a stove or a tent and the forecast was for rain. One said they would be prepared next time; why not this time? Why not turn back when the going got tough?

A few years ago, a Meet Up group in Seattle wound up in similar circumstances due to the inexperience of the group and the stupidity of the leader, who did not check the weather before leading them into the worst storm to hit the PNW in years. A massive SAR effort including helos, snowmachines, ambulances, dozens of SAR pros and volunteers saved them.

They were within a day of two of all dying from exposure - they had lost most of their shelters, had wet sleeping bags, wet clothes (including jeans and cotton hoodies) ran out of food, had no snowshoes or skis and no PLB, Spot or other rescue gadget. Yet, after all that. some of them posted on a PNW website that it was no big deal and a great adventure. They had learned nothing and took no responsibility for the danger in which they had put themselves and their rescuers.

People get killed on SAR missions. I know they are volunteers or choose it as a career, but still, needlessly endangering others because of stupidity doesn't sit well with me.

FYI, I know people take risks; I've taken them myself and done things that if anything had gone wrong, I would have been killed. But, going out completely unprepared is stupid, plain and simple.

Two of my favorite quotes-

"Adventure is just bad planning." — Roald Amundsen (1872—1928). Led the first expedition to the South Pole.

"Having an adventure shows that someone is incompetent, that something has gone wrong. An adventure is interesting enough — in retrospect. Especially to the person who didn't have it." — Vilhjalmur Stefansson, My Life with the Esquimo.

 

[actaeon277]

Larry I'd have to disagree with you on that.

These guys were about 3-4 miles from the cabin that was their destination, that is a 2 hour hike. They gave up and hunkered down because they were so cold and wet that they were suffering from exposure. Body temperature of one of the guys was 93 degrees.

Properly insulted clothing would have allowed them to get to their destination.

Back to the original post. I looked up a bunch of reports on this one, and I am amazed at the whole thing.

Concerning shelter, in the long video interview I found, they made it clear they didn't have any. When they stopped and huddled down, they used their sleeping bags draped over a branch as a shelter. Yep, you heard that right, they didn't get in their bags, they hung them out as makeshift tarps....and then proceeded to burn their jackets and clothing rather than putting them on. Their jeans and shirts were mostly cotton. It was wet, they were cold. Nearly died of exposure.


So, the summary is:

Head out in for a ten days, in January, in the Smokies, wearing cotton, only expecting daytime temps of 40-50F, with no shelter of any kind, carrying mostly canned food, and only a plumbers torch for heat and cooking.​

And the upshot? They said they planned it for months, and were "Prepared for the forecast weather"

No shelter.
A plumber's torch
Ten days.
Apparantly no ability or knowledge to build an emergency shelter.
No rope or twine.

Mother Nature is a *****, doesn't care.
Better clothes would help.
Knowledge would have helped more.