Wrong method! You cannot just slowly go in cold water. You need to go in all at once! Less agonizing. It is also all relative. Go in cold water, all at once. Get out. Wind on wet naked body makes you REALLY cold. Jump back in water - it actually feels warm. Another trick - take your bath mid-day at a rest break. Usually warmer and you quickly warm up again. You have not lived until you have taken a snow bath. That is what high altitude climbers do.
I took a plunge into our creek this year, but quite by accident! It had frozen and was flooding, I couldn't see the edge then all the sudden I was under ice in the creek. It took all dang day to warm back up!
The Chumash Amerindians believed in a wash in the creeks or rivers befor sunrise, or you will get feavers and be sick.
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The wind wont howl if the wind don't break.
Had the same thing happen to me: I got in about knee deep, a vision of a brass monkey popped into my head, and I got out of the lake before any damage was done.
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Originally Posted By wandering_daisy
You have not lived until you have taken a snow bath.
Hmmm...
That might take a bigger, angrier, mob.
That sounds pretty darn miserable. I've spent a lot of time in the snow, and I've scrubbed my hands with it, but wow, being naked and scrubbing all over with it is not something I'd do just to experience it. I'd have to be extra ripe and crusty to try that.
Yep, you do not do that until you have been on the mountain for nearly a month. Longest I went without a bath was 28 days. When the snow finally stopped we bathed in a lake with ice still on the edges, but the sun was shining. And it felt sooo... good! After that I swore I would NEVER go that long without a bath, no matter how cold the water, even if had to be snow. But, maybe the clean thing is a girly thing too. I now rarely go more than 2 days without jumping in a lake or stream, no matter how cold. The continual misery of being sticky-sweaty-dirty is far worse than the one minute in cold water. Just do not do it before bedtime or you will have one cold night.
Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6800
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
The shock of jumping into COLD water can give us older folks a heart attack, too! No thanks--I'll do my little sponge bath in the tent with the little water left over from dinner in my kettle. It won't be hot but at least it's not cold. If that means I'm not a "real" backpacker, tough ****. Remember that back in pre-plumbing days, sponge baths were usually the only option for everyone!
There's also the issue that residue from sunscreen, bug repellent and lotions on hikers' skins is, per biologists, one of the primary reasons for the decline of amphibian species in popular hiking areas. You might want to do a quick sponge-off of that stuff before jumping in. Forget soap; that kills aquatic species, too. (That's not for you, W_D; I know you're anti-soap, too!)
I did do a little swimming in Lake Superior once, 8 years ago. It wasn't warm, but it wasn't nearly as cold as our mountain lakes! That's the only time I could persuade my late dog Hysson to swim, and it was the last--he swam out to me and then proceeded to climb on top of me, in water up to my armpits! After that, his only swimming maneuver was a quick turn to shore.
I suspect that after freezing over this winter, Lake Superior will be colder next June than when I was there!
Edited by OregonMouse (02/13/1403:48 PM)
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May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey
I've applied snow to part of my anatomy that is usually snow-free, in cooperation with some toilet paper. A bracing experience, to say the least, but it did feel refreshing about 15 minutes later, when it started feeling anything again.
hope I'm posting this correctly. Can't say as I much care what it is. I go out to the wilderness to get away from folks. I need it. I might be, lesee now, backpacker, camper, sociopath, hiker, outdoor lover, outdoorsman, wanderer, trekker, I guess ...
It does serve to have a common language when we talk to each other about our passions, I guess, I just really don't much care what you call me. Pick whatever suits you and go with it; I'm good.
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